PS499 Unit 5 Career Plan Example

From Night Lead to Research Coordinator: A PS499 Unit 5 Career Plan

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

PS499: Bachelor's Capstone in Psychology

Unit 5 Career Plan

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The writer, her hospital and her contacts are composite; the guidelines and sources cited are real.

Where I Am

I am 38 and have led the night environmental services crew at a Lansing, Michigan, hospital for six years. I supervise fourteen people, write schedules, train new hires and handle problems with infection control standards in operating rooms and isolation units. I will finish my psychology degree this term. My capstone project, a proposed study of awe walks for night-shift stress, has shown me that I enjoy designing studies, working with data and translating research into something people can use at work.

I also have constraints. I have two children in middle school, a mortgage and a partner who works days. I cannot stop working to attend graduate school full time, and I want to leave nights within two years for my health and my family.

What I Can Do Now

The APA's undergraduate guidelines set out five goals for the major: a knowledge base in psychology, scientific inquiry and critical thinking, ethical and social responsibility in a diverse world, communication, and professional development (American Psychological Association, 2016). Mapping my work against those goals helped me see skills I had undervalued.

For scientific inquiry, I can now read a research article critically, design a randomized comparison and choose validated measures, as my proposal shows. For ethical and social responsibility, I have thought through coercion in workplace research and the needs of a multilingual crew. For communication, I have written for professors and presented to my hospital's nursing research committee. For professional development, I have years of supervision, scheduling and training. My knowledge base is broad but not deep in any one clinical area.

The most marketable thing I bring is not my degree alone but the combination of research training and six years of running a hospital night crew.

Options

I considered four options. The first is a clinical research coordinator role, which supports studies by recruiting participants, collecting data, managing records and working with ethics boards. My health system's research office posts these positions several times a year, and many require a bachelor's degree with research coursework. The second is an employee wellness specialist, designing programs for staff, which would use my capstone directly but has few openings. The evidence that workplace stress programs can work is solid, with a meta-analysis finding medium to large average effects (Richardson & Rothstein, 2008), but most hospitals fund only a handful of such positions. The third is a human resources or training role, which would use my supervision experience. The fourth is graduate school in psychology, public health or industrial-organizational psychology.

The Occupational Outlook Handbook describes the duties, education and outlook for these kinds of roles, and its descriptions helped me compare them (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2024). Research and health services roles have steady demand, and some lead to management with experience.

Decision

My next step is a clinical research coordinator position in my health system, for three reasons. It moves me off nights, since research offices work days. It builds directly on my capstone, which the research office already knows about. And it would show me, before I commit to a master's degree, whether I want a career in research.

I am not ruling out graduate school. A master's in public health, possible part time and online, would prepare me to lead workplace health programs. I will decide in two years, based on what I learn as a coordinator.

Steps and Dates

Within four weeks I will meet with the research office manager, whom I met when presenting my proposal, to ask what coordinators do day to day and what the office looks for. Before graduation I will finish the free online human subjects research training the office requires and update my résumé to list my capstone, my supervision experience and my ethics training. In the next three months, I will apply to every coordinator opening in the system and to two at the nearby university. Within six months of starting a coordinator role, I will ask to help with a study of staff well-being, if one exists.

Measures of Progress

I will judge the plan by concrete signs. In six months, I should have had at least three interviews. In a year, I should be working days in a research or wellness role. In two years, I should be able to say whether I want to lead studies, which would point to a master's degree, or support them, which my current degree allows. If I have no interviews in six months, I will ask the research office manager for feedback and consider a research assistant role at the university as a bridge.

Conclusion

My capstone showed me what I want to do more of: design studies and turn research into practical programs. The APA's goals helped me see skills I already have, the Occupational Outlook Handbook helped me compare roles, and a coordinator position offers the best next step. Graduate school remains open, but it will be a decision made with evidence, not a default.

References

American Psychological Association. (2016). Guidelines for the undergraduate psychology major: Version 2.0. American Psychologist, 71(2), 102-111. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037562

Richardson, K. M., & Rothstein, H. R. (2008). Effects of occupational stress management intervention programs: A meta-analysis. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 13(1), 69-93. https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-8998.13.1.69

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2024). Occupational outlook handbook. U.S. Department of Labor.