| Course | NR 720 Topics in Healthcare Systems Leadership I |
|---|---|
| Week | 1 |
| Paper type | Discussion post with two replies |
| Length | About 530 words |
| Format | Discussion post with APA 7 citations |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | MSN, Nurse Executive |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NR 720 Week 1
Week 1 Discussion: Initial Post
Two Hours and Twenty-Three Minutes From a New Central Line to Its First Use, and Two Departments That Each Did Their Part on Time
Initial Post
One occurrence. On a Tuesday in March, in the medical intensive care unit where I work, 20 beds, a patient in septic shock was receiving norepinephrine through a peripheral intravenous line. An internal jugular central line was placed at 13:42 so the infusion could be moved. The confirmation chest X-ray was ordered at 13:44, taken at 14:06 and read by a radiologist at 15:21. The placing clinician documented the line as cleared for use at 15:52, and the bedside nurse moved the norepinephrine to it at 16:05: two hours and twenty-three minutes after the line went in, with a vasopressor running through a forearm vein the whole time.
What each department's record shows. Radiology's record shows a routine-priority inpatient film taken 22 minutes after the order and read 75 minutes after it was taken, inside the department's two-hour target for routine inpatient studies. The intensive care record shows a line placed promptly and a clearance note written within 31 minutes of the read appearing. Both are correct. Neither department missed its own standard.
Where the Time Went
The time sat in two places. The order set defaults line films to routine priority, so the film joined a queue behind emergency and urgent studies; nobody chose routine, it simply was not changed. And once the read was posted, no one was assigned to tell the nurse. The clinician expected the nurse to see the result; the nurse was waiting to be told. The verb with no owner is clearing: declaring the line ready and saying so to the person who will use it. Work system models of patient safety describe this pattern, in which a task falls between the people, tools and organizational rules around it rather than inside any one of them (Carayon et al., 2006).
Where My Evidence Stops
This is one occurrence, and I do not yet know whether it is typical. I have the timestamps for this patient only. Before arguing anything, I want three months of placements from our records, and I want to watch a few placements myself, because the record shows when a result was posted, not when anyone looked at it.
So, a question back to everyone: in your own setting, which step between two departments is on nobody's worklist? I would like to see one occurrence, with times, rather than a general complaint.
Reply to Lucia
Lucia, you wrote that discharges are delayed because transport is short-staffed. Can you pick one discharge, last week, and give the time the order was written, the time transport was requested and the time the patient left? Transport's log may show a request that arrived late, not a crew that was slow.
Reply to Owen
Owen, your post blames the laboratory for late potassium results. What does the laboratory's record show for the same sample? If it shows the specimen arrived an hour after it was drawn, the delay may be in the tube system or in who sends it, not in the analyzer.
References
Carayon, P., Schoofs Hundt, A., Karsh, B. T., Gurses, A. P., Alvarado, C. J., Smith, M., & Flatley Brennan, P. (2006). Work system design for patient safety: The SEIPS model. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 15(Suppl. 1), i50-i58. https://doi.org/10.1136/qshc.2005.015842
What the NR 720 Week 1 assignment asks for
Open on a single occurrence rather than a category: one patient, one request, one interval in which work existed but sat on nobody's list, with times if you have them. Then state what each department's record showed at that moment, and notice whether both are reading their own record correctly. Name the verb that had no owner, the act that fell between departments, rather than naming a department as the problem. Keep to one transfer of one item instead of everything wrong with a process. Avoid describing feelings such as frustration or poor teamwork, which are reports about the occurrence, not the occurrence itself. Say where your evidence stops. Close with a question that asks classmates for an occurrence of their own. In replies, relocate a classmate's complaint from a department to the crossing between two.
How this NR 720 Week 1 example is built
The sample's first paragraph gives seven times for one line: placed at 13:42, film ordered at 13:44, taken at 14:06, read at 15:21, cleared at 15:52 and used at 16:05. The next paragraph shows radiology's record inside its two-hour routine target and the unit's record showing prompt placement and a clearance note within 31 minutes of the read. A section locates the time in a routine priority that nobody chose and a notification nobody owned, cites a work system model and names clearing as the verb with no owner. The writer says the evidence covers one patient and plans three months of records and some observation. Replies ask for one timed discharge and for the laboratory's own record of a late potassium.
NR 720 Week 1 rubric: what full points look like
The most expensive post names a feeling: frustration, poor teamwork and low morale describe how people experience a bad handoff, not what happened during one. Nearly as costly is a post that casts a department as the villain, since an account that assigns fault stops looking for the mechanism. Marks are also lost when the scope covers everything wrong with a process instead of one transfer of one item, and when evidence from a single case is presented as a pattern. Graders reward posts that set each department's record side by side, name the verb with no owner and say where the evidence stops. Replies earn their share by moving a classmate's complaint to the crossing between two departments.
Common NR 720 Week 1 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Writing about a delay between departments without blaming one of them takes practice, because most of us experience these delays as someone else being slow. Tell us one occurrence from your setting, with whatever times you can find, and what each department involved would say happened. From that, the post can set the two records side by side, name the act that belonged to nobody and mark honestly where your evidence ends. Drafting replies that relocate a classmate's complaint to a crossing is part of the same skill. The occurrence and its details stay your own.
Get a NR 720 Week 1 example written to your instructions
Send the discussion prompt from your classroom along with any word count and reply requirement it sets, and a custom NR 720 Week 1 post written to it comes back inside 24-48h, first one free. If your occurrence involves your employer's own operational reports, those stay with you; describe the pattern instead.
More NR 720 papers and MSN samples
- NR 720 Week 2: Process Map Write-up
- NR 720 Week 3: Pathway Observation Summary
- NR 720 Week 4: Bottleneck Analysis
- NR 720 Week 5: Cross-department Comparison
- NR 720 Week 6: Measurement Plan
- NR 720 Week 7: Systems Diagnosis Paper
- NR 720 Week 8: Leadership Briefing
- NR 711 Week 1: Competing Requests Post
- NR 529 Week 1: Discussion on Refusing a Request
- NR 703 Week 1: Organizational Oddity Post
- NR 531 Week 1: Discussion on Who Approves a Change
NR 720 Week 1 questions, answered
Can I write about a failure at a workplace I have left?
Yes, and it is often easier, since distance makes the split between two departments visible in a way it is not while you are standing inside one of them. Keep the organization unnamed, describe it by size and type, and be plain that your version of the other department's record is secondhand. A post that says which half of the story it witnessed reads stronger than one that quietly supplies the rest.
How specific can I be about a real patient?
Not very, and the post is better for it. This week needs the shape of the event, not the person: a transfer between two departments, an approximate interval, a request that existed in one place and not the other. No age, no condition, no date closer than a month, no unit small enough that one person becomes obvious. Everything the argument actually needs survives all of that.
Does the post need a source?
Most classrooms expect one reference and the choice matters more than the number. Something on transfers between departments or on operational flow supports the framing, while a general leadership article supports nothing and reads as filler. Bring the source in after the occurrence rather than before it, so the reading explains what you saw instead of deciding in advance what you were going to see.
Where can I find a free NR 720 Week 1 sample paper?
This page holds a complete Week 1 post tracing one central line from placement to first use across two departments, with two replies.
Which verb has no owner in the NR 720 Week 1 sample?
Clearing: declaring the new line ready and telling the bedside nurse, which no procedure assigned to anyone.