| Course | NR 552 Economics of Healthcare Policy |
|---|---|
| Week | 1 |
| Paper type | Discussion post with two replies |
| Length | About 590 words |
| Format | Discussion post with APA 7 citations |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | MSN, Healthcare Policy |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for NR 552 Week 1
Week 1 Discussion: Initial Post
7,500 Home Nursing Visits a Year and No More: What a Heart Failure Follow-Up Program Would Take From Patients Home After Joint Replacement
The Fixed Resource
The resource I am working with is registered nurse home visit capacity in our hospital's home health agency: six full-time nurses, each averaging five visits a day over about 250 working days, or roughly 7,500 visits a year. Within the coming budget year, that number cannot grow. Recruiting home health nurses in our region takes six months or more, and the agency's budget is set. Anything new the agency takes on must come out of those 7,500 visits.
The Use It Would Displace
Our cardiology service has proposed a transitional care program for patients discharged after heart failure: a nurse home visit within 72 hours of discharge, followed by weekly phone calls for a month. About 480 patients a year would be eligible. The home visits alone would take about 480 visits, plus longer time per visit than a typical wound check, because each includes a medication reconciliation and teaching.
The agency's largest current use of early visits is for patients home after hip and knee replacement, who receive a first visit within 48 hours for wound checks, pain review and fall prevention. If 480 visits move to heart failure, the likely effect is that joint replacement patients wait three or four days for their first visit instead of two, and some receive one fewer visit in the first two weeks.
Who Carries the Loss
Orthopedic patients carry the loss. Their outcomes are generally good, and a delayed first visit is unlikely to cause serious harm in most cases, but it raises the chance that a wound problem or a fall is found later. The heart failure program, by contrast, targets patients with high readmission rates, and a well-designed transitional care intervention for older adults with heart failure has reduced rehospitalizations and total costs in a randomized trial (Naylor et al., 2004).
Framed that way, the tradeoff may favor heart failure. But the point of naming the displaced use is that the decision should be made openly by comparing the two, not hidden inside a program proposal that describes only its benefits. Arrow (2001) argued that uncertainty pervades medical care and shapes how its markets work, and the uncertainty here runs both ways: we do not know exactly how many readmissions the program would prevent or how much harm a delayed orthopedic visit would cause.
Over to the class: in your own setting, what fixed resource would a new program draw on, and who would lose the use it currently serves?
Reply to Nadia
Nadia, you named operating room time as your fixed resource, which is a good example because its unit is so clear. I wondered about the time window. Over a year, your hospital could add an evening block, so the constraint is really about the next few months. Could you say how long the constraint holds? That would tell us whether the tradeoff you describe is permanent or only a matter of sequencing.
Reply to Ben
Ben, you described staff education hours as the fixed resource and said a new sepsis training module would displace annual skills review. Who carries that loss? If it is the nurses whose skills are not reviewed, the risk passes to their patients. If it is the educators who work extra hours, it is a cost to staff. Naming the group makes it easier to judge whether the new module is worth it.
References
Arrow, K. J. (2001). Uncertainty and the welfare economics of medical care. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 26(5), 851-883. https://doi.org/10.1215/03616878-26-5-851
Naylor, M. D., Brooten, D. A., Campbell, R. L., Maislin, G., McCauley, K. M., & Schwartz, J. S. (2004). Transitional care of older adults hospitalized with heart failure: A randomized, controlled trial. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 52(5), 675-684. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-5415.2004.52202.x
Reading the NR 552 Week 1 instructions
The first discussion in this economics course usually asks you to apply scarcity and opportunity cost to a decision in your workplace. Expect the prompt to request a resource that is limited, a choice about its use, the alternatives given up and the implications. Name one input that cannot be increased within a stated period, with its unit, such as visits a year or operating room hours a week. Describe the proposed new use and the use it would displace, concretely enough that a classmate could rank them. Say which group would absorb the loss. Weigh the tradeoff openly rather than describing only the new program's benefits. Support a claim about benefit with evidence. End on a question for classmates, and use replies to probe the time window or the losers. Cite in APA 7.
How this NR 552 Week 1 example is built
The post opens with the home health agency's capacity: six nurses, five visits a day, 250 days, roughly 7,500 visits, fixed for the budget year because recruitment takes months. It describes a proposed heart failure program needing about 480 early visits and explains that early visits after joint replacement would be pushed from two days to three or four. A section names orthopedic patients as the losers, weighs that against randomized evidence that transitional care lowers readmissions and costs, and cites the foundational paper on uncertainty in health care markets. A closing question asks classmates what resource a new program would draw on. The replies ask one classmate how long an operating room constraint lasts and another who absorbs lost skills review.
NR 552 Week 1 rubric: what full points look like
This opening discussion is commonly graded on correct use of scarcity and opportunity cost, a specific example, clear identification of tradeoffs and replies with substance. Naming the resource with its unit and time window shows the concept is understood rather than recited. Describing the displaced use concretely lets classmates weigh the choice, which is where much of the credit sits. Naming who carries the loss shows awareness that tradeoffs have victims. Balancing the new program's evidence against its cost reads as analytical. Responses that probe a classmate's time window or losers help the discussion and earn marks. A clinical-management tone and APA 7 references complete the marks.
NR 552 Week 1 help from the desk
Many first posts describe scarcity in general terms, such as limited budgets, without naming a specific resource or period. Give a unit and a window. Another weakness is describing only the benefits of the new use; name what it displaces. Some writers forget to say who loses, which makes the tradeoff seem free. Avoid treating money as the scarce resource when the real constraint is staff time, space or equipment. Keep the example small enough to rank the alternatives. Cite evidence for the benefit you claim. In replies, ask how long a constraint lasts, since many fixed resources can grow over a year. A short post with one clear example will read better than a survey of economic concepts.
Get a NR 552 Week 1 example written to your instructions
Send your own week one prompt, the rubric your classroom posts, and any word ceiling your instructor set. We write a custom example against those instructions, on your resource and your ward, and return it inside 24-48h. The first one is free, and it arrives as a finished post rather than an outline.
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- NR 552 Week 8: Policy Recommendation Memo
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NR 552 Week 1 questions, answered
Does an opportunity cost have to be expressed in dollars?
No, and forcing it into dollars often weakens the post. The forgone use can be an admission not accepted, a home visit not made, or forty minutes of interpreter time that went elsewhere. What the marker wants is a named alternative and a reason for preferring one over the other. A dollar figure helps only when both uses can honestly be measured in the same unit.
Can the example be built on my own unit?
Yes, and posts built on a unit the writer knows usually read better, because the fixed resource is real and the displaced use is specific. Identify the site by bed count and service line instead of by employer, keep individual patients out of the example, and the post stays within classroom conduct rules while losing none of its bite.
How long should the first post be?
Word ceilings differ across sections and many are tighter than students expect, so the classroom announcement settles it rather than habit. Length rarely separates the top posts anyway. A compact post carrying one clean comparison outscores a long one that describes conditions, because the marker is hunting for the alternative and the ranking, not for coverage of everything assigned that week.
Where can I find a free NR 552 Week 1 sample paper?
The home visit capacity post and both replies make up the NR 552 Week 1 sample above, published whole. If a different resource is fixed in your setting, send us the details and a post naming the tradeoff can be drafted.
How should I describe the fixed resource in NR 552 Week 1?
With its unit and the period in which it cannot grow. The sample uses about 7,500 home nursing visits a year, fixed for the budget year.