| Course | NURS 3025 Health Assessment |
|---|---|
| Week | Week 11 |
| Paper type | Reflection discussion post |
| Length | About 510 words, 3 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 3025 Week 11
Week 11 Discussion: Initial Post
Two Habits That Changed in My Charting This Quarter, and One Shorthand That Has Not Gone
The best evidence of what changed in my documentation this quarter is my own documentation, so I compared the health history I wrote in week 2 with the cardiopulmonary record I wrote in week 5. Reading them side by side was more useful than any rubric comment, because the differences were in my own sentences.
The first habit that changed is attribution. In my week 2 draft, I wrote: "Headaches caused by stress at new job, 4 to 5 per week." That sentence mixes what the patient reported with my conclusion about the cause, and a reader cannot tell which part came from him. By week 5, I wrote: "States he now has to rest halfway up his stairs; says, 'I never used to stop.'" Every subjective item now begins with reports or states, and the patient's own words are quoted where they matter. A review of nursing documentation describes accuracy and clarity about the source of information as part of what makes records reliable for the next reader (Blair & Smith, 2012).
The second habit is naming what I did not do. In week 2, if I did not ask about something, it simply was not in the note. In week 5 and later, I began stating what was not examined and why, such as "posterior chest not auscultated; patient unable to sit forward." I learned that an empty space in a record is read as normal, so absence has to be written down to be understood (Bickley et al., 2021).
The shorthand that has not fully gone is "WNL," within normal limits. I no longer write it in graded work, but I caught myself using it twice in my clinical notes this month, once for a neurological check and once for skin. It is not on the official list of abbreviations to avoid (The Joint Commission, n.d.), which is probably why it survives, but it has the same problem as "tolerated well": it tells the next nurse my conclusion without the findings behind it. My plan for next quarter is concrete. For every system I would have called "WNL," I will write at least two findings, such as "skin warm, dry, intact over sacrum and heels," and I will ask a colleague to flag any "WNL" she sees in my notes for one month.
Reply to Tasha
Tasha, your example of rewriting "pain controlled" as a score before and after medication, with the time of each, is exactly the kind of change I saw in my own notes. One question: in your week 8 note you still wrote "patient comfortable" at the end. Would you apply the same rewrite there, and what would you record in its place, a pain score, a description of how she was lying, or her own words? I found that the phrases I use to close a note are the last ones to change, because they feel like a summary rather than a finding.
References
Bickley, L. S., Szilagyi, P. G., Hoffman, R. M., & Soriano, R. P. (2021). Bates' guide to physical examination and history taking (13th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
Blair, W., & Smith, B. (2012). Nursing documentation: Frameworks and barriers. Contemporary Nurse, 41(2), 160-168. https://doi.org/10.5172/conu.2012.41.2.160
The Joint Commission. (n.d.). Official "Do Not Use" list. https://www.jointcommission.org/
What the NURS 3025 Week 11 instructions ask for
The final NURS 3025 week commonly asks for a reflection on how your assessment or documentation practice changed. You compare your own earlier and later work, name specific changes, admit what has not changed and connect it to course content. Faculty reward specificity, honesty and links to readings. Even this reflective NURS 3025 post needs one APA 7 source. Quoting your own documents is the clearest evidence. Including a weakness is expected. Replies should add a strategy or a source. NURS 3025 faculty want two specific changes and one remaining habit, each shown with a quoted line from your own work. Link each change to a reading. Quote both documents accurately.
Inside the NURS 3025 Week 11 example
About six hundred words in a single post, with one reply beneath it. The opening paragraph states the claim plainly: the author's documentation moved from summarizing to describing over the quarter. Two short quotations follow, set apart from the prose, one an early draft line reading 'skin intact, looks okay' and one from the week 10 record describing a finding by location, feature and measurement. The body names two habits that changed, attributing reported data and writing negatives as statements, and one that persists, a pull toward unit abbreviations under time pressure. Gibbs' reflective cycle, a well-known model moving from description through analysis to an action plan, frames the discussion in a single sentence rather than dictating the post's headings. The reply engages a classmate's reflection on scale consistency and asks about one specific example.
