NR 535 Week 4 Lesson Plan Example

Course	NR 535 Theoretical Foundations and Instructional Strategies for the Nurse Educator
Week	4
Paper type	Lesson plan
Length	About 1,140 words, 3 pages
Format	APA 7 student paper
School	Chamberlain University
Program	MSN, Nurse Educator
Updated	September 2026

Free sample paper for NR 535 Week 4

Lesson Plan: Ninety Minutes of Chest Drainage for Eight New Graduate Nurses, With Every Block of Time Tied to a Numbered Objective, Every Material One the Skills Lab Actually Owns and Minutes That Add Up

Student Name

College of Nursing, Chamberlain University

NR 535: Theoretical Foundations and Instructional Strategies for the Nurse Educator

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

What this page is doingThe title promises a plan that adds up in minutes, objectives and materials, because a column of times is where a soft objective or an impossible activity shows itself. Student APA 7 title page.

Session Overview

Title. Chest drainage at the bedside: reading, recording and responding.

Learners. Eight new graduate nurses in the first quarter of the nurse residency program, all assigned to the thoracic surgery and pulmonary step-down unit or its float pool.

Educator. Unit clinical nurse educator, with one experienced thoracic nurse as a second facilitator.

Setting. Skills lab room B, with a hospital bed, a high-fidelity patient simulator and two task trainers with chest tubes connected to three-chamber drainage systems.

Length. 90 minutes, with a 10-minute pre-reading completed beforehand.

Objectives. The eight objectives written for this session, numbered 1 to 8, ranging from identifying the chambers to demonstrating the response to accidental disconnection and dislodgement.

Design principles. The plan applies cognitive load theory by building the water seal skill alone before adding other elements, using the real device rather than a diagram, and adding realistic demands only after the basic checks are secure (van Merriënboer & Sweller, 2010). It also follows the principle of deliberate practice: focused repetition of a defined task with immediate feedback, repeated until performance is reliable (Ericsson, 2004).

The Plan

The minute-by-minute schedule appears in Table 1.

Table 1

Lesson Plan, 90 Minutes

Minutes	Block	Objective	Activity	Materials	Check
0 to 5	Opening	None	A two-minute account of a real event: a nurse who clamped a tube during transport. Educator states what the group will be able to do in 90 minutes.	None	None
5 to 15	The device	1	Pairs locate each chamber on the drainage system at the bedside, then state its purpose. Educator corrects.	Two drainage systems below the bed	Each nurse points and states
15 to 35	Water seal alone	2	Task trainers breathe; nurses find tidaling, then bubbling with suction on and off. Each nurse repeats until correct three times in a row.	Task trainers, suction	Educator watches each nurse
35 to 45	Three photographs	3	Each nurse writes an interpretation of three photographs with short histories, then the group discusses.	Printed photographs, answer sheets	Written answers
45 to 55	Finding a leak	4	Demonstration, then each nurse finds a leak placed at a connection on the trainer by brief sequential clamping.	Task trainers, padded clamps	Educator watches each nurse
55 to 63	Recording drainage	5, 6	Nurses mark and record 140 mL over four hours on a flow sheet and state the notification thresholds without notes.	Flow sheets, marked system	Flow sheet entry; spoken thresholds
63 to 80	Whole task under pressure	2, 4, 7	Simulator scenario: the patient coughs, the alarm sounds and transport arrives; then the tubing separates. Four nurses run it while four observe, then switch.	Simulator, transport stretcher, sterile water bottle, occlusive dressing	Facilitators score a checklist
80 to 87	Explain to a partner	8	Each nurse explains to a partner why the system stays below the chest and why routine transport clamping is avoided.	None	Educator listens to each pair
87 to 90	Close	All	Each nurse writes one thing to check first at the bedside tomorrow. Reference cards handed out.	Reference cards	Written card collected

Why the Minutes Fall This Way

The largest single block, 20 minutes, goes to reading the water seal alone, because it is the element most other decisions depend on and the one new graduates most often misread. Twenty minutes for eight nurses at two trainers allows each nurse about five minutes of hands-on practice with correction, enough for three correct repetitions in a row. The whole-task scenario gets 17 minutes, split between two groups, so that each nurse performs under pressure once and observes once. Observation is not wasted time: watching a peer make a decision under pressure, with the facilitator's commentary, gives a second pass at the same task.

Some blocks are short on purpose. Recording drainage gets eight minutes because it is a simple procedure once the chambers are understood. The opening story gets two minutes of the first five, because its purpose is to show why the session matters, not to teach content.

Materials the Lab Actually Has

Every material in the plan was checked against the skills lab inventory. The lab owns two task trainers with chest tubes, one simulator that can be programmed to cough and trigger alarms, and enough drainage systems for two stations. It does not own digital drainage systems, which is one reason they are not in the session. The photographs for block 4 were taken on the unit with patients' consent and identifying features removed. The reference card is a single page, laminated, showing the checks in order with no diagram.

Checks and What Happens After

The last column of the table names the in-session check for each objective. A nurse who cannot complete a check during the session is scheduled for a 20-minute follow-up with the educator within the week, before caring for patients with chest tubes independently. Two weeks after the session, the preceptor listens while each nurse talks through a real patient's drainage system, using the same order as the reference card. Results of these bedside checks go to the educator, who will use them to revise the plan. The revised taxonomy of educational objectives emphasizes aligning objectives, activities and assessments so that each assesses what the objective states (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). This plan tries to make that alignment visible in every row.

