| Course | NR 513 Professional Role Enhancement |
|---|---|
| Week | 7 |
| Paper type | Precepting reflection |
| Length | About 1,110 words, 3 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | MSN |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for NR 513 Week 7
Precepting Reflection: The Week I Withheld a Phase I Sign-Off From a Capable New Nurse, What I Had Actually Watched Her Do, and the Record I Left for Patients I Will Never Meet
Student Name
College of Nursing, Chamberlain University
NR 513: Professional Role Enhancement
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Precepting Reflection: The Week I Withheld a Phase I Sign-Off From a Capable New Nurse, What I Had Actually Watched Her Do, and the Record I Left for Patients I Will Never Meet
The Decision
In the tenth week of her orientation to our postanesthesia care unit (PACU), I was asked to sign the competency checklist that would let a new nurse take Phase I patients on her own, including on night call. She was a strong new graduate with a year of medical-surgical experience, quick, careful and well liked. The unit educator expected my signature that Friday. I did not sign it. I asked for two more weeks and a specific set of experiences, and she was signed off at the end of week twelve.
This reflection is about that decision. The nurse is described only by what she could and could not do without prompting; her name and other identifying details are left out.
What I Had Verified, Exactly
Before deciding, I went back through my notes and the unit's orientation log rather than relying on my impression. Over ten weeks she had recovered 51 Phase I patients with me present. Twelve were children. She had given report, assessed airway, breathing and circulation, managed pain and nausea, and applied the unit's discharge criteria without prompting on nearly all of them; I had watched each of those, not just been told about them.
Airway emergencies were a different matter. She had been present for three: two episodes of upper airway obstruction managed with a jaw thrust, and one laryngospasm in a child that needed positive-pressure ventilation. In all three, I had my hands on the patient first. She assisted, correctly and calmly, but she had not once been the nurse who recognized the problem and acted before I did. Her skills checklist for airway management had been completed in the simulation lab, which is reported competence, not observed competence in our unit.
Night call adds a further condition. On call, she would be the first responder, and in our hospital the second nurse is often not in the room. The specialty society expects a second registered nurse to be at hand for every Phase I recovery, call nights included (American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses, 2025), yet on our unit I could not promise her one.
The Difficult Conversation
Telling her was harder than deciding. She had been told by others that she was ready, and she was, in almost everything. I told her what I had seen and what I had not seen, in those words. I said that her routine care was as good as that of nurses with years in the unit, that I did not doubt her judgment, and that the one thing I had never watched was her acting first in an airway emergency. I said I would not sign for something I had not seen, because the signature is read by people who will assume I had.
She was upset and said so. She pointed out, fairly, that airway emergencies are rare and that she might go months without one. I agreed, and we worked out a plan: for two weeks, I would stand back at the start of every emergence from anesthesia in a child or a patient with sleep apnea and let her lead, and we would run two unannounced mock airway events in the unit, not in the lab. In week eleven, she recognized early stridor in a teenager and started a jaw thrust and called for help before I moved. In the mock events, she managed the airway and delegated the drug preparation to me. I signed on the Friday of week twelve.
What the Record Promises
The competency checklist is not a record of our relationship. It is a promise made to every patient she will recover alone, including patients at 0300 whom I will never meet. Those patients cannot read the checklist, but a manager, a peer review committee and, after harm, a board or a court can, and they will read my signature as a statement that I watched her do what it lists. Kellner et al. (2018) found that respiratory and airway injuries were among the most common harms in PACU liability claims. A sign-off that covers airway management has to mean that someone saw it done.
What I Got Wrong
The reflection would be incomplete if it recorded only a decision that turned out well. I made two mistakes. First, I should have noticed the gap in week five, not week ten. I had been taking over in emergencies out of habit, which protected patients but denied her the experience the checklist required, and I did not realize the pattern until I had to sign. Second, I let the schedule shape the orientation: she was often assigned to me on days with few children, because that suited the unit's flow. Blaming the schedule would be easy. The assignment is asking what I did with the shifts I had, and in the first half of her orientation I did not use them to give her the cases she needed.
What Theory Adds and Where It Stops
Benner (1984) traced the path from beginner to expert as one built from lived clinical situations, and her account helps explain why simulation alone could not stand in for the cases the new nurse had not led. Duchscher (2009) described the first months of practice as a period of transition shock, in which new nurses face a gap between what they were taught and what the role demands, often with a sense of being judged. Her work helped me understand the new nurse's reaction to my decision; the delay felt to her like a judgment of her worth, not a statement about a missing experience. Neither framework told me when to sign. That remained a question of what I had seen.
What I Will Do Differently
With the next orientee, I will review the orientation log against the checklist every two weeks, not at the end. I will name the high-risk experiences, including leading an airway emergency, at the start of orientation so that the orientee and I can plan for them. And I will stop stepping in first unless the patient's safety requires it, which it did not in two of the three events I took over.
References
American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses. (2025). 2025-2026 perianesthesia nursing standards, practice recommendations and interpretive statements. https://www.aspan.org/Publications-Resources/ASPAN-Publications/ASPAN-Standards
Benner, P. (1984). From novice to expert: Excellence and power in clinical nursing practice. Addison-Wesley.
