Week 2: Assignment 2.1: Problem and Solution Paragraphs

STEP 1: Choose a topic within your profession. Make sure the topic you choose targets a problem that you know how to solve (e.g., Poor patient care, long shifts, inadequate gear, outdated philosophy, underpaid employees, etc.) 

STEP 2: Divide your topic into 2 categories: problem and solution. 

STEP 3: Create a thesis statement and place it at the top of the essay. 

STEP 4: Write one problem and one solution paragraph beneath the thesis. (You do not need to write an introduction and conclusion for this essay. We are only thinking about the thesis statement and body paragraphs at this time.)

Create 1 page outlines of your response plan for three intervention scenarios.

Nurse leaders need to quickly identify a strategy for evaluating a nursing leadership problem and the dynamics related to the problem, in order to orchestrate intervention efforts and put together a plan of action that leads to stakeholder cooperation.

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

• Competency 1: Integrate key nursing leadership, management, and communication concepts into collaborative practice situations.
  • Explain concepts of change theory and how it can be used as a tool to manage situations.
  • Describe an effective leadership style to address a problem.
• Competency 2: Explain the accountability of the nurse leader for decisions that affect health care delivery and patient outcomes.
  • Describe how outcomes or success of the style selected for each situation could be measured.
• Competency 4: Apply professional standards of moral, ethical, and legal conduct in professional practice.
  • Explain how professional and legal standards guide the effective nurse leader when making decisions.
• Competency 5: Communicate in manner that is consistent with the expectations of a nursing professional.
  • Write content clearly and logically, with correct use of grammar, punctuation, mechanics, and current APA style.

Preparation

Use the Internet to research change theory, leadership, and communication strategies. Use the Suggested Resources to research leadership and communication concepts and change theory.

• The challenge in this assessment is to create a response plan for several intervention scenarios.
  • There are three deliverables required for this assessment.

Rationale for this assessment:

Nurse leaders solve problems or resolve conflict on a daily basis. Understanding how change theory can be applied to a situation and examining various types of interventions in advance can relieve pressure on the nurse leader and improve the workplace environment and outcomes. Rehearsing potential interventions provides a mental toolkit on which to rely during stressful times.

Your management training workshop continues:

The second day of HR’s Nursing Leadership Workshop is designed to help you identify and practice effective responses and interventions to common problems and situations. Participants are presented with three scenarios and must create a response plan for each scenario, in the form of a 1–2 page outline.

Deliverables: Submit three Response Plans to complete this assessment.

• Choose 3 of the 5 Intervention Scenarios linked in the Required Resources for this assessment.
• For each scenario you choose, develop a separate Response Plan in the form of a 1–2 page outline.
  • Label each outline using the example below:
    • Example: Response Plan for School Nurse.

Instructions

Analyze each Intervention Scenario and describe the leadership, communication, and management strategies you believe would be most effective for each situation.

Use the following subheadings to organize your Response Plan outline for each situation.

• Change Theory: Explain concepts of change theory and how it can be used as a tool to manage situations.
  • Identify elements of change theory that fit best with the scenario.
  • How can you use change theory to deal with conflict?
• Strategies and Rationale: Describe an effective leadership style you would employ to address a problem.
  • Explain the rationale for choosing a leadership strategy to solve a problem.
  • Identify interventions to address the problem.
• Expected Outcome: Describe how outcomes or success of the style selected for each situation could be measured.
  • Describe how you could determine improved outcomes or measure success of the leadership style selected for each situation.
    • What might go wrong and how would you deal with that?
• Professional Standards: Explain how professional and legal standards guide the effective nurse leader when making decisions.

Additional Requirements

• Written communication: Written communication should be free of errors that detract from the overall message.
• APA formatting: Resources and in-text citations should be formatted according to current APA style and formatting.
• Length: Each outline should be 1–2 pages double-spaced.
• Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.
• Number of resources: Use a minimum of three peer-reviewed resources.