Contingencies

If the simulator fails, the whole-task scenario runs on a task trainer with a facilitator reading the patient's responses aloud. If more than eight nurses attend, the second facilitator runs a parallel water seal station, and the photograph exercise moves to the pre-reading. If the session runs over in the water seal block, the explanation-to-a-partner block is shortened, since objective 8 can also be checked at the bedside. The water seal block itself is never shortened, because it is the foundation for everything that follows. After each session, the two facilitators spend ten minutes comparing notes on which blocks ran long, which checks most nurses failed and which materials were missing or awkward, and the plan is revised before the next cohort. The first revision, after a pilot with four nurses, moved the photograph exercise after the water seal block, because nurses who had not yet read a real water seal could not interpret the photographs.

What this page is doingThe plan ties every block of minutes to a numbered objective and a check, uses only materials the lab owns and explains why the largest blocks go to the hardest elements.

References

Anderson, L. W., & Krathwohl, D. R. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. Longman.

Ericsson, K. A. (2004). Deliberate practice and the acquisition and maintenance of expert performance in medicine and related domains. Academic Medicine, 79(10, Suppl.), S70-S81. https://doi.org/10.1097/00001888-200410001-00022

van Merriënboer, J. J. G., & Sweller, J. (2010). Cognitive load theory in health professional education: Design principles and strategies. Medical Education, 44(1), 85-93. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2923.2009.03498.x

NR 535 Week 4 instructions, in plain terms

In Week 4 you usually write a lesson plan for a teaching session based on your objectives. Prompts ask for the learners, objectives, content outline, teaching strategies, timing, materials, assessment methods and sometimes an evaluation plan. Build the plan around a column of minutes and make it add up. Tie every block to a numbered objective, and give every objective a check. List only materials the setting really has. Explain why the time is divided as it is, especially where the largest blocks fall. Plan for what happens to learners who do not meet a check. Add contingencies for equipment failure or changes in group size. Cite the principles behind your design in APA 7, and present the plan as a table.

Inside the NR 535 Week 4 example

The plan opens with an overview listing the session title, learners, educators, setting, length, objectives and two design principles drawn from cognitive load theory and deliberate practice. Table 1 divides 90 minutes into nine blocks, each with objectives, activity, materials and a check. A section explains the allocation of minutes, from twenty for the water seal to two for the opening story. A section confirms materials against the skills lab inventory and describes the laminated reference card. Checks and follow-up are described, including a bedside check two weeks later and a note on aligning objectives and assessments. Contingencies close the plan, along with the facilitators' debrief and a revision from a pilot.

NR 535 Week 4 rubric: what full points look like

Lesson plan rubrics typically reward clear objectives, content and strategies aligned with them, realistic timing, appropriate materials, assessment of each objective and a coherent structure. Graders often add up the minutes and check that every objective appears in an activity and an assessment, so a plan that reconciles earns credit. Explaining the allocation of time shows judgment about what is hardest. Confirming materials against what is available shows feasibility. A follow-up plan for learners who do not meet a check reflects accountability. Contingency planning demonstrates practical experience. A clear table with columns for time, objective, activity, materials and assessment makes the plan easy to evaluate.

Common NR 535 Week 4 mistakes, and how to avoid them

The most common problem is a plan whose minutes do not add up or whose activities could not happen in the time allowed. Count them. Another is an objective with no activity or check, or an activity with no objective. Map every row. Students also list materials they do not have, such as a simulator the lab does not own. Check the inventory. Avoid long lecture blocks at the start that delay practice. Do not skip the plan for learners who fail a check. Leave space for the unexpected, since a plan with no slack will run over. Finally, pilot the plan if you can, even with a few colleagues, and revise it from what you see.

Get a NR 535 Week 4 example written to your instructions

Send us the lesson plan template your section uses, the rubric and the topic, plus the objectives you already wrote if you have them. A custom plan comes back with the timing column filled, learner activity in every block and a rationale tied to theory, inside 24 to 48 hours. The first example costs nothing.

More NR 535 papers and MSN samples

NR 535 Week 4 questions, answered

How long is the session the plan is written for?

Sections differ, and the example is built for a single class hour because that is the most common brief. The important part is that the total is stated in the header and the blocks sum to it exactly. If your section assigns a thirty minute in-service or a three hour workshop, the same structure holds and only the block sizes change.

Does the plan need a teaching strategy named explicitly?

Yes, and naming it is what separates this course from a template exercise. The finished example says which strategy each block uses, think pair share, a worked example, a return demonstration, and the rationale below says which theory recommended it. A block described only as content delivery gives the grader nothing to mark, because a habit is not a strategy until it has a reason.

Do I have to teach the plan for the assignment?

In most sections the deliverable is the document rather than a delivered class, and the example is written on that basis. Where a section does ask you to teach it, the plan is still what gets marked, so it has to read cleanly to someone who was not in the room. The example is written to that standard, with nothing in it that only the author would understand.

Where can I find a free NR 535 Week 4 sample paper?

The minute-by-minute chest drainage lesson plan above is the whole NR 535 Week 4 sample, with no fee to read it. If your session covers another skill or runs a different length, send us your objectives and a plan built to your minutes can be prepared.

Does the NR 535 lesson plan need a timing column?

Yes, and the minutes should add up to the session length. The sample uses a table with minutes, block, objective, activity, materials and check for each of nine blocks.