| Course | NR 504 Leadership and Nursing Practice: Role Development |
|---|---|
| Week | 2 |
| Paper type | Role theory write-up |
| Length | About 1,170 words, 3 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | MSN |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NR 504 Week 2
Two Weeks as a New Clinical Coordinator Filed Under Role Theory: Nineteen Items, the Breast Pump Calls That Still Come to My Old Number, and the Strain I Decided to Keep
Student Name
College of Nursing, Chamberlain University
NR 504: Leadership and Nursing Practice: Role Development
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Two Weeks as a New Clinical Coordinator Filed Under Role Theory: Nineteen Items, the Breast Pump Calls That Still Come to My Old Number, and the Strain I Decided to Keep
The Fortnight, Counted
Six weeks ago I moved from staff nurse to clinical coordinator on my own mother-baby unit, 26 beds, after nine years there. The position description gives me 32 hours a week of coordination and 8 hours of clinical practice. For the fortnight of September 8 to 21, I kept a log of every task that took more than ten minutes, who asked for it and how long it took. The log has 19 distinct kinds of item and 86 hours of work, against 80 paid hours.
This paper files that log under role theory, using the concepts of role conflict, role ambiguity and role overload as Hardy and Conway (1988) set them out for health professionals, and drawing on the measurement work of Rizzo et al. (1970), who separated conflict from ambiguity as two different kinds of role stress. The aim is not to recite the theory but to see what it does to my fortnight.
The Hours Under the Theory
The 19 items fall into four groups, shown with hours across the two weeks.
Table 1
Coordinator Log, September 8 to 21, by Item Group
| Item group | Examples | Hours | Filed as |
|---|---|---|---|
| In the position description | Staffing grid, daily huddles, incident follow-up, orientation schedules | 44 | No strain |
| In the description, but with no time given | Quarterly competency tracking, the unit's breastfeeding data report | 11 | Overload |
| Still coming to my old role | Lactation questions from staff, breast pump troubleshooting calls, being asked to take a patient assignment | 19 | Conflict, or ambiguity |
| Belonging to nobody | Restocking the education cart, the unit's social media page, the holiday party | 12 | Ambiguity |
Note. 86 hours logged against 80 paid. Items under ten minutes were not logged.
Overload and Ambiguity, Filed Cleanly
Two groups filed without difficulty. The 11 hours of competency tracking and data reporting are in my position description, but the 32 coordination hours are already filled by the staffing grid, huddles and incident follow-up. That is role overload in the plain sense: the expectations exceed the time the position was given. It is a property of the position, not of me, and it would fall on anyone in the job.
The 12 hours of work that belongs to nobody are role ambiguity. Nobody has said who restocks the education cart or runs the unit's social media page; the previous coordinator did them, so staff assume I will. Rizzo et al. (1970) describe ambiguity as a lack of clear information about what a role requires. Here the ambiguity is about whether these tasks are part of the coordinator role at all, or just habits of the last person who held it.
The Item That Files Twice
The hardest item is the breast pump calls. Before my promotion I was the unit's informal lactation resource, and staff still call my old extension, which now rings on my desk, when a mother's pump is not working or a latch is not going well. Over the fortnight that was 7 hours across 23 calls.
Filed one way, it is role conflict: two sets of expectations that cannot both be met. Staff expect the lactation resource; my manager expects the coordinator to be in a staffing meeting at 1000, when the calls come in. Filed the other way, it is role ambiguity: nobody has said whether I am still the unit's lactation resource. My position description does not mention it, and the unit has not named anyone else.
Deciding between the two matters because they call for different fixes. If it is conflict, the fix is negotiation: my manager and I agree which expectation wins and at what times. If it is ambiguity, the fix is clarification: somebody decides, in writing, who the unit's lactation resource is. I have concluded that it is mainly ambiguity, because the conflict disappears the moment someone else is named. The conflict is a symptom of the ambiguity, not a separate problem.
Would the Next Person Feel It
A test I found useful for each item is to ask whether the next person in this position would feel the same strain. For the overload and the ownerless tasks, the answer is yes: any coordinator would inherit them. For the breast pump calls, the answer is no. They come to me because of who I was, not because of what the position is. A coordinator hired from another hospital would never receive them.
That test separates strain built into the position from strain built into my history. The first kind should go to my manager as a problem with the position. The second kind is mine to manage, and the theory's name for it is role transition, which Hardy and Conway (1988) treat as a normal period in which the old role's expectations linger.
Coping Is Not a Fix
So far, I have coped. I have answered the pump calls between meetings, come in early to do the competency tracking, and restocked the cart myself. Coping has kept the unit running, but it has also hidden the problem: my manager sees a coordinator who gets everything done and has no reason to think the position is overloaded. Coping with role overload by working unpaid hours turns a problem with the position into an invisible personal cost.
