| Course | NR 447 Collaborative Leadership in Healthcare |
|---|---|
| Week | 1 |
| Paper type | Discussion post with one reply |
| Length | About 570 words |
| Format | Discussion post with APA 7 citations |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | RN-to-BSN |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NR 447 Week 1
Week 1 Discussion: Leading From the Assignment Sheet
The Admission I Gave to the Lightest Board
Initial Post
The hour I want to write about ran from 1500 to 1600 on a Tuesday when I was relief charge on a 28-bed medical unit. We had five nurses on, each with five or six patients, and I had no patients of my own. At 1505 the emergency department called report on an admission: a 79-year-old woman with a urinary tract infection, new confusion and a history of falls. At 1510, the sitter assigned to a patient on suicide precautions called out for the evening, which meant one of our nursing assistants would have to sit, leaving one assistant for the whole unit.
I looked at the board and gave the admission to the nurse with five patients, all stable, who was eight months out of orientation. My reasoning was simple: her patients were the least sick, so she had the most room. I moved one assistant to the sitter role and told the other she had the whole unit until 1900. The cost fell on two people. The new nurse took an admission that needed a full fall assessment, a delirium screen, cultures and IV antibiotics within the first hour, while her other five patients still needed 1600 medications. And the remaining assistant lost her break, because nobody could cover vital signs for 28 patients while she took it.
What I misjudged became clear at about 1540, when I walked past the new nurse's patient and saw that the admission was still in the hallway bed waiting for a bed alarm, and that the nurse was in another room trying to hang an antibiotic she had never given before. I had read the board as a list of patient acuity. It was also a list of nurse experience, and I had ignored that column. Her patients were stable partly because she was careful and slow, and an admission with delirium and falls risk needed someone who could do four things at once without looking anything up. A nurse with six sicker patients but ten years on the unit would probably have absorbed the admission faster.
Benner (1982) describes how a nurse moving from advanced beginner toward competence still relies on rules and struggles to set priorities when several demands arrive together, while an expert sees the situation as a whole. I think I was reading my own board like an advanced beginner: I followed a rule, give the admission to the lightest assignment, without seeing that the rule assumed nurses were interchangeable. I fixed part of it by taking the antibiotic and bed alarm myself for twenty minutes, but the admission's first set of vital signs was still late.
Reply to a Classmate
Your hour at 0200 with two call lights and a rapid response sounds harder than mine, and I think you made the right call pulling the float nurse into the rapid response. I would push back on one part, though. You wrote that you left the other float patients to cover themselves for thirty minutes because they were stable. On my unit that same logic is what put my admission in the hallway. Did anyone check on those patients during the half hour, and if not, who did you think was responsible for them while the float was in the rapid response?
References
Benner, P. (1982). From novice to expert. American Journal of Nursing, 82(3), 402-407. https://doi.org/10.2307/3462928
The Chamberlain NR 447 Week 1 instructions
The NR 447 opening forum has you describe a time you led or influenced others in practice and reflect on what you learned. The usual list includes one real situation, the decision you made and its reasoning, the effect on others, a leadership concept or source and a reply to a peer. Narrow to one hour with the board as it stood. State your reasoning as it seemed at the time. Name who paid for the decision and what each person lost. Say when you realized something was wrong, with a time, rather than announcing a lesson. Attach the citation to the misjudgment it explains. In the reply, answer with an hour of your own and ask who carried the cost.
Inside the NR 447 Week 1 example
The post opens at 1500 with five nurses on, each with five or six patients, and an admission coming. The second paragraph explains giving it to the nurse with five stable patients, moving one assistant to a sitter role and leaving the other with the whole unit until 1900. It names the costs: the new nurse needed a fall assessment, delirium screen, cultures and antibiotics in the first hour while her 1600 medications were due, and the assistant lost her break. The third paragraph places the realization at 1540, with the admission still waiting for a bed alarm. Benner (1982) explains that a nurse moving toward competence struggles when several demands arrive together. The reply asks a classmate about a 0200 rapid response decision.
Reading the NR 447 Week 1 grading rubric
Discussion grading in NR 447 generally covers the prompt elements, quality of reflection on leadership, application of a concept, honesty about outcomes, peer interaction and APA, with posting dates checked. Reflection quality decides most, and the post meets it by narrowing to one hour and naming the moment of realization at 1540. Application is credited because Benner's stages explain why the lightest board was the wrong choice for a new nurse. Honesty scores when the people who paid are named with what they lost. The leadership row is met by a decision anyone could have watched happen. The reply earns its points by answering with a specific question about cost in the classmate's decision. One reference completes APA.
NR 447 Week 1 help: mistakes that cost points
The heaviest loss on this post is writing about leadership rather than about a shift, with definitions and styles and no board, no hour and nothing that happened. Another is a story in which the writer made every decision correctly, leaving nothing to reflect on. Students also forget the people who bore the cost, cite a source that does not explain the decision or reply with agreement only. You do not need to have held the charge title; leading a team for an hour counts. Be honest about a mistake but keep identifying details out. A citation in the first week helps if it is attached to the point. Bring an hour you would handle differently, and our writers can help shape the NR 447 opening post from it.
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NR 447 Week 1 questions, answered
Do I need a citation in a first-week post?
Usually at least one, though sections differ and the reply posts often carry a requirement of their own, so read the posted instructions rather than assuming. The stronger use is narrow: one source attached to the specific misreading described, explaining the mechanism behind it. A source cited for a definition of leadership that nobody in the class disputes adds a reference entry and no marks.
What if I have never officially been the charge nurse?
You do not need the title. Any shift where you held responsibility for something beyond your own patients will work, including precepting, taking a code role, running a break rotation or covering a colleague's assignment for two hours. What the week wants is a stretch of time where a decision was yours and other people were affected by it, which happens to most nurses long before a formal role does.
How honest is too honest about a mistake?
Describe judgment rather than harm. A misread acuity, a delayed reassignment or a conversation handled at the wrong moment all show the reasoning faculty want to see. Anything that would identify a patient, a colleague or an employer stays out, and an event that went to an incident report is better kept for a private conversation than posted on a graded board.
Where can I find a free NR 447 Week 1 sample paper?
The complete Week 1 post on giving an admission to the lightest board, with the costs named, the 1540 realization, Benner's explanation, the reply and the reference, is shown on this page.
Who paid for the decision in the NR 447 Week 1 post?
The nurse eight months out of orientation, who took a demanding admission with her 1600 medications due, and the only remaining assistant, who lost her break covering vital signs for 28 patients.