Assignment: Academic Success and Professional Development Plan Part 1: Developing an Academic and Professional Network

When was the last time you read Meditation XVII of John Donne’s Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions?

Unless you are a student of seventeeth-century poetry, you may not be all that familiar with this piece. However, you may be much more familiar with one of its well-known phrases: “No man is an island…”.

As you begin your journey toward achieving your academic and professional goals, you have a great opportunity to network with academics and professionals who can help ensure you do not travel alone. This network can help to clarify your own vision for success and can help guide you now and in the future. To paraphrase Donne, no one is an island.

Begin creating an academic and professional network by identifying which academic and professional connections and resources with which you need to collaborate to succeed in your MSN program and as a practicing nurse.

To Prepare:

• Consider      individuals, departments, teams, and/or resources within Walden University      and within your profession that you believe can support your academic and      professional success.
• Identify      at least two academic and at least two professional individuals,      colleagues, or teams that might help you succeed in your MSN program and      as a practicing nurse.
• Download      the Academic Success and Professional Development Plan Template.

The Assignment:

Academic and Professional Network

Complete Part 1 of your Academic Success and Professional Development Plan Template. Be sure to address the following:

• Identify at      least two academic and at least two professional      individuals or teams to collaborate with to be successful in your MSN      program and as a practicing nurse.
• Explain      why you selected these individuals and/or teams and how they will support      your success in the MSN program and as a practicing nurse.

Nurses often become motivated to change aspects within the larger health care system based on their real-world experience. As such, many nurses take on an advocacy role to influence a change in regulations, policies, and laws that govern the larger health care system.

For this assignment, identify a problem or concern in your state, community, or organization that has the capacity for advocacy through legislation. Research the issue and use the “Advocacy Through Legislation” template to complete this assignment.

You are required to cite to a minimum of three sources to complete this assignment. Sources must be published within the last 5 years and appropriate for the assignment criteria and relevant to nursing practice. 

While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. 

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion. 

1. Describe the chosen Healthy People 2020 topic area and specific health issues.
2. Contrast causes of disparities related to this health issue within populations.
3. Propose a public health communication strategy to reduce disparity and promote health.
4. Outline a plan for the communication.
5. Describe an evaluation plan for the communication.
6. Create targeted communication for each population.
7. Reflect on learning through this project.

Submission Instructions:

• The paper is to be formatted per current APA, be clear and concise and students will lose points for improper grammar, punctuation, and misspelling.
• The paper is to be 7 pages in length, excluding the title, abstract, and references page.
• Incorporate a minimum of 3 current (published within the last five years) scholarly journal articles or primary legal sources (statutes, court opinions) within your work.

Signature Assignment Title: What Makes a Good Leader?

Choose one or more leadership topic(s) from your textbook or from a scholarly source from a previous discussion or assignment from this course and write about its application to nursing practice. Provide definitions, history/background, and major concepts of chosen topic.  Describe the topic’s function in nursing practice by examining at least three different nursing roles (for example, bedside nurse, public health nurse, CNO, unit manager, etc.). Discuss how the leadership topic can be used in your own practice. Discuss your personal growth in regard to your chosen leadership topic. Evaluate personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to your career advancement.

Then, discuss the top three traits you feel makes a good nurse leader. Support your statements with examples from your practice experience and scholarly sources.

Assignment Expectations:

Length: 1750 to 2000 words in length

Structure: Include a title page and reference page in APA format. These do not count towards the minimum word count for this assignment. Your essay must include an introduction and a conclusion.

References: Use appropriate APA style in-text citations and references for all resources utilized to answer the questions. A minimum of three scholarly sources plus the textbook are required.

In the show, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Nurse Ratched was portrayed as a villain. She was a soft-spoken, cruel, cold-hearted, emotionally detached, non-caring head nurse of a psychiatric institution in a pristine white uniform who lacked most, if not all of the five elements of emotional intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills (Chamberlain College of Nursing, 2021). Her leadership style in controlling the ward was dependent on her use of covert manipulation and psychological torture. By her lack of self-awareness and social skills, she sees herself as helping her patients and not the evil her patients perceive her to be.

 In two scenes in the show, Nurse Ratched through her lack of self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and social skills threatened and humiliated a young psychiatric patient Billy, in front of other patients who appeared to have just had a sexual encounter with a female patient that she would report him to his mother. She also displayed these traits when despite Billy begging her not to tell his mother, she calmly and adamantly refused to order Billy to be confined to the psychiatrist’s office immediately instead (Netflix, 2020). Again, all these being displayed in front of all the patients. Through her calmness and soft-spoken voice, she genuinely appeared to be helping Billy meanwhile her attitude displayed her lack of self-awareness, self-regulation, social skills, and empathy instead.

This threat of telling Bill’s mother about his encounter culminated in Billy first having a complete emotional breakdown and ultimately killing himself. This incidentally drove Billy’s friend Murphy into a complete rage.  Nurse Ratched upon finding Billy’s dead body, rather than show some empathy, care, or love instead ordered that the patients return back to their daily routines. Her lack of empathy, self-awareness, self-regulation, and social skills towards Billy’s death drove Billy’s friend Murphy into a complete rage leading to him strangling Nurse Ratched (Mortimer, 2013).

            As a Nurse leader, unlike Nurse Ratched, who threatened to report Billy to his mother for his actions, I’ll lead with emotional intelligence with change agent characteristics. I’ll have good judgment, strong communication skills, respect for Billy and other patients. I will listen to Billy, talk with him respectfully and privately without judgments rather inspiring positive behavior in him. I’ll gain Billy’s trust and the trust of other patients by keeping our conversations confidential without reporting or threatening to report to their parents. Despite Billy being confined to a mental institution, he’s still an adult, a human being with dignity, rights, and deserving of respect.

            Nurse Ratched’s ward is influenced by chaos theory. The ward is disorganized without order, it’s unpredictable and sometimes out of control. There’s no chain of commands with hierarchy, protocols, or policies. Rather it is totally dysfunctional with nurse Ratched possessing all the power and the authority. The complex, unexpected, undesirable, unpredictable, non-linear, and sudden results of a chaos theory (Demir et al., 2019; Öztürk & Kızılkaya, 2017) was in full effect when Murphy out of his rage for Nurse Ratched’s total lack of emotional intelligence after Billy’s suicide almost straggled and killed Nurse Ratched with other patients actively observing.

References

 Chamberlain College of Nursing. (2021). NR-703 Week 2: The Emotionally Intelligent Leader [Online lesson]. Adtalem Global Education

Demir, M. S., Karaman, A., & Oztekin, S. D. (2019). Chaos theory and nursing. International Journal of Caring Sciences, 12(2), 1225-1228.

Mortimer, A. (2013, May 23). One flew over the cuckoo’s nest – Nurse Ratched strangle scene. [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved March 5, 2021, from https://youtu.be/EYDP3nBh_E4

Netflix. (2020, September 19). Who is Nurse Ratched? The story of the ultimate villain. [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved March 5, 2021, from

            https://youtu.be/ElQIQMiYQOA

Öztürk, Z., & Kızılkaya, S. (2017). Chaos-complexity theory at management. International Online Journal of Education and Teaching, 4(3), 259-264. http://iojet.org/index.php/IOJET/article/view/162/168

I NEED A COMMENT FOR THIS DISCUSSION BOARD WITH AT LEAST 2 PARAGRHAPS AND USE 3 SOURCES NO LATER THAN 5 YEARS.