Duchscher, J. E. B. (2009). Transition shock: The initial stage of role adaptation for newly graduated registered nurses. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 65(5), 1103-1113. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2008.04898.x
Kellner, D. B., Urman, R. D., Greenberg, P., & Brovman, E. Y. (2018). Analysis of adverse outcomes in the post-anesthesia care unit based on anesthesia liability data. Journal of Clinical Anesthesia, 50, 48-56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinane.2018.06.038
The Chamberlain NR 513 Week 7 instructions
The Week 7 assignment asks you to reflect on your role in developing other nurses, often through precepting, mentoring or teaching. Prompts commonly ask you to describe an experience, analyze what went well and what did not, connect it to theory on learning or role transition, and describe how you will develop as a preceptor or educator. If you have not precepted formally, many sections allow informal teaching. Use first person, protect the learner's identity, and focus on a specific event rather than on precepting in general. Cite one or two relevant sources. Check your section's length and whether a named reflective model is required, since some rubrics grade the model's use.
Inside the NR 513 Week 7 example
The example is built around a single decision at week ten of an orientation. It explains what the writer checked before deciding, using the orientation log rather than memory, and separates observed competence from competence reported in simulation. It explains why night call raised the bar. The difficult conversation is described with the learner's objection and the plan both agreed on. A section treats the signature as a record read by managers, peer reviewers and boards, supported by PACU liability data. A section on mistakes admits the writer had been taking over in emergencies out of habit. Theory from Benner and Duchscher is applied and its limits named. The reflection closes with three changes for the next orientee.
NR 513 Week 7 rubric: what full points look like
The rubric for the precepting reflection usually rewards depth of reflection, analysis of the experience, use of theory and plans for growth. Depth is typically the largest criterion, and graders look for honest examination, including what went wrong. A reflection that reports only success tends to lose points there. Analysis earns credit when the writer explains why things happened, not just what happened. The theory criterion rewards frameworks applied to the event, not summarized. Plans for growth should be specific and follow from the analysis. Privacy protection for the learner is expected. APA 7 format and clear first-person writing account for the remaining points on most versions of the rubric.
Common NR 513 Week 7 mistakes, and how to avoid them
The biggest loss is a reflection about how rewarding precepting is, with the learner nowhere in it. Build the paper around one decision and one learner, described by what they could and could not do. Another mistake is a sign-off described without evidence: say what you watched, how many times and under what conditions. Reporting only successes suggests the experience was not examined. Blaming the schedule avoids the question of what you did with the time you had. Theory should explain something about your event; a paragraph summarizing a model earns little. Finally, protect the learner. Remove names, unusual details and anything that would let a colleague recognize them, even if the story reflects well on them.
Get a NR 513 Week 7 example written to your instructions
Send the reflection prompt with whatever rubric your section publishes, and a custom example comes back inside 24-48h, the first one free. What the desk will not touch is the paperwork of a placement: logged hours, the site's own forms, and any evaluation a preceptor puts a signature to stay with you, because they are records of your practice and nobody else can produce them.
More NR 513 papers and MSN samples
- NR 513 Week 1: Discussion Post on Credential Duties
- NR 513 Week 2: Standards Analysis, Phase I Staffing
- NR 513 Week 3: Philosophy of Practice Statement
- NR 513 Week 4: Ethics Case Analysis, PACU Transfer
- NR 513 Week 5: Scholarly Writing Exercise
- NR 513 Week 6: Professional Organization Brief, ASPAN
- NR 513 Week 8: Role Enhancement Plan
- NR 510F Week 7: Professional Portfolio Piece
- NR 510 Week 7: Contract Review Memo
- NR 508 Week 7: Medication Teaching Plan
- NR 506NP Week 7: Policy Leadership Plan
NR 513 Week 7 questions, answered
What if I have never formally precepted anyone?
Most sections accept adjacent experience, and orienting a float nurse, buddying a new hire or supervising a student for a few shifts all raise the same obligations. Say early which of these the reflection describes so the marker reads it in the right frame. Where the prompt insists on a formal preceptorship, ask your instructor before building the paper on something else.
Should I write about a learner who struggled?
Those usually produce the better paper, because a preceptorship that went smoothly gives the reflection nothing to examine. Keep the learner unidentifiable, describe the difficulty in terms of performance rather than character, and be as specific about your own contribution to it as about theirs. Markers reward candor here more reliably than they reward a happy outcome.
How much theory belongs in a reflection?
Less than in the other papers this term, but not none. One framework on adult learning or on competency development, applied to the decision under discussion, does more than three cited in passing. If a model is named and the reflection would read identically without it, the marks it was meant to earn are not being earned.
Where can I find a free NR 513 Week 7 sample paper?
The sign-off reflection above is the complete NR 513 Week 7 paper, open to read. If your teaching experience was informal or with students rather than new hires, describe it and a reflection on that event can be drafted.
What if I have never been a formal preceptor for NR 513 Week 7?
Most sections accept informal teaching, such as orienting a float nurse, teaching a skill to a colleague or supervising a student. Choose one specific event and describe what you checked and decided, as the sample does.