PSYCH 599 Week 6 Professional Development Plan Example

From the Pharmacy Back Office to Patient Behavior Programs: A Two-Year Plan for a Master's Student in Psychology

[Student Name]

University of Phoenix

PSYCH/599: Foundations of Graduate Study in Psychology

Week 6 Assignment

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The student, her employer and the career targets are composites written for a model paper; research findings come from the sources listed.

A degree is a means, not an end. This plan describes where I want the MS in Psychology to take me, what I need to learn to get there and how I will manage graduate study alongside a demanding job and a family. Writing it at the end of my first course has also shown me how much my thinking has changed in six weeks.

Where I Am Now

My job covers staffing, workflow and quality numbers across the company's eleven Albuquerque stores. Over the past three years, our company's ratings from health plans have increasingly depended on patients' adherence to medications for diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol. I have led small projects, such as refill synchronization, but I have never designed one from research or evaluated one rigorously. This course has given me a first taste of doing both.

Where I Want to Go

My target role is manager of a medication adherence or patient engagement program at a regional health plan or health system. I read five current job postings for such roles in New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. All five asked for a master's degree in psychology, public health or a related field; four asked for experience designing behavior change interventions; four asked for program evaluation skills, including basic statistics; and three mentioned motivational interviewing.

I also want to be clear about what the degree does not lead to. The MS in Psychology at my university is not designed for licensure as a counselor or psychologist. I will not pursue roles that require a clinical license, and if I later want clinical work, I would need a different program.

The Self-Directed Career

Briscoe et al. (2006) developed and tested measures of the protean career attitude, in which the person rather than the employer steers the career, choices follow personal values and success is judged by one's own standards rather than by promotions alone. People high in this attitude also tended to be more proactive and open to change. My move from operations into behavior programs fits this pattern: no one at my company will plan it for me, and success will mean doing work I find meaningful, not simply a higher title. The plan must therefore be one I own and revise.

Self-Assessment

My strengths include project management, data reporting, relationships with pharmacists and physicians and practical knowledge of why patients miss medications. My gaps are in research methods and statistics, behavior change theory, program evaluation design and formal training in motivational interviewing. Fouad et al. (2009) proposed benchmarks describing competencies in professional psychology across stages of training, from foundational areas such as ethics, reflective practice and scientific knowledge to functional areas such as assessment, intervention and research. Although the benchmarks were written for clinical training, their emphasis on reflective practice and scientific knowledge applies to my path, and I use their structure to rate myself as beginning, developing or ready in each relevant area.

Goals

Goal one: complete the program's research methods and statistics courses with grades of B or higher by the end of my first year, and analyze my company's refill data using the methods I learn. Goal two: complete a training in motivational interviewing through a recognized provider by the end of next summer. Goal three: design and evaluate a text reminder pilot in two pharmacies for my capstone, comparing refill data with two similar pharmacies, and present results to company leadership by graduation. Goal four: join a professional association in health psychology or population health, attend one conference session per year and connect with two people working in adherence programs before I begin applying.

Managing Learning

Zimmerman (2002) described self-regulated learners as people who plan their learning by setting goals and choosing strategies, monitor their progress while they work and reflect afterward on what worked, adjusting their approach for the next task. Self-regulation is not a fixed trait but a set of skills that can be developed. I will apply this cycle each week: on Monday I will set a goal for the week's assignment, by Wednesday I will check whether my reading is on schedule and on Sunday I will note what helped and what did not.

A plan that fits a real week beats a perfect plan that fits an imaginary one.

Managing Time and Stress

Macan et al. (1990) studied time management among college students and found that students who perceived control over their time reported less stress, greater satisfaction with work and life and better self-rated performance. Perceived control mattered more than specific techniques. That finding suggests that my goal should be a schedule that gives me a sense of control, not a perfect one. I tested my planned twelve hours a week against an actual week and found that Thursday evenings were unrealistic because of my children's activities, so I moved those hours to early Saturday mornings. I will protect one evening a week with no study at all.

Building Skills Before the Courses Arrive

Some gaps cannot wait for the courses that address them. Program evaluation and statistics come later in the program, but my company is already discussing the text reminder service. I will use that discussion as early practice: I will write a short evaluation plan for a two-store pilot, ask our analytics team to show me how refill data are pulled and read one evaluation study each month from the journals I found in Week 3. I will also volunteer to sit in on two of our pharmacists' adherence counseling calls each month, with patients' permission, to learn how conversations about medicines actually unfold. These small steps should make the later courses easier to apply, and they give me examples to discuss in interviews when I begin applying for program roles. Each step has a month attached in my calendar, so that it does not drift into the category of things I meant to do.

Resources

I will use the university's library research guides and writing center, my faculty advisor, the career services office and my company's tuition assistance program. I will ask my director whether I can join our company's quality committee, which works with health plans on adherence measures, so that I can learn how plans think about these programs.

Checkpoints

I will review the plan at the end of each course, update my self-assessment ratings each term and revise goals if my target role changes. Twelve months in, I will lay my record beside those five postings again and decide whether an internal move should come before the degree is finished.

Reflection on the Course

Six weeks ago, I expected graduate school to be harder undergraduate work. Instead, it has asked me to think differently: to treat claims as questions, to judge sources by their design and to build arguments from several pieces of evidence. I also learned that my most confident beliefs, such as how much a vendor's product would help or whether a warning would protect staff, deserved testing.

Conclusion

This plan connects the MS in Psychology to a realistic career target, names the competencies I need and sets measurable goals with checkpoints. It respects the limits of the degree and the realities of my week. Most of all, it is a plan I will own and revise as I learn.

References

Briscoe, J. P., Hall, D. T., & DeMuth, R. L. F. (2006). Protean and boundaryless careers: An empirical exploration. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 69(1), 30-47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2005.09.003

Fouad, N. A., Grus, C. L., Hatcher, R. L., Kaslow, N. J., Hutchings, P. S., Madson, M. B., Collins, F. L., Jr., & Crossman, R. E. (2009). Competency benchmarks: A model for understanding and measuring competence in professional psychology across training levels. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 3(4, Suppl.), S5-S26. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015832

Macan, T. H., Shahani, C., Dipboye, R. L., & Phillips, A. P. (1990). College students' time management: Correlations with academic performance and stress. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(4), 760-768. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.82.4.760

Zimmerman, B. J. (2002). Becoming a self-regulated learner: An overview. Theory Into Practice, 41(2), 64-70. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip4102_2