| Course | MPH 598 Student Success and Self-Care |
|---|---|
| Week | 1 |
| Paper type | Discussion post with two replies |
| Length | About 680 words |
| Format | Discussion post with APA 7 citations |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | Master of Public Health (MPH) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MPH 598 Week 1
Week 1 Discussion: Initial Post
Three Nights, an Extra Shift Every Other Week and a Second Grader: The One Trade I Am Making for This Term
Initial Post
The week as it stands. I am a respiratory therapist at a regional hospital, and my contract is three twelve-hour nights each week, seven to seven. With report at each end, a worked shift runs closer to 12 hours and 50 minutes. Every other week I pick up a fourth night, because my unit is short and the extra pay covers our daughter's after-school program. After each night I am asleep from roughly eight in the morning until early afternoon, so a night shift takes most of the next day as well. At home there is my partner, our 7-year-old, who needs school drop-off and bedtime, and my grandmother, who is 84, lives 20 minutes away and needs help with groceries and medications twice a week. This term I am taking this course and one other.
The trade. For the eight weeks of this course, I will stop picking up the extra night shift. That shift brings back about 12 hours of work, plus the sleep day after it, every other week, so over the term it returns roughly 48 working hours and four recovery days. It costs real money: at my rate, about $430 before tax per shift, or about $1,700 over the term, which is most of the after-school program's fee. I am paying for that by using the money we had set aside for a summer trip. In a survey of more than 30,000 European hospital nurses, the ones on the longest shifts reported burnout more often than colleagues on eight-hour shifts (Dall'Ora et al., 2015), and adding a fourth long night is the part of my schedule I most want to remove while studying. I chose this trade, rather than "studying after shifts," because studying after a night has never actually happened; a trade that gives up something I was not doing anyway would return no hours.
Somebody Else Is in This
Two people carry part of this. My partner gave up the budget for the trip, and agreed that I will take the two school drop-offs a week that fall on my non-sleep mornings, so that the hours I gain go to coursework rather than back into household tasks. The second is my charge therapist, who has relied on me to fill the extra night. I told her before the schedule was posted, and she has asked another therapist, who wants the hours. If that therapist leaves, the unit will ask again, and I will need to decide whether my answer holds.
Figures Where They Exist
These hours come from my last four pay stubs and the unit's schedule, not from memory. Over those four weeks I worked 13 shifts, not the 12 the contract describes, and every shift ran past 7 a.m. by 30 to 70 minutes. That is about 10 hours over the four weeks that my mental picture of my week did not include. The audit next week will show whether that pattern holds.
A Question for the Group
To anyone else working shifts: how do you count the day after a night? I am treating my sleep day as committed time, not free time, but I notice I want to count the afternoon as available, and I suspect that is where my plans have failed before.
Reply to Renee
Renee, your post says that you will "be more disciplined about weekends." I wonder what you could actually trade. You mentioned you volunteer at your church's food pantry every Saturday morning; is that something you could step back from for eight weeks, and who would cover it if you did?
Reply to Mateo
Mateo, I like that you are dropping your second job's Sunday shift and that you put a number on it. You say your manager "should be fine with it." Have you asked yet? A trade that depends on someone else's agreement is not settled until they have said yes.
References
Dall'Ora, C., Griffiths, P., Ball, J., Simon, M., & Aiken, L. H. (2015). Association of 12 h shifts and nurses' job satisfaction, burnout and intention to leave: Findings from a cross-sectional study of 12 European countries. BMJ Open, 5(9), e008331. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2015-008331
What the MPH 598 Week 1 assignment asks for
The first post asks you to describe your week as it stands and decide on one change for the term. Start with the commitments that will still be there at the end of the term: paid work as you actually work it, what the job asks beyond its hours and what your household expects of you. Then name a single trade, something you will stop or reduce, and price it in hours returned and in whatever it costs, including money. Say who else is affected and whether they have agreed. Use figures from records where you have them rather than impressions. End with a question that helps classmates price their own trades. Replies should test whether a classmate's plan is a real trade or a resolution, and whether it has been agreed.