Reading the NURS 3025 Week 11 rubric
Reflection rubrics in the final week usually reward specificity, honesty and connection to course content, and they are lenient on none of the three. Specificity is where the quotations earn their place; a post saying documentation 'improved a lot' without an example scores near the floor on that line. Honesty is judged largely by whether a limitation appears, and posts listing only growth tend to lose points for depth. Connection to the course means named concepts, such as pertinent negatives or attributed subjective data, rather than general gratitude for the quarter. Sources are frequently required even here, and a reflective model cited in passing satisfies that line better than a textbook quoted at length. Replies are scored as in earlier weeks, with approval alone earning the least.
Common NURS 3025 Week 11 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Reflections lose credit when they say charting improved without showing it. Quote a line from before and after. Another common gap is skipping the habit that has not changed. Name it honestly. Writers also forget a citation in a reflection post. Add one. Avoid listing every topic covered in the course. Pick two changes and one stubborn habit. Explain why the change matters for the next nurse. In the reply, suggest a way to drop a shorthand. Close with one goal for your next shift. Writers also forget to explain why the change matters to patient safety. Give one example. Pick quoted pairs where the change is plain to see. Keep the post within the word limit.
Get a NURS 3025 Week 11 example written to your instructions
Send the Week 11 reflection prompt and rubric, plus a line or two about which documentation habits changed for you this quarter if you want the sample shaped around them. The post returns argued rather than narrated, with bracketed spots where your own early and late lines belong, one reply included. First sample free, delivered in 24-48 hours.
More NURS 3025 papers and BSN samples
- NURS 3025 Week 1: Documentation Exercise
- NURS 3025 Week 2: Health History
- NURS 3025 Week 3: Findings Language Post
- NURS 3025 Week 4: Integumentary Write-Up
- NURS 3025 Week 5: Cardiopulmonary Documentation
- NURS 3025 Week 6: Abnormal Findings Post
- NURS 3025 Week 7: Abdominal and MSK Write-Up
- NURS 3025 Week 8: Neurological Assessment Note
- NURS 3025 Week 9: Pediatric Focused Note
- NURS 3025 Week 10: Head-to-Toe Write-Up
- NURS 3030 Week 11: Advocacy Reflection Post
- NURS 3021 Week 11: Final Proposal and Reflection
- NURS 3111 Week 11: Informatics Growth Reflection
- NURS 4300 Week 11: Outcomes Reflection
NURS 3025 Week 11 questions, answered
Can a reflection post really need a citation?
Many sections require one, and the example includes a single citation to a reflective model because that satisfies the requirement without making the post read like a literature review. The model frames the analysis in a sentence and then steps aside. Where your prompt sets no source minimum, a citation still tends to help, since connection to course concepts is often scored on its own line.
Why include a weakness in a closing reflection?
Because a reflection that reports only improvement sounds like a list of achievements, and depth points usually go with it. The example names one habit, reaching for abbreviations under time pressure, that the quarter reduced but did not remove. That admission makes the rest of the post credible, since the claimed improvements now sit beside an honest limit.
Whose documents does the example quote?
Only composite material. The quoted lines are illustrative entries written for this sample, not lines taken from anyone's coursework or chart. A real reflection quotes your own submitted work, which is yours alone to draw on, and a custom sample marks where those lines would sit rather than inventing a history of your quarter for you.
Where can I find a free NURS 3025 Week 11 sample paper?
The two-habits reflection is shown here with quoted lines from Week 2 and Week 5, the shorthand that remains and the reply to Tasha.
Which shorthand remains in NURS 3025 Week 11?
Writing no acute distress without describing what was seen, which the reflection admits openly.