| Course | NR 504 Leadership and Nursing Practice: Role Development |
|---|---|
| Week | 7 |
| Paper type | Leadership development plan |
| 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 7
Leadership Development Plan, October to June: Seven Additions Written as Work, Six Subtractions With the Person Who Receives Each, and Which Clinical Skills I Keep Current
Student Name
College of Nursing, Chamberlain University
NR 504: Leadership and Nursing Practice: Role Development
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Leadership Development Plan, October to June: Seven Additions Written as Work, Six Subtractions With the Person Who Receives Each, and Which Clinical Skills I Keep Current
Where the Month Goes Now
This plan covers my first full year as clinical coordinator on a 26-bed mother-baby unit, from October to June. It starts from what my month actually holds. In the two-week log I kept in September, I worked 86 hours against 80 paid, with 44 hours on work in my position description, 11 on work the position has no time for, 19 on work still coming to me from my old staff role and 12 on work belonging to nobody. A plan that only adds new work to that month is a plan for burnout.
The American Organization for Nursing Leadership (n.d.) describes its competency framework in terms of observable, role-specific behaviors rather than personal qualities. I have followed that approach. Each addition below is something a person could watch me do, not a quality such as confidence or presence.
Additions, Written as Work
Each addition has a month and something a person could check.
Table 1
Additions by Month, October to June
| Month | Addition | How anyone could check |
|---|---|---|
| October | Present the night overtime variance to the director | The meeting happened; I presented and answered questions |
| November | Build the January to March staffing schedule myself, with the manager reviewing | The schedule posted with my name on it |
| December | Lead one staff meeting from agenda to minutes | Agenda and minutes on the unit drive |
| January | Hold the discharge teaching conversation with the two senior nurses together | A written agreement on discharge teaching order |
| February | Complete two annual evaluations, one of a nurse I worked beside as a peer | Evaluations signed by both of us |
| April | Run the weekend night supplementation review with the quality nurse | A one-page summary with a proposed change |
| June | Cover for the manager for one full week | A week with no escalations that should have been mine |
Note. Each is scheduled for the month shown, reviewed with my mentor at the next meeting.
The Column Nobody Writes
Every addition takes hours from somewhere. These are the subtractions, each with the person or place that receives it.
1. Breast pump and latch calls to my old extension (7 hours a fortnight). To the new unit lactation resource, from November, after our three months of meetings. Calls outside her hours go to the hospital's lactation consultants.
2. The monthly infant feeding report (6 hours a month). Already with the day nurse who took it over in September, now with a written standard.
3. Restocking the education cart (about 2 hours a fortnight). To the nursing assistants' weekly supply round, from October, agreed at the September staff meeting.
4. The unit's social media page (about 3 hours a fortnight). To the hospital's communications office, which runs the other units' pages, from November.
5. The holiday party (about 6 hours in November and December). To a volunteer staff committee, which I will join as a member, not the organizer.
6. Quarterly competency tracking (about 4 hours a fortnight in tracking months). To the unit educator, from January, if my manager agrees; if not, it stays with me and the February evaluations move to March.
Current or Released
My position keeps eight clinical hours a week. The question is which clinical skills to keep current in those hours and which to let go. I will keep newborn assessment, postpartum hemorrhage response and breastfeeding support current, because they are the core of the unit's work, and staff trust my coordination decisions partly because they trust my clinical judgment in these areas. I will release two skills. The first is precepting new graduates, which I did for five years; it takes whole shifts, and the unit has six experienced preceptors. The second is the neonatal resuscitation instructor role, which I will let lapse when my instructor status expires in March, while keeping my provider certification.
The Arithmetic
The plan has to add up, so here is the arithmetic for a typical fortnight from January, when most subtractions are in place. The subtractions free about 16 hours a fortnight: 7 from pump calls, 2 from the cart, 3 from social media and about 4 from competency tracking in tracking months. The additions cost about 10 hours a fortnight on average: schedule building, meeting preparation, evaluations and the review work. That leaves me at about 80 hours in a fortnight, which is what I am paid for, instead of 86.
If the competency tracking does not move to the educator, I will be at about 84 hours, and the plan says what happens then: the February evaluations move to March. That is the only slack in the plan, and naming it now means I will not have to invent it in February.
What the Plan Leaves Out on Purpose
Three things are missing from the plan, and each is missing deliberately. There is no formal leadership course this year beyond my degree program, because the degree already takes about twelve hours a week and adding a certificate would break the arithmetic above. There is no committee membership beyond the holiday committee, even though I was invited to join the hospital's shared governance council; I have asked to be considered again next fall. And there is no goal about the unit's patient experience scores, because they belong to the manager, and adopting them as my goal would repeat the ambiguity about ownership that filled 12 hours of my September log.
Leaving these out is uncomfortable, because each is something a promising new coordinator is expected to want. But a plan that includes everything is a plan whose additions will slip, one month at a time, until none of them is on schedule.
