| Course | NURS 3021 Professional Nurses as Change Agents |
|---|---|
| Week | Week 1 |
| Paper type | Discussion post with peer reply |
| Length | About 560 words, 4 pages |
| Format | Discussion post, APA 7 citations |
| School | Walden University |
| Program | Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NURS 3021 Week 1
Week 1 Discussion: Initial Post
The Nurse Who Sees the Gap First Should Carry the Proposal
I have worked nights on a 30-bed medical-surgical unit for 9 years, most recently as relief charge nurse. I enrolled in the RN-to-BSN program because I kept noticing problems on my unit that I could describe in detail but had never written down in a form anyone could act on.
One routine I have watched fail for years is supply restocking. Our supply room is restocked by materials management each morning at 10:00, a time set when the schedule matched day staffing. By 2:00 a.m., we are often out of IV start kits, foam dressings, and specimen cups, and a night nurse leaves her patients to borrow from the unit next door. On a busy night that happens three or four times, and each trip takes 10 minutes or more. Everyone on nights knows this. Nobody on days sees it, because by the time they arrive the room has been refilled. Time spent away from patients on work like this matters: when medical-surgical nurses in 36 hospitals were tracked minute by minute, only a small share of their shifts went to direct patient care and assessment, and identified work processes and unit organization as targets for recovering nursing time (Hendrich et al., 2008).
My stance is this: the nurse who sees the gap first has both the standing and the obligation to carry a written proposal to the charge nurse or manager, not a complaint to the break room. Standing comes from being the person with the evidence. Obligation comes from our code of ethics, which holds that nurses have authority, accountability, and responsibility for nursing practice, including the conditions that affect the quality of care (American Nurses Association [ANA], 2015). A night nurse who knows that patients wait while we hunt for supplies is accountable for saying so in a way that can change it. Research on speaking up in health care describes how staff weigh whether raising a concern will be heard, and how a clear, specific message makes it more likely to be acted on (Morrow et al., 2016).
For the supply room, a written proposal might ask for a second, smaller restock at 20:00 limited to the six items nights run out of most, with a two-week tally of trips to other units as the evidence. That is not a big change, but it is one I can describe precisely, and precision is what turns a complaint into a proposal.
Reply to Michelle
Michelle, your post about call lights on your rehab unit going unanswered during meal breaks is a strong example of a gap only the people on shift can see. I would extend your idea of a written proposal with one thing you left open: who would count? If the proposal is a break schedule that staggers lunches, the evidence that it helped would be call light response times before and after. Does your unit's call light system record response times, or would someone need to keep a paper tally for two weeks? Knowing that now would let you promise your manager a specific measure, which makes a yes much easier to give. It would also let you show, at the end of the trial, that the change was worth the trouble, which is what keeps a small change from quietly fading.
References
American Nurses Association. (2015). Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements.
Hendrich, A., Chow, M. P., Skierczynski, B. A., & Lu, Z. (2008). A 36-hospital time and motion study: How do medical-surgical nurses spend their time? The Permanente Journal, 12(3), 25-34. https://doi.org/10.7812/TPP/08-021
Morrow, K. J., Gustavson, A. M., & Jones, J. (2016). Speaking up behaviours (safety voices) of healthcare workers: A metasynthesis of qualitative research studies. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 64, 42-51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2016.09.014
What the NURS 3021 Week 1 instructions ask for
The first NURS 3021 thread usually asks you to introduce yourself and take a position on nurses as change agents. Faculty price the biography lightly and the argued stance heavily, so a warm introduction with no claim leaves most points behind. Keep the introduction brief and use it to set up a position you can support. One peer-reviewed source in APA 7 is the usual minimum for NURS 3021, the post stays near 300 to 400 words, and one or two classmate replies follow. Tie the stance to something you saw on a shift and it becomes easy to defend. NURS 3021 faculty want the stance stated early, ideally in the second or third sentence, with the work example that led to it.
