The assignment title:
Critically discuss the role of the nurse in leading a team, managing change and maintaining quality of care drawing upon your practice experience.
You need to include;
- Critical consideration of professional transition, leadership and change management
- Demonstrate how leadership and team working abilities enhance patient care
- Critically consider issues of quality relevant to nursing care delivery
- Discuss how nursing care delivery is informed by research and evidence
- Reflection upon your own transition to autonomous nursing practice
- What does the question mean?
- Break it down into smaller elements:
What is the role of the nurse in leading a team?
Consider leadership styles, essential skills of a good leader, draw on examples of good leadership/poor leadership you may have experienced in practice.
Consider what effective team work is, what skills are needed, team culture. Draw on any examples of good/poor teamwork or team cultures you may have experienced.
Consider the impact on patient care of leadership and team working.
What is the role of the nurse in managing change?
Consider why the nurse has to manage change, how can change be managed effectively – consider change models, the human impact of, and response to change and how this can be managed. Draw on any experiences of change in your practice experience.
What is the role of the nurse in maintaining quality of care?
Think about the individual nurse and accountability
Consider what quality care is, how do we know it has taken place and how is it measured. What systems, processes govern quality of care – clinical governance, research evidence and dissemination.
You are additionally asked to consider professional role transition and reflect on your own transition to autonomous practice
Explore role transition theories and apply them to your movement from student to staff nurse. How will you use this knowledge to prepare you for being a registered nurse and to manage your transition. How do you think these models could be used by nurse leaders to improve the transition experience?
Critical discussion
With all of these elements you need to take a critical approach. Do not just describe the various theories and models you refer to, be critical about them. Maybe some models aren’t applicable to healthcare for example, or you may find critiques of the models in the literature.
Apply the models and theories to you practice experience. You might consider how they could have been useful in situations you have observed or it may be that you now realise that a particular leadership approach was being used for example. Was this appropriate, inappropriate?
Remember, when you consider opposing views, draw some conclusion from them.
Also, be critical about the literature you use
General academic writing:
You assignment should start with an introductory paragraph which sets out the aims of the essay. What is this assignment going to discuss, what is its purpose?
Structure your work in paragraphs which have a clear focus. The first sentence of a paragraph should be a statement of a key point which is then discussed and evidenced during the paragraph. Then move on to the next key point in a new paragraph.
Ensure there is a logical flow in the order of your key points so it leads the reader through the discussion towards some conclusions.
Complete your essay with a concluding paragraph which shows what you have demonstrated in your essay. Do not just list your key points. Summarise and draw some conclusions from your discussion.
Here is a quick example;
The following essay will explore the life of tadpoles in a glass container. It will consider the water quality, the options of flora and the impact of children watching it on the growth of the tadpoles…
The paragraphs will be – what the normal life of a tadpole is, what options of flora there are and the advantages and disadvantages of them, what impact the children watching has….
It has been demonstrated in the above discussion that the life of tadpoles is complex, dominated by a persistent transition process. While many different flowers are suitable to keep alongside the developing tadpole, none are preferable and personal choice should be applied. Although research demonstrates that watching tadpoles is therapeutic for children, there is insufficient evidence to suggest that being watched has any impact on the growth rate of tadpoles.
Academic style:
This is an academic essay so should be written in the third person, however, you are being asked to relate the discussion to practice and to reflect on your transition. Therefore if you defer to the first person in these areas, you would not be penalised. Some ways of expressing your experience without using ‘I’ are:
It has been observed in clinical practice that…
A situation experienced in clinical practice was..
In the authour’s experience…
Duscher’s transition theory is already relatable to the authour’s experiences as a third year student nurse…
Do not waste all your time and energy presenting your work in this manner and become overwhelmed. Demonstrating you have addressed the assignment question and met the learning outcomes is of primary importance.
Academic Supervision:
Academic supervisors will provide group supervision. Individual supervision will be provided in accordance with individual student Learning Support Plans. It is your responsibility to request and access this if you have an identified plan.
Supervisors will additionally provide brief written feedback on an essay plan and/or a contextualised 600 word draft extract.
In the unlikely event that you experience difficulty in receiving feedback from your allocated supervisor, please make the module leaders aware. It is your responsibility to escalate this.
Academic supervision will not be provided in the week prior to assignment submission date in accordance with University guidance.
Extensions:
If you require an extension for your assignment please follow guidance in the module handbook.