One Person Who Will Say It
Plans like this fail quietly, when an addition slips a month and nobody mentions it. I have asked my mentor, the labor and delivery manager, to hold a copy of the table and to ask me at each of our fortnightly meetings which line is due that month and whether it happened. She has agreed to tell me directly if I am behind, and I have agreed not to argue with her about it at the meeting where she says it.
Kram (1983) described mentors as providing both career functions, such as coaching and challenging assignments, and psychosocial functions, such as acceptance and friendship. What I am asking of my mentor here is the less comfortable career function: a person who will hold me to the dates. The plan will be reviewed in full in March, at the halfway point, and rewritten if the arithmetic has stopped working.
References
American Organization for Nursing Leadership. (n.d.). AONL nurse leader core competencies. https://www.aonl.org/resources/nurse-leader-competencies
Kram, K. E. (1983). Phases of the mentor relationship. Academy of Management Journal, 26(4), 608-625. https://doi.org/10.2307/255910
Reading the NR 504 Week 7 instructions
The Week 7 plan has you create a professional development plan for your leadership role. The instructions typically list your current responsibilities, development goals tied to competencies, a timeline, resources and support, how progress will be checked and APA. Start from how your month is actually spent. Use a competency framework that describes observable behavior. Write each addition as work with a month and a check. Add a column of subtractions, each with the person who receives it, since every addition takes hours from somewhere. Decide which clinical skills to keep current and which to release. Do the arithmetic. Say what you leave out on purpose and who will tell you when a month slips.
Inside the NR 504 Week 7 example
The first section describes the coordinator's month and introduces the AONL competencies. Table 1 lists seven additions by month from October to June, each with a check. The subtraction list gives seven hours a fortnight of pump calls to the new lactation resource from November, the feeding report to the day nurse with a written standard, cart restocking to the assistants' supply round, the social media page to communications, the holiday party to a staff committee and competency tracking to the educator if approved. The clinical section keeps newborn assessment current within eight clinical hours a week. The arithmetic shows about 16 hours freed per fortnight. Three things are left out deliberately, and the mentor holds a copy.
Where the points sit in the NR 504 Week 7 rubric
Development plan rubrics in NR 504 generally reward goals tied to competencies, a realistic timeline, attention to workload, resources and support, accountability and APA. Workload realism is where this plan earns most, through a subtraction column and arithmetic that shows the additions fit. Competencies are credited because AONL's framework describes behavior. The timeline scores with a month for every addition. Support earns points through the mentor, who holds a copy, connected to Kram's career functions. Accountability is credited because each addition has a check someone could see. Leaving items out on purpose shows judgment. Two references complete APA. Six named receivers make the subtraction column checkable, which graders notice.
NR 504 Week 7 help from the desk
The plan that costs most has only one column, promising new work without saying what the new position replaces. Another loss is goals written as qualities, such as "develop strategic thinking." Students also give subtractions to nobody, skip the arithmetic or plan to do everything. A plan for nine to twelve months is typical. A plan can involve leaving your employer if that is the realistic path. A workplace with no leadership program does not weaken a plan built on mentoring and practice. List what your month holds now, and an NR 504 development plan can be built with both columns. Name a person for every subtraction.
Get a NR 504 Week 7 example written to your instructions
Give us the plan instructions, whatever table or form your section publishes, and the rubric, and a custom NR 504 development plan is built into those columns with your own months in it. Nothing gets fitted from a generic version. It costs nothing the first time and is returned inside 24-48h.
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NR 504 Week 7 questions, answered
How far ahead should a plan like this reach?
Follow the horizon the prompt sets, and where it is open, a year is usually the most a reader will credit. Anything longer stops being a plan and becomes an ambition, since neither the position nor the organization can be predicted that far out. Keep the first three months detailed and let the later ones be coarser, which is how it gets used anyway.
Can the plan involve leaving my current employer?
It can, and some do, but say what the writer builds while still here. A plan resting entirely on a job that does not exist yet gives a marker nothing in the present to assess. If the intended move is real, name the two conditions that would need to hold first, and put the development that makes it possible in the columns.
My workplace has no leadership program. Does that weaken the plan?
Not at all, and plans built on formal programs are often the weaker ones. The strongest lines are ordinary: taking the minutes for a committee, building next month's schedule alongside whoever writes it now, sitting in on one difficult conversation. Say who you would ask for each, and what you would do if that arrangement stopped being available.
Where can I find a free NR 504 Week 7 sample paper?
The complete Week 7 development plan with seven dated additions, six subtractions and their receivers, the clinical skills decision, the arithmetic, what is left out and two references, is shown here.
Who receives the breast pump calls in the NR 504 Week 7 plan?
The new unit lactation resource, from November, after the three months of mentoring meetings, which frees about seven hours a fortnight.