Inside the NURS 3021 Week 1 example
Roughly four hundred words for the post and half that for the reply. The introduction takes one paragraph: years in practice, the unit, the shift, and one sentence on why the author enrolled in the program. The second paragraph names a routine the author has watched fail, here a supply restock timed to day staffing that leaves nights searching other units for basic kits. The stance arrives next in a single declarative line: the nurse who sees the gap first should carry a written proposal to the charge nurse, not a complaint to the break room. The ANA Code of Ethics appears once, for its point that nurses are accountable for the quality of their own practice. The reply extends a colleague's post rather than praising it, adding one question the colleague left open.
Reading the NURS 3021 Week 1 rubric
Opening weeks look forgiving, and that is where points slip. Most sections price the introduction lightly and the argued stance heavily, so a warm biography with no claim earns the easy portion and forfeits the rest. Graders read for a position a colleague could disagree with; a stance such as nurses should care about quality has no opponent and therefore no argument. Citation is usually expected even here, and the check is whether the source changes what the reader believes, not whether an entry appears in a list. The reply often carries separate credit, judged on whether it adds a condition, a source or a question. APA formatting of both the in-text citation and its matching reference is priced in most sections from the first week onward, so informal style costs points early.
NURS 3021 Week 1 help from the desk
Week 1 posts lose points when they are all biography and no argument. Make one claim about change and support it. Another common gap is a claim so broad, such as nurses are important, that no one could disagree. Choose a stance a classmate might question. Writers also skip the source, thinking an introduction does not need one. Add one. Avoid long lists of past jobs. Use one problem from your unit as the example. In the reply, add a source or a counterpoint rather than a welcome. Close with what you hope to change by the end of the program. Name the scale of change you mean too, a unit habit rather than a hospital policy.
Get a NURS 3021 Week 1 example written to your instructions
Send the Week 1 discussion prompt and rubric, plus the word limit your section sets, and the desk returns a professional stance post for NURS 3021 with the introduction, the stance and one peer reply in place. The first one free, in 24 to 48 hours. Your own career details stay out; the sample runs on a composite night-shift nurse.
More NURS 3021 papers and BSN samples
- NURS 3021 Week 2: Change Agency Post
- NURS 3021 Week 3: Change Agent Goal Statement
- NURS 3021 Week 4: Change Theory Discussion
- NURS 3021 Week 5: Practice Problem Analysis
- NURS 3021 Week 6: Unit Change Proposal
- NURS 3021 Week 7: Stakeholder Buy-In Analysis
- NURS 3021 Week 8: Barrier Rebuttal Thread
- NURS 3021 Week 9: Sustaining Change Reflection
- NURS 3021 Week 10: Integrated Change Synthesis
- NURS 3021 Week 11: Final Proposal and Reflection
- NURS 3025 Week 1: Documentation Exercise
- NURS 4300 Week 1: Capstone Problem Pitch
- NURS 3030 Week 1: Equity Vocabulary Post
- NURS 4212 Week 1: Population Thinking Post
NURS 3021 Week 1 questions, answered
Does an introduction post in Week 1 really need an argument?
In most sections, yes, because the prompt pairs the introduction with a question about professional practice and the rubric rows follow the question. The example spends one paragraph on background and the rest on a stance with support. Posts that answer only the introduction half tend to collect participation credit while leaving the analysis portion unclaimed, which is a large share of the week.
What kind of stance works for a first-week post?
One that a reasonable colleague could push back on. The example argues that the nurse who notices a failing routine should bring a written proposal forward, which invites the objection that staffing and scheduling belong to managers. That objection is what gives the post something to answer. A stance nobody would contest, such as valuing teamwork, leaves the analysis with nothing to defend.
How long is the peer reply in the example?
Sections set their own minimums, often around half the length of an initial post, and the example reply lands near two hundred words. Length matters less than contribution. The reply takes one sentence from the colleague's post, adds the condition under which it would hold on a short-staffed night, and ends with a question the colleague can actually answer in the thread.
Where can I find a free NURS 3021 Week 1 sample paper?
The professional stance post is shown here with the brief introduction, the argued claim, its sources and the reply to Michelle.
What stance does the NURS 3021 Week 1 post take?
That the nurse who sees a gap first should carry the proposal for fixing it, supported with Kotter's sense of urgency.