The fixes I will propose are specific. For the overload, I will show my manager the log and ask her to either move the breastfeeding data report to the quality nurse or give me the hours to do it. For the ownerless tasks, I will ask her to assign each one in writing at the next staff meeting. For the pump calls, I will ask for a staff nurse to be named as the unit's lactation resource, and I will offer to spend four hours orienting her.
The Strain I Keep
One strain I am choosing to keep. On my eight clinical hours a week, staff still treat me as one of them, and the charge nurse sometimes gives me the hardest assignment because she knows I can manage it. That creates some conflict: on those shifts I am a staff nurse to the charge nurse and a coordinator to everyone else. I keep it because those hours are the only time I see the unit from the floor, and because the staff's trust in my clinical work is part of why they trust my coordination decisions. The theory would call it conflict. I call it the price of keeping my feet on the floor, and I am willing to pay it for now.
References
Hardy, M. E., & Conway, M. E. (1988). Role theory: Perspectives for health professionals (2nd ed.). Appleton & Lange.
Rizzo, J. R., House, R. J., & Lirtzman, S. I. (1970). Role conflict and ambiguity in complex organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 15(2), 150-163. https://doi.org/10.2307/2391486
What the NR 504 Week 2 assignment asks for
The Week 2 paper has you apply role theory to your own professional role. Points are attached to the role and its expectations, the theory and its concepts, analysis of your experience through those concepts, strategies for managing strain and APA. Count your actual work for a period before applying any theory. Group it and show the hours. File each group under a named concept with a reason. Look for an item that could be filed two ways and explain why the choice matters. Test whether the next person in the role would feel the same strain. Separate coping from fixing, and say which strain you will keep.
Inside the NR 504 Week 2 example
The first section describes six weeks in the coordinator role after nine years on staff and the logging of every task for two weeks. Table 1 shows four groups with 86 hours logged against 80 paid. The next section files competency tracking and coordination as overload and the education cart and social media page as ambiguity, since nobody owns them. The double-filed item is the breast pump calls, which could be role conflict between staff and manager expectations or a transition from the writer's old informal role. The test section asks whether the next coordinator would feel each strain. The coping section lists early arrivals and answered calls. The fixes include showing the manager the log, and the kept strain is the hardest assignments on clinical days.
Reading the NR 504 Week 2 grading rubric
Role theory rubrics in NR 504 usually score accurate presentation of the theory, application to the writer's experience, analysis of role strain, practical strategies and APA. Application is the heaviest row, and this paper meets it by counting real hours and filing each group under a concept. Theory is credited through Hardy and Conway's definitions and Rizzo and colleagues' measures. Analysis scores most for the item that files twice and the explanation of why the fix depends on the filing. The next-person test earns credit for separating position strain from personal history. Strategies are credited because coping and fixing are distinguished. Two references complete APA.
NR 504 Week 2 help from the desk
Most points are lost when a model is recited at length and never applied to the writer's own fortnight. Another loss is filing everything under one concept, usually overload. Students also skip counting and describe strain as a feeling, propose coping as if it were a fix or write about a role they do not hold without saying whose. If you are not yet in a leadership role, analyze your current role or one you observe. Use the theorist the course assigns unless you are allowed to choose. Writing about strain from your manager is possible if kept professional. Log a week of your own work, and an NR 504 role theory paper can file it concept by concept.
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NR 504 Week 2 questions, answered
I do not hold a leadership position yet. Whose role do I analyze?
Your own, as it currently stands. Everybody occupies a role with edges somebody else drew, and a staff nurse asked to precept, sit on a committee and still finish on time has all three strains available without a title. Where the prompt insists on a leadership role, take the one you are being prepared for and write the strain you can already see arriving.
Do I have to use the theorist the week assigns?
Where the classroom names one, yes, and the write-up should depend on it rather than mention it. Where the choice is open, one model used closely beats three surveyed. What earns the marks is fit: a claim the theory makes about what happens to people in loosely bounded positions, tested against the fortnight you actually recorded.
Is it safe to write about strain my own manager caused?
Write the situation and not the person. Describe the two sets of instructions and the day they collided, without naming anybody or turning the paper into an argument you would rather be having at work. Faculty read a great many of these, and the versions that stay analytical are the ones that hold their marks.
Where can I find a free NR 504 Week 2 sample paper?
This page has the complete Week 2 paper filing two weeks of coordinator work under role theory, with the hours table, the double-filed item, the next-person test, the fixes and two references.
Why do the breast pump calls file twice in the NR 504 Week 2 paper?
They can be read as role conflict between staff and manager expectations, or as a transition from the writer's old informal lactation role, and each reading calls for a different fix.