| Course | NR 723 Role of the Educational Leader Across Settings |
|---|---|
| Week | 1 |
| Paper type | Discussion post with two replies |
| Length | About 520 words |
| Format | Discussion post with APA 7 citations |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | MSN, Nurse Educator |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NR 723 Week 1
Week 1 Discussion: Initial Post
My Seat, My Fund and the Gap Between Them: A Course Coordinator With Nine Clinical Sections and No Budget Line
Initial Post
The seat. I coordinate the junior-year adult health clinical course at a private nonprofit school of nursing with about 640 baccalaureate students. The course runs nine clinical sections of eight students each, taught by two full-time faculty, of whom I am one, and seven adjunct clinical instructors. My annual evaluation is signed by the department chair.
The fund. A day of teaching time, whether an adjunct's extra hour or a release from one of my own sections, is paid from the school's adjunct and overload line, which is held by the associate dean for academic affairs, not by my chair. So the person who judges my work and the person who pays for the time my work needs are different people, and they meet monthly.
What the seat can do alone. I can write assignment instructions within the course's approved outcomes, set the post-conference schedule and choose readings. I can ask adjuncts to attend a meeting. I cannot require them to, and I cannot pay them for it.
What it can only recommend. Any change to course outcomes goes to the curriculum committee. Any payment for adjunct time goes to the associate dean. Any change to when sections use the simulation center goes to its director, whose calendar is set a term ahead.
One Decision in Three Lines
This term I want to replace the weekly nursing care plan with a clinical judgment reflection graded on one rubric across all nine sections. Writing the new assignment is mine to do. Getting seven adjuncts to grade it the same way needs calibration time that I cannot pay for. The national competency framework for baccalaureate programs expects clinical judgment to be taught and assessed explicitly (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2021), so the direction is supported; the money is not.
Where the Seat and the Fund Disagree
My chair supports the change and will credit it in my evaluation. The associate dean has not been asked and controls the one thing the change needs most: paid hours for adjuncts. Organizational theorists would call this a structural problem before it is a political one: responsibility sits in one place and resources in another (Bolman & Deal, 2017).
Here is what I would like to know: where you work, who would pay for the hour a change requires of someone you do not supervise? I am curious whether anyone's answer is the same person who evaluates them.
Reply to Patrice
Patrice, you describe yourself as leading the hospital's preceptor program, but your post does not say whether you can approve a preceptor's paid hours. If the unit managers hold those hours, your seat may be advisory, and that changes what you can promise preceptors.
Reply to Kenji
Kenji, you cite the strategic plan's commitment to faculty development. Is there a line in the budget that matches it, and who holds it? A commitment without a fund is a sentence, not a resource.
References
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2021). The essentials: Core competencies for professional nursing education. https://www.aacnnursing.org/essentials
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership (6th ed.). Jossey-Bass.
What the NR 723 Week 1 assignment asks for
Open with your seat, not a philosophy: say who signs your annual evaluation. Then say which cost center pays for a day of teaching time in your area, and notice whether the same person holds both. State what your seat can approve without asking, which is usually small, and what it can only recommend upward, which is usually everything that matters. Describe one decision you face in three short lines: what is yours to do, what needs someone else's money or approval and what supports it. Put sources beside the claims they support, especially organizational claims, which read as opinion without them. Avoid describing your leadership in adjectives. Close with a question that invites classmates with different funding arrangements to answer. In replies, ask classmates to separate their seat from the fund behind it.
Inside the NR 723 Week 1 example
The sample's first paragraph places the coordinator in a 640-student school, with nine sections of eight students and seven adjunct instructors, and names the chair as evaluator. The fund paragraph names the associate dean's adjunct and overload line. Two short paragraphs list what the coordinator can do alone, such as assignment wording and post-conference schedules, and what needs the curriculum committee, the associate dean or the simulation director. A three-line decision follows: writing a clinical judgment reflection is the coordinator's, paid calibration is not and the competency framework supports the direction. A section on where seat and fund disagree cites organizational framing. Replies ask whether a classmate can approve preceptor hours and whether a strategic plan's commitment has a budget line.
NR 723 Week 1 rubric: what full points look like
The entry written in adjectives loses most of the available points: a leader described as visionary and collaborative, with no reporting line, no fund and no named approver, cannot be told apart from twenty others. Second most expensive is the unsourced organizational claim, which reads as opinion at this level however sound it is. Marks are also lost for seat inflation, where the writer claims authority the role does not carry. Graders reward posts that state the seat and the fund first, show where they disagree, frame one real decision and place sources beside claims. Replies earn credit when they test a classmate's authority against the money that would be needed to use it.
Common NR 723 Week 1 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Most leaders describe what they do more easily than what they are allowed to do, and this week turns on the second. Tell us your role, who evaluates you, who pays for the time your work needs and one decision in front of you, and the post can lead with the seat and the fund, list what you approve and what you only recommend and frame the decision in three lines with sources. Asking classmates about money in their own settings tends to produce the most useful replies. The role and the facts about your organization are yours.
Get a NR 723 Week 1 example written to your instructions
Send the week's prompt, the rubric and any section rules on post length, and a custom NR 723 example is written to those instructions and returned inside 24 to 48 hours. The first one is free. If your own setting is unusual, say so in the request, because the reporting line changes what the post can honestly claim.
More NR 723 papers and MSN samples
- NR 723 Week 2: Setting Analysis
- NR 723 Week 3: Governance and Stakeholder Map
- NR 723 Week 4: Change Leadership Case
- NR 723 Week 5: Faculty Development Plan
- NR 723 Week 6: Budget Justification Brief
- NR 723 Week 7: Program Evaluation Plan
- NR 723 Week 8: Strategic Proposal
- NR 524 Week 1: Discussion Post on a Program Promise
- NR 722 Week 1: Teaching Claim Post
- NR 535 Week 1: Discussion on a Teacher's Decisions
- NR 622 Week 1: Delivery Change Post
NR 723 Week 1 questions, answered
Does the post have to be about my own workplace?
In most sections it does not have to be, but the entry is stronger when it is, because a real reporting line produces limits an invented one never does. Where a writer's setting is confidential or unusual, the example uses a category and an enrollment band in place of the institution's name, and the argument survives that substitution without losing anything.
How many sources does a doctoral discussion post need?
Fewer than most writers assume, and chosen more carefully. Two well placed references usually outperform six, provided each one supports a claim about how educational work is organized or paid for. Sources that argue education matters add nothing, since no one on the board disputes it. Currency counts as well, because accreditation expectations and funding structures shift faster than the general literature does.
What separates this from an executive leadership post?
An executive holds the budget and the roster, so the interesting question there is what to do with them. Here the writer holds neither, and the interesting question is what can be accomplished through a curriculum committee, a clinical partner and a department chair who report to nobody in common. Posts that borrow executive framing tend to overstate the authority the seat actually carries.
Where can I find a free NR 723 Week 1 sample paper?
This page carries a complete Week 1 post on a course coordinator's seat, fund and authority, with two replies.
Who holds the money in the NR 723 Week 1 sample?
The associate dean for academic affairs controls the adjunct and overload line, while the department chair signs the coordinator's evaluation.