| Course | NR 224 Fundamentals: Skills |
|---|---|
| Week | 1 |
| Paper type | Discussion post with one reply |
| Length | About 520 words |
| Format | Discussion post with APA 7 citations |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | BSN (pre-licensure) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NR 224 Week 1
Week 1 Discussion: One Small Action and Why It Matters
Putting the Call Light Back in His Hand Before I Leave the Room, and the 0300 Walk to the Bathroom It Prevents
Initial Post
The action I chose is small enough that most people do not think of it as a skill: before leaving any patient's room, I put the call light where the patient can reach it without sitting up or stretching, and I watch them take hold of it or touch it. Not on the bed rail on the far side, not clipped to the sheet where it slid after the last turn, not on the bedside table that got pushed away during the bath. In the patient's hand or within easy reach of the hand they use.
The harm on the other side of that action is a fall. A patient who needs the bathroom at 0300 and cannot find the call light has two choices: wait, or get up alone. Many get up. Hitcho et al. (2004), studying 183 falls in a hospital setting, found that 79% of the falls were unassisted, 59% happened in the evening or overnight, and half were related to elimination, with elimination-related falls more common in patients over 65 and more likely to cause injury. A call light out of reach turns a need to use the bathroom into an unassisted walk in the dark.
I want to be careful about the difference between safe and smooth. Leaving the room smoothly means finishing my task and moving on to the next patient. Leaving it safely means spending another ten seconds checking the light, the bed height, the path to the bathroom and whether the patient knows to call. The ten seconds feel slow on a busy shift, and I have been tempted to skip them, especially after a patient says, "I'm fine, I won't need anything." But patients who say that at 2200 often need something at 0300, and by then they have forgotten where the light is.
The step I admit is slow for me is the last part: watching the patient touch the light. It feels awkward, as if I am testing them. I have started saying, "Show me where your call button is," and it has already caught one patient who thought the TV remote was the call light.
My question for the class: which small step do you catch yourself skipping when you are behind?
Reply to a Classmate
Caitlin, you chose lowering the bed to its lowest position before leaving the room, and you said it matters most for confused patients. Hitcho et al. (2004) found that half of hospital falls were related to going to the bathroom, and your action and mine work on the same fall from two sides: a low bed reduces the injury if the patient gets up alone, and a call light in reach makes it less likely that they will. I wonder whether you have found, as I have, that the bed ends up raised again after someone else's task. Who is responsible for lowering it then?
References
Hitcho, E. B., Krauss, M. J., Birge, S., Dunagan, W. C., Fischer, I., Johnson, S., Nast, P. A., Costantinou, E., & Fraser, V. J. (2004). Characteristics and circumstances of falls in a hospital setting: A prospective analysis. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 19(7), 732-739. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.30387.x
Reading the NR 224 Week 1 instructions
The opening discussion in this skills course asks you to choose one nursing action and explain why it matters for patient safety. Most prompts want the action described precisely enough that someone could watch you do it, the reason it exists and, often, a scholarly source supporting that reason. An initial post and at least one reply are usual, posted by the dates in the course calendar. The prompt rewards a small, concrete action with a real patient in mind over a general statement about safety. You may write about a skill not yet taught, as long as the reason comes from a credible source. Replies should connect a classmate's action to evidence or practice.
How the NR 224 Week 1 example is put together
The post opens by naming the action and the detail that makes it a skill: the light placed where the patient can reach it without stretching, and the nurse watching them take hold of it. The harm comes next, a patient who cannot find the light at 0300 and gets up alone, supported by Hitcho et al. (2004), who found many falls linked to toileting. A paragraph separates safe from smooth by the extra ten seconds of checking. The writer admits that asking the patient to show the button feels awkward and has already caught one problem. The post ends by asking which step classmates skip. The reply to Caitlin links bed height to bathroom falls.
NR 224 Week 1 rubric: what full points look like
Discussion grading in NR 224 commonly rests on the quality of the initial answer, evidence from a scholarly source, the reply and clear writing with APA. The answer row pays for an action specific enough to observe and a reason stated as a harm, which is why the post names the fall at 0300. Evidence counts when the source supports the reason directly; the Hitcho falls study does that with its toileting finding. The reply earns its points by adding a related action and the same evidence, then asking a practical question. Mechanics include a complete reference with its DOI and a post of reasonable length. Meeting the posting deadline protects points that are easy to lose.
NR 224 Week 1 help: mistakes that cost points
The weakest first posts praise safety in general and never name anything a nurse does, so nothing can be checked. Another frequent problem is an action with no patient attached, a rail raised with nobody in the bed. Reasons borrowed from a video rather than from a text or article often lose source points. Replies that only agree add nothing to the thread. Late posts leave classmates no time to respond and may cost points on their own. If you have not learned the skill yet, keep it small and source the reason carefully. Tell the desk which action you are leaning toward, and a post can be shaped with the evidence behind it.
Get a NR 224 Week 1 example written to your instructions
Send the discussion prompt and what your section published about replies, and a custom NR 224 post is written to it and returned inside 24 to 48 hours, the first one free. The lab hour is a different matter: the person holding the checklist while you work is the one who initials it, and anything else carrying your name beside a signature is yours alone.
More NR 224 papers and pre-licensure samples
- NR 224 Week 2: Asepsis Write-up
- NR 224 Week 3: Procedure Rationale
- NR 224 Week 4: Vital Signs Write-up
- NR 224 Week 5: Safety Scenario Response
- NR 224 Week 6: Wound Care Write-up
- NR 224 Week 7: Charting Exercise
- NR 224 Week 8: Skills Reflection
- NR 226 Week 1: Discussion Post
- NR 222 Week 1: What Is Health? Discussion Post
- NR 228 Week 1: Discussion Post
- NR 103 Week 1: Why Nursing Discussion Post
NR 224 Week 1 questions, answered
How long should the first post be?
Long enough to carry one action, one person and one reason, which in practice is a few paragraphs rather than a page. Length is not what is being marked. A short post that names what would happen without the step beats a long one that circles safety in general and never lands on anything specific.
Do I need a citation in a discussion post?
Check what your section published, because this varies. Where a source is expected, the useful one is the course text or a standard your classroom recognizes rather than a video or a website. The reason a step exists is a claim about what happens to a patient, and claims like that are marked as claims.
Can I write about a skill I have not been taught yet?
You can, and it is often better to stay with something already covered, since the marks come from the reasoning rather than from the difficulty of the procedure. Picking an advanced skill and describing it from a video is the fastest way to write something that sounds confident and gets marked as guesswork.
Where can I find a free NR 224 Week 1 sample paper?
The full Week 1 post on returning the call light before leaving the room, with the reply to Caitlin and the Hitcho falls study, is shown on this page.
What evidence supports the NR 224 Week 1 call light post?
It cites Hitcho and colleagues' 2004 prospective study of 183 hospital falls in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, which linked about half of falls to going to the bathroom.