| Course | NR 103 Transition to the Nursing Profession |
|---|---|
| Week | 1 |
| Paper type | Discussion post with one reply |
| Length | About 540 words |
| Format | Discussion post with APA 7 citations |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | BSN (pre-licensure) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NR 103 Week 1
Week 1 Discussion: Why Nursing, and What You Expect
Night Shift at a Nursing Home, a Nurse With 42 Residents, and the Part I Expect to Be Bad At
Initial Post
I met this work at 0200 on a long-term care unit, as a nursing assistant on the night shift. One licensed practical nurse and one registered nurse covered 42 residents between them, and I watched the RN spend the hour between two and three with a resident who was dying, while her pager went off every few minutes with questions from the other wing. What surprised me was not the dying; I had expected that. It was how much of the RN's night was spent deciding, quickly and alone, which of several people needed her first, and how rarely anyone saw her do it. The weight of the work was in the choosing, and the choosing was invisible.
Here is my expectation for the next two years, stated narrowly enough that it could turn out wrong: I expect that the hardest part of this program for me will not be the science courses, where I have always done well, but the clinical judgment questions, the ones that give four reasonable answers and ask which one comes first. I think that because I watched that RN make those decisions for a year and I still could not have told you why she chose as she did.
Duchscher (2009), writing about new graduate nurses, gives the name transition shock to the opening months of practice, a period the paper describes through feelings of anxiety, insecurity, inadequacy and instability as new nurses take on the full weight of the role. I read that as a warning about where I am heading, and as a reason to start practicing prioritization now rather than meeting it for the first time as a new graduate.
The part I expect to be bad at is talking with families when things are going badly. As a nursing assistant I could always say, "Let me get your nurse." I will not have that sentence for much longer. In two years, I will be the nurse the assistant goes to get, and the family's question will be mine to answer, including the questions that have no good answer. I would rather practice that now, in simulation and in clinical, than discover in my first month that I avoid it.
My question for the group: do you think clinical judgment can be taught in a classroom at all, or is it only learned by making decisions and living with them? I lean toward the second, which worries me, and I would like someone to argue me out of it.
Reply to a Classmate
Brianna, you wrote that you expect the hardest part to be time management, because you work full time and have two children. I think that is the expectation most likely to come true for many of us, and I wonder if it connects to mine. The RN I watched was good at prioritizing patients partly because she had to prioritize her own time every hour. Do you think the skill you are building at home, deciding what can wait, is the same skill the clinical questions are testing?
References
Duchscher, J. E. B. (2009). Transition shock: The initial stage of role adaptation for newly graduated registered nurses. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 65(5), 1103-1113. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2008.04898.x
The Chamberlain NR 103 Week 1 instructions
The first discussion of the program asks two things: why you chose nursing, and what you expect the next two years to ask of you. Most sections want an initial post of a few paragraphs and at least one reply to a classmate, with posting dates set in the course calendar. A source is often encouraged rather than required, but one reference about the role turns a personal story into something a classmate can check. The prompt rewards a specific setting over a general wish to help people. It also asks you to look ahead honestly, which means naming a part of the program you expect to struggle with. Replies are meant to add something the original writer did not have.
How the NR 103 Week 1 example is put together
The post opens at 0200 on a long-term care unit, where the writer worked as a nursing assistant and watched an RN sit with a dying resident while her pager kept going off. From that hour comes one expectation: clinical judgment questions, not the science courses, will be the hardest part. Duchscher's 2009 paper on transition shock is cited right beside that claim, used as a warning rather than decoration. The weak spot named is family conversations when things go badly, once the line about getting the nurse no longer applies. The post closes on a question about whether judgment can be taught. The reply to Brianna treats her time-management worry as the same prioritizing skill.
NR 103 Week 1 rubric: what full points look like
Points in this opening discussion tend to follow four rubric rows: the answer to the prompt, use of a source, the reply, and writing mechanics with APA. An honest, specific answer earns the first row, so the post gives a place, an hour and a staffing ratio rather than a feeling. The source row rewards a citation that does work in a sentence; Duchscher appears once, attached to a claim. The reply row pays for new information or a real question, not praise. Mechanics are small but steady: a reference entry with a DOI, a clean paragraph structure and posting by the due day. Late posting often costs points on its own, whatever the quality.
Common NR 103 Week 1 mistakes, and how to avoid them
The most frequent loss on the NR 103 Week 1 post is the line about always wanting to help people, which nobody can disagree with and the rubric cannot reward. A second is restating the prompt and then never answering it. Some students skip the source entirely and others cite a definition of nursing they never use again. Replies often say only that a classmate made a great point. If you have no health care job behind you, write about a relative's admission or a clinic visit and say plainly that you watched it from the side. Send the prompt and your section's posting rules, and a draft can be shaped around your own reason for starting.
Get a NR 103 Week 1 example written to your instructions
Send the week's prompt, the rubric and whatever your section publishes about post length and reply counts, and a custom NR 103 example is written to those instructions and returned inside 24 to 48 hours. The first one is free. Say if your background is outside health care, since the opening scene is built differently then.
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NR 103 Week 1 questions, answered
I have never worked in health care. What do I write about?
Most of the classroom has not either, and the entry does not need a workplace. It needs one observed thing: a relative's admission, a vaccination clinic you sat in, a shift a friend described in detail. What the grader is looking for is whether your conclusion came from somewhere outside your own enthusiasm. A borrowed scene, honestly labeled as borrowed, does that work.
Does a discussion post really need a citation?
Sections differ on whether one is required, and plenty do not require it. The entry is stronger with one anyway, because this is the term where that habit is cheap to build and later courses take it for granted. One reference is enough. Pick it for what it establishes about the role rather than for agreeing that nursing is worthwhile.
What makes a reply worth its points?
New information, from somewhere the original writer had no access to. The replies that score hand over a different setting, a different shift pattern or a correction: the aide's duties described wrongly, the license requirement quoted from the wrong state. Agreement plus a compliment is the most common reply in any first week, and a grader has already read it several times before arriving at yours.
Where can I find a free NR 103 Week 1 sample paper?
The complete Week 1 post about a night shift with 42 residents, plus the reply to Brianna and the Duchscher reference, is printed on this page with notes beside each part.
Which source does the NR 103 Week 1 example cite?
It cites Duchscher's 2009 article on transition shock in the Journal of Advanced Nursing, used to explain why practicing prioritization early matters before the first year as a new graduate.