| Course | NR 307A Advancing Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity in Healthcare |
|---|---|
| Week | 1 |
| Paper type | Discussion post with one reply |
| Length | About 530 words |
| Format | Discussion post with APA 7 citations |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | RN-to-BSN |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NR 307A Week 1
Week 1 Discussion: Equal and Equitable in One Arrangement
The Surgery Callback Line That Closes at 4:30
Initial Post
On the surgical unit where I work, every patient going home gets the same discharge packet, and on the front page is the same sentence: "If you have questions about your recovery, call the surgical nurse line, Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m." After hours, the recorded message tells callers to go to the emergency department if they are worried. Everyone is treated the same. Every patient has the same number and the same hours.
Picture two patients who both have their gallbladder removed on a Thursday. The first is a retired office manager who spends Friday at home. When her incision looks pinker than she expected at 10:00 a.m., she calls the line, a nurse asks her three questions, and she stays home. The second works nights stocking shelves at a warehouse and goes back to a lighter shift on Monday. He sleeps during the day, notices the same pinkness when he wakes at 6:00 p.m., and hears the recording. His choices are to wait until Monday morning, when he will be at work, or to spend four hours in the emergency department for a question a nurse could have answered by phone. The same rule gave one patient a nurse and the other a waiting room.
Braveman (2014) describes health equity as the principle of reducing obstacles to health for groups that are socially disadvantaged, rather than giving everyone identical resources. Our callback line is a good example of the difference. The hours were set around a daytime schedule, probably the schedule of the nurses who staff it, and they work for patients who live on that schedule too.
The change I would propose is small enough for our nurse manager to approve on her own: add one evening block, 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, covered by the charge nurse on the evening shift, who already takes calls from the house supervisor, and print those hours on the same front page. Patients discharged on a Thursday or Friday would then have an evening option before the weekend. It would not fix everything, but it would test whether evening calls come in at all, and we could count them. If nobody calls in the first two months, the hours go back and nothing is lost but a line on the packet.
My question for the board: what is one arrangement at your workplace that works well for patients who keep daytime hours and poorly for everyone else, and who set those hours?
Reply to a Classmate
The outpatient lab you described, which opens at 7:00 a.m. for fasting blood draws and closes at 11:00, made me think about how many of our arrangements quietly assume a flexible morning. One detail you mentioned, that the lab's parking garage charges by the hour, adds a second cost that falls on the same patients. Do you know whether anyone has counted how many fasting orders are canceled or rescheduled? That number might be the thing your manager would need to see before agreeing to a Saturday morning.
References
Braveman, P. (2014). What are health disparities and health equity? We need to be clear. Public Health Reports, 129(Suppl. 2), 5-8. https://doi.org/10.1177/00333549141291S203
What the NR 307A Week 1 assignment asks for
The opening discussion of NR 307A asks you to explain the difference between equality and equity using an example from practice. Expect the prompt to want a real arrangement, an explanation of whom it serves and whom it fails, a scholarly source and a reply to classmates. Pick one arrangement concrete enough to quote: a policy, a schedule, a form. Show the difference by following two patients through the same rule rather than opening with definitions. Do not blame the patients the arrangement fails. Propose a fix small enough that one manager could approve it. Replies should add a cost or a count the classmate missed, rather than praise.
Inside the NR 307A Week 1 example
The post opens with the exact sentence on the discharge packet and its hours. Two patients with the same surgery on a Thursday follow: a retired office manager who calls at 10:00 a.m. and gets answers, and a worker who can only call after 5:00 p.m. and reaches nobody. Braveman (2014) is applied to show the difference between identical resources and reducing obstacles for disadvantaged groups. The proposal adds an evening block on three weekdays covered by the charge nurse, who already takes calls. The closing question asks classmates which arrangements work only for daytime schedules and who set them. The reply adds the hourly cost of a lab's parking garage.
Where the points sit in the NR 307A Week 1 rubric
Discussion grading in this equity course tends to reward a concrete example, accurate use of equity concepts, analysis of who the arrangement serves, a realistic proposal, a reply that adds something, and APA. Quoting one arrangement exactly wins the example row. Concept use scores when Braveman's definition is applied to the arrangement, not just quoted. Analysis earns credit when two patients are followed through the same rule, making the difference visible. A proposal small enough for one manager to approve is credited for feasibility. The reply scores by adding a second cost and asking for a count. A first post early enough for classmates to answer protects the participation row.
NR 307A Week 1 help from the desk
The costliest post answers with two definitions and a textbook example. Next is naming an arrangement and blaming the patients it fails, which inverts the week's point. No citation, or one dropped at the end with nothing resting on it, costs points. Fixes too large for anyone to act on, replies that praise and add nothing, late first posts and arrangements described too vaguely for anyone to know who made them all lose marks. You may write about your current workplace if you leave out identifying details. Statistics are not required. Tell us the arrangement you have noticed at work, and an NR 307A post can be drafted around it.
Get a NR 307A Week 1 example written to your instructions
Send the Week 1 prompt with whatever your classroom publishes about post length, reply count and citation style, and a custom example is written to it and returned inside 24 to 48 hours. The first one is free. If the arrangement you want examined sits in your own workplace, describe it in general terms and we will keep it that way.
More NR 307A papers and RN-to-BSN samples
- NR 307A Week 2: Self-audit Reflection
- NR 307A Week 3: Disparity Analysis
- NR 307A Week 4: Organizational Assessment
- NR 307A Week 5: Access Barrier Brief
- NR 307A Week 6: Inclusive Communication Plan
- NR 307A Week 7: Policy Proposal
- NR 307A Week 8: Reflection
- NR 351 Week 1: Discussion Post
- NR 306 Week 1: Unexamined Region Discussion Post
- NR 360 Week 1: Discussion Post
- NR 305 Week 1: Assessment to Record Discussion Post
NR 307A Week 1 questions, answered
Can I write about a workplace I still work in?
Most sections expect exactly that, since the assignment is about arrangements rather than about people. Give the unit's size and specialty instead of its name, and leave out anything that would identify a patient or a colleague. The rule itself can be quoted as it is written, because a posted rule is not confidential in the way a chart is.
Does the post need statistics?
Not in an opening week. One arrangement described accurately does more than a figure copied out of a report the writer has not read. If a number is available inside your own organization, say where it came from and what period it covers; if it is not, the post is stronger admitting that than borrowing a national headline it cannot stand behind.
How personal should the post be?
Personal enough to be specific, not personal enough to become a confession. The week that examines your own reactions comes later, and putting that material here usually costs points twice, once for going off prompt and once for leaving the organizational half thin. Keep yourself in the post as the person who noticed the rule, then move to the rule.
Where can I find a free NR 307A Week 1 sample paper?
The complete Week 1 post about a surgical callback line that closes at 4:30, with two patients followed through it and the reply about a lab's hours, is shown on this page.
What change does the NR 307A Week 1 post propose?
Adding an evening call block from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, covered by the evening charge nurse, small enough for the nurse manager to approve alone.