| Course | NR 703 Applied Organizational and Leadership Concepts |
|---|---|
| Week | 1 |
| Paper type | Discussion post with two replies |
| Length | About 510 words |
| Format | Discussion post with APA 7 citations |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | MSN, Nurse Executive |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NR 703 Week 1
Week 1 Discussion: Initial Post
Bedside Shift Report at 19:00 but Not at 07:00: One Rule on One Telemetry Unit, Read Through Schein's Levels of Culture
Initial Post
The oddity. On the telemetry unit where I work, which has 30 beds, policy says shift report happens at the bedside, with the patient, at both handoffs. At 19:00, when day nurses hand over to nights, it happens at the bedside almost every time; our unit's audits from July to September found it in 42 of 50 observed handoffs. At 07:00, when night nurses hand over to days, it happens at the nurses' station; the same audits found bedside report in 11 of 50. Same nurses, same policy, same patients, twelve hours apart.
One concept. Schein describes culture at three levels: artifacts, which are what you can see; espoused values, which are what people say they believe; and basic underlying assumptions, which are taken for granted and rarely spoken (Schein & Schein, 2017).
Where they touch. The policy and the laminated "Every patient, every shift" sign by the time clock are artifacts. The espoused value, which every nurse will tell you, is that bedside report is safer and better for patients. At 07:00 a different assumption runs underneath: that letting patients sleep matters more than waking them for report, and that night nurses should leave on time after twelve hours. Nobody says "skip bedside report at 07:00." New night nurses are told "don't wake them for report," which is the assumption in its spoken form. Reading it this way turns what I had treated as night shift laziness into a feature: the unit holds two assumptions, and at 07:00 they conflict with the policy.
What the reading leaves out. The 07:00 report overlaps with the morning medication pass and the first blood draws, so day nurses are pulled away within minutes. That is a workflow fact, not a cultural one, and Schein's levels do not explain it. Bedside report has been associated with better patient perceptions and fewer falls in some settings (Sand-Jecklin & Sherman, 2014), so the gap matters to patients. If the 07:00 handoff is where overnight changes are passed on, such as a blood pressure that dropped at 03:00, it is also where a bedside check with the patient would catch a misunderstanding. The oddity is not trivial, and it is not new, and reading it as culture rather than laziness is the first step toward explaining it fairly.
Reply to Bianca
Bianca, your clinic's "no walk-ins after 15:00" rule is followed by some front desk staff and not others. Is there a fact about which staff break it, such as their start time or who trained them? That fact might be where the culture shows.
Reply to Theo
Theo, you say the supply closet is locked "for no reason." Adding a fact: in many hospitals locked supply rooms date from a past theft or a survey finding. If you can find out when the lock was added, the concept you chose may fit better than you think.
References
Sand-Jecklin, K., & Sherman, J. (2014). A quantitative assessment of patient and nurse outcomes of bedside nursing report implementation. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 23(19-20), 2854-2863. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.12575
Schein, E. H., & Schein, P. (2017). Organizational culture and leadership (5th ed.). Wiley.
What the NR 703 Week 1 assignment asks for
Put one specific oddity on the table in the opening lines: a rule followed at one time and not another, a form that has outlived several managers, a closet only one person can open. Leave leadership in general out of it. Bring in one concept, defined briefly with a citation, and show the sentence where the concept and the situation touch, usually by naming as a feature what you had been treating as an accident. Close by saying what the concept still does not account for. In replies, add a fact to a classmate's case that changes how it can be read, rather than agreeing with their interpretation.
How the NR 703 Week 1 example is put together
The sample's oddity is bedside report on a telemetry unit, done at 19:00 in 42 of 50 audited handoffs and at 07:00 in only 11 of 50, by the same nurses under the same policy. Schein's three levels of culture are defined: the policy and the laminated sign are artifacts, the belief that bedside report is safer is an espoused value, and the assumption that patients should sleep and night nurses should leave on time runs underneath. New night nurses are told not to wake patients for report. The reading leaves out the 07:00 medication pass, a workflow fact. Bedside report evidence is cited. Replies add facts about which staff break a rule and when a supply closet lock was added. The post closes by noting why the gap matters to patients.
Reading the NR 703 Week 1 grading rubric
Week 1 posts lose most when they discuss leadership or culture in general and never put a specific situation on the table. Next is a concept named but never applied, so the reader cannot see where it touches the case. Many posts use a concept only to confirm what the writer already thought, rather than to reread the situation. Posts that never say what the concept leaves out suggest the writer believes one concept explains everything. Situations described with identifying details raise confidentiality concerns. Replies that agree with a classmate's reading, rather than adding a fact that could change it, earn little in this discussion. Posts that cite a concept without defining it briefly also leave classmates unable to test the reading.
Common NR 703 Week 1 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Finding an oddity small enough to analyze, and a concept that changes how you see it, usually takes a couple of tries. Working from your notes, we can set out your situation concretely, choose one concept and write the sentence where they meet. We can also help you say what the concept leaves out and write replies that add a useful fact. Talking through a rule that is followed unevenly at your workplace often turns up the best candidate. The situation and its reading are yours.
Get a NR 703 Week 1 example written to your instructions
Send the Week 1 prompt from your classroom, with the situation you are thinking of using and anything the rubric says about replies. A custom post is written to it and returned inside 24-48h, and the first one costs nothing. If you would rather not describe your own floor, say so and the desk will build the sample on a constructed setting instead.
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NR 703 Week 1 questions, answered
Does the concept have to come from the assigned reading?
In most sections it does, and using the week's assigned material is the safer choice because the grader already knows what it should be able to do. If you bring one from outside, keep it to a single idea and cite it properly, and expect to spend an extra sentence establishing why it fits a situation the course material was not chosen for.
My workplace oddity seems too small for a graduate post.
Small is usually an advantage. A narrow thing you can describe precisely gives a concept something to bite on, while a large one leaves you summarizing. A locked cupboard, a meeting invite that always goes to the same four people, a form nobody can explain the origin of: any of these will carry a post further than a general observation about morale.
How much of the post should be description?
Enough that the concept has something to work on, and no more. In the sample the situation takes the smaller share of the words and the rest is what the concept does with it. Writers who invert that ratio produce a piece of workplace journalism with a reference list, which reads well and marks poorly.
Where can I find a free NR 703 Week 1 sample paper?
The complete post on bedside shift report followed at 19:00 but not 07:00, with replies to Bianca and Theo, is on this page.
Which concept does the NR 703 Week 1 post use?
Schein's levels of culture, separating the policy and sign as artifacts from the espoused value and the unspoken assumption about sleep and leaving on time.