| Course | NR 504 Leadership and Nursing Practice: Role Development |
|---|---|
| Week | 1 |
| Paper type | Discussion post with one reply |
| Length | About 660 words |
| Format | Discussion post with APA 7 citations |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | MSN |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NR 504 Week 1
Week 1 Discussion: A Colleague Brings You Something That Is Not Yours
Floated Three Times in Two Weeks: The Night Nurse Who Came to Me at 0715 Instead of the Manager's Office, and What Her Choice Said About My New Job
Initial Post
One person, one hour. Six weeks ago I became clinical coordinator, our title for assistant nurse manager, on the 26-bed mother-baby unit where I worked as a staff nurse for nine years. Last Tuesday at 0715, as I was walking in, a night nurse I have worked beside for six years stopped me by the time clock. She had been floated to other units three times in two weeks, and two nurses hired after her had not been floated once. What she said was: "You know how it works. Can you just fix the list?"
Why me and not the office. The float rotation belongs to our nurse manager, whose office was twenty feet away with the light on. My colleague came to me for three reasons, and I have to be honest that not all of them are flattering. One is that I was there and I know nights. Another is that I used to be one of her, and she trusted me to understand without a long explanation. The third, which I only admitted to myself later, is that she expected a friend to fix it quietly, without a record, the way a peer might swap a shift for you. Her words, "just fix the list," said that. She was not asking the clinical coordinator; she was asking the nurse who used to sit next to her at 0300.
What I did next. I said, "I'll look at the float log today and tell you what I find by tomorrow." I checked it that morning. She was right. Two nurses had come back from leave in August, and nobody had put them back into the rotation, so they had been skipped every time. I corrected the list, but I did not do it quietly. I told the manager what had happened and why, and I asked whether she wanted to tell the two nurses or have me do it. Then I called my colleague back and told her the list was fixed, that the manager knew, and that she could raise it with either of us if it happened again.
She was a little cool on the phone. I think she had wanted it to be a favor between friends, and I turned it into a correction on the record. That is the part I am still thinking about.
Leaders without titles. My colleague has been an informal leader on nights for years: new graduates go to her first. Sherman and Pross (2010) describe unit-level leaders as essential to a healthy work environment and argue that organizations need to grow them deliberately rather than leave them to emerge by chance. That means her trust in me is something to keep, not use up. If I had fixed it quietly, I would have taught her that the new coordinator does favors. What I hope I taught her is that the coordinator fixes things properly and tells her what happened.
My question for the group: when someone comes to you because of who you used to be, how do you answer as who you are now without losing them?
Reply to a Classmate
Marcus, you wrote that a respiratory therapist came to you, as the new educator, to complain about a physician, and you listened and said nothing to anyone. I understand wanting to protect her, but I wonder what she took away. If the problem continues, she may conclude that telling you did nothing. Could you have asked her, at the end, what she wanted to happen next? That question might have told you whether she wanted a listener or an advocate, and it would have left the next step in her hands rather than yours.
References
Sherman, R., & Pross, E. (2010). Growing future nurse leaders to build and sustain healthy work environments at the unit level. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.3912/OJIN.Vol15No01Man01
Reading the NR 504 Week 1 instructions
The NR 504 opening forum has you describe a leadership moment in your current or new role and how formal and informal influence played out. Most prompts ask for one specific situation, your response, how your role shaped it, a source on leadership and a reply to a peer. Tell one person and one hour, with the words actually said. Explain why the person came to you instead of the formal channel, including any unflattering reason. Describe what you did and what it cost. Use a source to name the informal influence at work. End by asking the group about their own role changes, and reply with a specific alternative rather than agreement.
How the NR 504 Week 1 example is put together
The post opens with the time and place: 0715 at the time clock, a colleague of six years and the request to fix the float list. The second paragraph explains why she came to the writer rather than the manager twenty feet away, admitting it was because of their history. The third gives the words used, the check of the float log, the finding that two nurses back from leave had been skipped, the correction on the record and the call back to the colleague. The fourth admits she was cool on the phone. The fifth uses Sherman and Pross on unit-level leaders to describe her informal role with new graduates. The reply suggests Marcus could have taken a complaint forward.
Reading the NR 504 Week 1 grading rubric
Discussion grading for NR 504 typically looks at addressing the prompt, insight into the leadership role, use of leadership concepts, specificity, peer engagement and APA, with timely posting. Insight is the heaviest row, and the post supplies it by admitting why the colleague came to the writer and what the correction cost. Concept use is credited through Sherman and Pross on informal leaders. Specificity scores because the words, times and float log details are given. The question for classmates invites shared experience of role transition. The reply earns its points by offering Marcus a concrete alternative and a question. One complete reference covers APA.
NR 504 Week 1 help from the desk
The most expensive version of this post has nobody in it, just a paragraph about influence and presence where no colleague asks the writer for anything. Another loss is a story where the writer handled everything perfectly, which leaves nothing to examine. Students also define formal and informal power without showing either, or reply with praise. If you hold no leadership role, write about a time you led without a title. A story you handled badly can earn more than one you handled well. Formal and informal influence should appear in the analysis, not as definitions. A moment when someone brought you a problem that was no longer yours to solve quietly is ideal material; our writers can help shape it for the NR 504 opening forum.
Get a NR 504 Week 1 example written to your instructions
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NR 504 Week 1 questions, answered
I hold no leadership position at all. What do I write about?
That is the situation the week assumes, and most of the section is in it. People ask you things anyway: a newer nurse, an agency staff member, a family that picks you out of six people at the desk. Take one of those approaches, answer it on the page, and say what you did with it afterward. Nothing here depends on holding a post.
Can the post be about something I handled badly?
Those often read better, provided the write-up does more than confess. Say what you did, what it cost the person who should have heard about it, and what you would set up so the next approach of that kind lands elsewhere. A board full of successful interventions is where a section goes flat, and faculty notice who moved it.
The prompt mentions formal and informal influence. Where does that go?
Straight into the account rather than into a paragraph of definitions. The approach you are describing is informal influence happening, so name it once where it occurs and spend the rest of the words on what you did. Where a source is required, attach it to the reason for the detour, which is usually proximity and trust rather than rank.
Where can I find a free NR 504 Week 1 sample paper?
The complete Week 1 post about the float list request at the time clock, with the response, the cost, the informal leader, the reply to Marcus and the reference, is shown here.
What did the coordinator do about the float list in the NR 504 Week 1 post?
Checked the float log, found two nurses back from leave had been skipped, corrected the list openly, told the manager and called the colleague back to explain.