NR 361 Week 5 and Week 6 Discussions

Nurses are increasingly considered knowledge workers. We are valued for what we know and how we think rather than what we do. Select one of the nursing theories from your readings this week (or another nursing theory from your textbook). How can you apply your selected theory of professional nursing to your nursing care? Provide specifics using terminology from the theory you selected to explain your use.The United States Census Bureau (2011) reported that approximately 48.6 million people in the United States lacked health insurance in 2011. In the role of nurse as teacher, how can nurses influence legislators in order to improve the healthcare system and promote access for all Americans?Although every RN in the United States takes the same licensing exam (NCLEX-RN), each state is charged with the licensing of nurses and the creation of law and rules to govern nursing practice in that state. Locate the Nurse Practice Act (or nursing law) for your state, and investigate one of the following issues: delegation by the RN to the unlicensed assistive personnel, use of the term nursing diagnosis, patient abandonment (refusal of an assignment), or requirements for continued licensure (practice, continuing education, or others). Tell us what your states law says on this issue and how this impacts your practice.Codes of ethics and standards for professional nursing practice have been developed by some professional nursing organizations. These codes and standards guide us in our practice and our interactions with consumers, other nurses, and other healthcare professions. Select at least one of the ethical standards or one of the standards of practice and tell us how you implement this in your current practice or how you will implement it in your future practice. Which standard is most challenging to you, and why?

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.