| Course | NR 504 Leadership and Nursing Practice: Role Development |
|---|---|
| Week | 5 |
| Paper type | Mentorship plan |
| Length | About 1,160 words, 3 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | MSN |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NR 504 Week 5
A Mentorship Plan in Two Directions: A Labor and Delivery Manager Down the Hall for My Budget Questions, and the Staff Nurse Taking Over My Lactation Work, With What Ends Each Arrangement
Student Name
College of Nursing, Chamberlain University
NR 504: Leadership and Nursing Practice: Role Development
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
A Mentorship Plan in Two Directions: A Labor and Delivery Manager Down the Hall for My Budget Questions, and the Staff Nurse Taking Over My Lactation Work, With What Ends Each Arrangement
Both Directions, Written Down
This plan sets up two mentoring arrangements, one in each direction. Upward, I will be mentored by the nurse manager of our hospital's labor and delivery unit, who has led that unit for eleven years. Downward, I will mentor a staff nurse on my mother-baby unit who has agreed to become the unit's lactation resource, a role I filled informally for years before becoming clinical coordinator eight weeks ago.
Most mentorship plans written in a first leadership role look only upward, as though the new leader were the only one who needed development. But the work I left behind did not disappear; someone is picking it up, and I owe that person something. Kram (1983) described mentoring as a relationship that develops through phases, with functions for both people. Writing both directions down makes me account for what I give as well as what I get.
Upward: A Question, Not a Topic
The question the upward arrangement exists to answer is embarrassingly specific: how does a conversation with the director about a budget variance actually go? In October, I will present the unit's overtime figures for the first time. Overtime on nights was 14% over budget last quarter, mostly because of the float rotation problem I fixed in my first week. I know the numbers. What I do not know is what the director will ask, how much explanation she expects, whether I should propose a fix in the same meeting or wait, and how to say that part of the overrun was a staffing error without blaming a colleague.
A topic such as "developing financial skills" would give us something to talk about for months without answering that question. A question gives each meeting a purpose. The second question, for later in the year, is how to hold the annual evaluation of a nurse I used to work beside as a peer.
Access Beats Seniority
I considered asking our chief nursing officer, who offered to mentor new coordinators at orientation. I chose the labor and delivery manager instead, for reasons of access. Her office is forty feet from mine. She presents to the same director every month, so she knows exactly how those meetings go. She was a coordinator on her own unit before she became manager, so she has made the crossing I am making. And she is available on the days I work, which the chief nursing officer, with a hospital to run, is not.
The arrangement is a standing 30 minutes every other Tuesday at 1330, the quietest time on both our units, in her office. It is short enough to survive a bad week; if either unit is in crisis, we meet the following Tuesday rather than cancel. I will bring one question to each meeting, written down in advance, and she has agreed to tell me when a question is one I should answer for myself.
What I Bring Upward
A mentoring relationship that only takes is not likely to last. What I can offer her is specific. Her unit sends us every mother after delivery, and the handoff between her unit and mine has been a source of friction for years. I know the mother-baby side of that handoff better than anyone on her unit. I have offered to review the transfer process with her charge nurses, which is work she has wanted done and has not had time for. Sherman and Pross (2010) argue that growing unit leaders is an investment the whole organization shares, and this exchange is a small version of that. It gives the relationship a second purpose that serves both units.
Downward: What the New Lactation Resource Needs
The staff nurse taking over as the unit's lactation resource has five years on the unit and is working toward her lactation consultant certification. She is clinically strong; she does not need me to teach her breastfeeding. The question for our arrangement is different: where in her shift will she lose control of the morning? When I was the informal lactation resource, calls came to me while I had my own patients, and I learned, through trial and error, how to answer a call without abandoning a patient in labor or a discharge in progress. That is the knowledge she needs, and it is not written down anywhere.
We will meet for 20 minutes at the end of her shift on the first and third Thursday of each month for three months. I will also shadow her for one full shift in the first month, not to supervise but to see where the calls interrupt her and suggest how to protect her time. She sets the agenda for each meeting.
What Will Not Transfer
Some of what I did as the lactation resource should not be handed on. I answered calls at all hours because I was always on the unit and liked the work. That is not a model for her. Part of the arrangement is to agree which calls she takes, during which hours, and which go to the hospital's certified lactation consultants, who are paid for that work and are available by pager. My informal role grew without limits; hers should have them from the start.
Upward, some of what my mentor knows will not transfer either. Her director relationship is eleven years old, and some of what works for her will not work for a coordinator two months in. I will need to notice which of her advice depends on her standing rather than on her method.