How the MPH 598 Week 1 example is put together
The post lays out three 12-hour nights that actually run about 12 hours and 50 minutes, a fourth night every other week, recovery sleep that takes most of each following day, a 7-year-old and a grandmother who needs help twice a week. The trade is to stop the extra night for eight weeks, returning about 48 working hours and four recovery days at a cost of about $1,700, paid from a trip fund. It explains why studying after shifts was rejected as a trade that returns nothing. The partner and the charge therapist are both named, and the figures come from four weeks of pay stubs. Replies press Renee to name a real trade and Mateo to ask his manager before counting on a yes.
MPH 598 Week 1 rubric: what full points look like
This post most often loses marks through a trade priced at zero: giving up something that had already stopped happening, so no hours come back. A second weakness is cost stated as an adjective, such as a big sacrifice, when the course asks for hours and money. Posts that ignore the people who carry part of the change, or that count on an agreement never asked for, also lose points. Figures from memory rather than records are a quieter weakness. Strong posts start from the paid week as worked, name one priced trade, say who else is involved and whether they agreed, use records where they exist and ask a question that helps classmates price their own trades. Replies earn their share by testing a classmate's trade against those same standards.
Common MPH 598 Week 1 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Many students arrive in this course planning to be more disciplined, which is a resolution rather than a trade, and the first post is where that habit gets tested. If you share your week and the commitments you carry, we can help you find a trade that actually returns hours, price it honestly and identify the people it affects. We can also help you pull figures from pay stubs, schedules or calendars so the post rests on records. A reply that asks whether a classmate's trade has actually been agreed, without sounding like a challenge, is something we can help you phrase. Your week and your choices remain your own, and any workplace details can be left general.
Get a MPH-598 Week 1 example written to your instructions
Send the discussion instructions your classroom shows, with the word count and the reply requirement your section publishes, and a custom MPH-598 Week 1 post comes back inside 24-48h, free the first time. The hours in it are placeholders: your roster and your household are the only source for those, and the example is assembled so yours drop straight in.
More MPH 598 papers and MPH samples
- MPH 598 Week 2: Workload Audit
- MPH 598 Week 3: Constraint Analysis
- MPH 598 Week 4: Burnout Evidence Brief
- MPH 598 Week 5: Boundary Setting Script
- MPH 598 Week 6: Support Network Map
- MPH 598 Week 7: Self-care Plan
- MPH 598 Week 8: Plan Review Memo
- MPH 515 Week 1: Population Question Post
- MPH 509 Week 1: Participatory Research Post
- MPH 500 Week 1: Upstream Walk Post
- MPH 508 Week 1: Leadership Self-Assessment
MPH 598 Week 1 questions, answered
The term has not started, so what do I count?
Whatever is already published. A roster issued for the next month, a classroom schedule carrying dates, and the standing commitments nobody has moved in a year will carry the whole post. Where a figure does not exist yet, the finished version says which week it will exist in rather than inventing it, and that sentence tends to read as care rather than as a gap.
Does the thing I give up have to be permanent?
No, and claiming it is usually weakens the post. A commitment suspended for one term, with the date it resumes, is easier to defend and easier for the person affected to accept than an open-ended withdrawal. The finished version gives the period in weeks or months, which also leaves the final assignment something it can check the claim against.
What if nothing in my week can actually be given up?
Then the post says that, and it is a stronger opening than a fictional concession. Some weeks are already at their limit, and a writer who reports that and names where the program hours will come from instead, borrowed sleep or annual leave already banked, is describing the real trade. The course is built to examine that answer rather than to mark it down.
Where can I find a free MPH 598 Week 1 sample paper?
This page holds a full MPH 598 Week 1 post in which a night-shift respiratory therapist prices one trade for the term, with two replies.
What trade does the MPH 598 Week 1 sample make?
Giving up an extra night shift every other week for eight weeks, returning about 48 working hours at a cost of about $1,700.