Nursing Situation Assignment

Decisions to achieve specific goals in healthcare are made based on politics (healthcare reform), cost ( insurance…), scope/

standard of nursing practice, hospital/unit or missing policies (where you might identify the need in practice)…. For this

assignment, share a nursing situation in which policies have helped or interfered (if no policy exists, suggest one) in the way you

practice as a compassionate nurse with conscience.
General Instructions
Since this assignment is worth 125 points, be sure to address what is requested.
1. Identified or suggested policy (10) and then explain the active or needed policy (20);
2. The nursing practice situation indicating how policy interferes/supports how you practice [30 points] as a compassionate nurse

with a conscience as understood in the FAU College of Nursing philosophy (20) grammar (10).
3. Provide 2 citations (meaning in text) with references that should match the in-text citations (10 points).
4. Attach it as an APA document with separate title page (10 points) and separate reference page
5. Use yellow highlight for the essential headings eg. Identified policy OR suggested policy… (5 points)
The end product should be 5 pages.

Tips for making high scores on Nursing Situation Papers
APA Notes:
Title page- Running head, not Head and not on subsequent pages. The words following “Running head” on title page should be ALL

CAPITALS and fewer than 50 words. No date class or professor’s name should be on this page according to APA.
Other Notes:
Your Nursing situation needs to be written in the past tense since it is about an experience you had as an RN ( not LPN or student

nurse).
Numbers less than 10 in text should be spelt out-one, two, etc.
For numbers greater than 10 in text, use numeric symbols – 155, 5000 etc.
You will lose points because of the lack of citations and problems with grammar, such as ending a sentence with a preposition –

“where he was at” or “what this was about”, and “what she was referring to” – these are not scholarly writings. Say, “where he was”

or “to what he was referring”…
Not “on the floor” where I work but “on the unit” and “newborns” in the NICU-not “babies”. Say “fetus” (in pregnancy) and say,

“mother, father, elderly patient” instead of moms, and dads, and lovely old lady, and the sweet gentleman – these are not

measureable and quite subjective. Use these words only when you are reporting what someone said in which case such words would be

in quotation.
If you want to write that a situation was quite difficult to refrain from answering, and you chose “biting your tongue”, which is a

great description of how you felt, then put that in quotations; in scholarly writings, everything is taken literally.
The nurse does not know how his/ her patients will respond. Better yet, use plural to minimize confusion: Nurses do not know how

their patients will respond.
Refrain from using colloquialisms and contractions in professional writings. Therefore, no “don’t, I’ve, shouldn’t, couldn’t” ….

Also, no “etc” you must say “and so on.”
You are speaking to me when you say for example, “It was a difficult unit that day, for when you come to work, you expect…” when

who comes to work? me?
The use of the word “now” suggests Thursday at 2:30PM. This is now. So instead of “I was waiting for the physician to return my

call, now he walked in screaming at me….” Say, “I was waiting for the physician to retuned my call but then he walked in …Do you

see the difference?
Another common error is the use of “these patients” – this nursing situation happened days, weeks, or months ago, so it is not

“these patients” but those patients…. They are not present, and I (Cynthia Archibald) don’t know them.
It is acceptable to use “I” and “We” which are 1st person singular/plural; but do not switch to start saying “the nurse” for that

becomes 3rd person. You can decide to use I/We (subjective) or nurse/nurses (objective); APA does not care anymore. I prefer to use

objective form – I am old school.
“In my opinion, I believe that the nurse: patient ratio is too high. You cannot “believe in your opinion…”. Just say, “I believe…”

or “in my opinion…” and not “I believe in my opinion”.
There is no word as “anyways”
Not the “amount of patients” but the number of patients. The amount of garbage to be collected, the amount of sugar in the tea, the

amount of fluid remaining in the IV drip. However, the number of nurses on duty. I think you got it.
Say:
“Call them” instead of saying “you may want to give them a call”
That night at 11 o’clock
That day at 8 AM
There is no such thing as 8 AM in the morning since there is no 8 AM at night. I know people talk that way, but please be

conscious of that language especially in your writings.
Your reference as on the page needs to be cited in the text! You cannot just create a reference page and no one knows where the

sources were used in the text.
I know much of the work you do. I can see a sentence and recognize plagiarism. So make sure you cite and reference. Hope this

helps.
Philosophy
Nursing is a discipline of knowledge and professional practice grounded in caring.
Nursing makes a unique contribution to society by nurturing the wholeness of persons and environment in caring. Caring in nursing

is an intentional mutual human process in which the nurse artistically responds with authentic presence to calls from persons to

enhance well-being. Nursing occurs in nursing situations: co-created lived experiences in which the caring between nurses and

persons enhance well-being. Nursing is both science and art. Nursing science is the evolving body of distinctive nursing

knowledge developed through systematic inquiry and research. The art of nursing is the creative use of nursing knowledge in

practice. Knowledge development and practice in nursing require the complex integration of multiple patterns of knowing. Nurses

collaborate and lead interprofessional research and practice to support the health and well-being of persons inextricably connected

within a diverse global society.
Persons as participant in the co-created nursing situation, refers to individual, families or communities. Person is unique and

irreducible, dynamically interconnected with others and the environment in caring relationships. The nature of being human is to be

caring. Humans choose values that give meaning to living and enhance well-being. Well-being is creating and living the meaning of

life. Persons are nurtured in their wholeness and well-being through caring relationships.
Beliefs about learning and environments that foster learning are grounded in our view of person, the nature of nursing and nursing

knowledge and the mission of the University. Learning involves the lifelong creation of understanding through the integration of

knowledge within a context of value and meaning. A supportive environment for learning is a caring environment. A caring

environment is one in which all aspects of the person are respected, nurtured and celebrated. The learning environment supports

faculty-student relationships that honor and value the contributions of all and the shared learning and growth.
The above fundamental beliefs concerning Nursing, Person and Learning express our values and guide the actions of Faculty as they

pursue the missions of teaching, research/scholarship and service shared by the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and Florida

Atlantic University.