Say What Ends It
Kram (1983) described a separation phase, when the relationship's structure changes because one person no longer needs it in the same way. Planning for that phase in advance makes it less likely that either arrangement drifts into a series of skipped meetings.
The downward arrangement ends at three months, after the sixth meeting, if she is taking the lactation calls without routinely running over her shift. At that point, I will ask her whether she wants to continue, and I expect she will not need to. The upward arrangement has a first review after the October budget meeting. If that meeting goes well and my next question can wait, we will move to monthly. If it goes badly, we will talk about why. Either way, the arrangement ends by next September, one year into my role, unless we both decide to renew it with a new question.
References
Kram, K. E. (1983). Phases of the mentor relationship. Academy of Management Journal, 26(4), 608-625. https://doi.org/10.2307/255910
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
NR 504 Week 5 instructions, in plain terms
In Week 5 you map out mentoring that will carry you through the new role. Expect to cover your development needs, the mentor and why, the structure of meetings, goals, what you contribute, how the relationship will end and APA. Consider both directions: who mentors you and whom you need to develop. Build the upward arrangement around a specific question, not a topic. Choose a mentor for access and fit, and explain why over a more senior option. Set a schedule that survives bad weeks. Say what you bring to your mentor. Name what will not transfer in each direction. Plan the ending, using a model of mentoring phases.
Inside the NR 504 Week 5 example
The first section introduces both arrangements and argues that most new leaders plan only upward. The upward section states the budget variance question and explains why a topic would not answer it. The access section explains choosing the labor and delivery manager over the chief nursing officer, and sets the meeting schedule. The contribution section describes improving the handoff between the two units. The downward section describes the staff nurse with five years on the unit working toward certification, meetings on the first and third Thursday for three months and one shadowed shift. The transfer section names the writer's habit of answering calls at all hours as something not to pass on. Kram's separation phase frames the endings, including the three-month downward close.
Where the points sit in the NR 504 Week 5 rubric
Mentorship plan rubrics in NR 504 typically score clear development needs, appropriate mentor selection, a realistic structure, reciprocity, planning for the end of the relationship and APA. The specific question is what most distinguishes this plan, and it earns points by giving every meeting a purpose. Mentor selection is credited because access is argued against seniority. Structure scores through a fixed schedule short enough to survive busy weeks. Reciprocity earns points for naming what the writer offers. The downward direction shows understanding of leadership succession. The ending is credited for using Kram's separation phase to set conditions. Sherman and Pross support the plan.
NR 504 Week 5 help: mistakes that cost points
The most costly mentorship plan points in one direction only, treating the writer purely as someone being developed. Another loss is a mentor chosen for prestige who will rarely be available. Students also set goals such as "grow as a leader," skip what they offer in return or never say when the relationship ends. If your chosen mentor has not agreed yet, write the plan and note the request. If nobody is taking over your current work, mentor someone you are developing. A preceptor relationship is narrower than mentoring but can be part of the plan. Tell us whom you would like to learn from, and an NR 504 mentorship plan can be built around one question.
Get a NR 504 Week 5 example written to your instructions
Send the prompt, the plan template if your classroom supplies one, and the rubric, and a custom NR 504 mentorship plan is written to those headings and returned inside 24-48h, the first one free. Hour totals for a practicum, and any form an evaluator or preceptor signs about you, are gathered by you and never drafted here.
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NR 504 Week 5 questions, answered
The person I want has not agreed yet. Can I still write it?
It can still be written, and the plan should admit the position. Write it as a proposal, including the first approach and the words you would use, then say what the fallback is if the answer is no. A plan that assumes agreement it does not have is the version faculty see most often, and naming the uncertainty shows you have thought past the request.
Nobody is taking over my current job. Does the second half still apply?
Write it as the work rather than the post. Even where no successor is appointed, parts of what you do now get absorbed by people who have never done them, and saying which parts, and how each gets handed on, keeps the plan honest. If the prompt clearly wants one arrangement only, follow it and put the other in a closing paragraph.
Is a preceptor the same as a mentor here?
Not usually, and saying where the two part company earns something in the paper. A preceptor is accountable for what you do in front of them across a fixed period; a mentor carries no such duty and no stake in signing anything. Assignments that blur the two end up describing supervision and calling it mentorship, which loses the point of the week.
Where can I find a free NR 504 Week 5 sample paper?
The complete Week 5 two-way mentorship plan, with the upward question, the choice of mentor, the schedule, the contribution, the downward arrangement, what will not transfer, the endings and two references, can be read here.
What question does the upward mentorship in the NR 504 Week 5 plan answer?
How a conversation with the director about a budget variance actually goes, a specific, slightly uncomfortable question that gives every meeting something to settle.