Assignment 1: Positive Social Change
In this Assignment you will discuss how furthering your nursing education, with a focus on social change, will enhance your current practice and supports your future
Nursing, at its very core, is a profession rooted in social change and growth. As a nurse returning to school to further your education, you can learn to enhance your practice to become a “Walden Scholar of Change.” The nursing professional holds a responsibility to serve the interests of people and society. As part of this responsibility, nurses are bound by Nursing’s Social Policy Statement. Consider how your own professional practice can expand in shaping the future of nursing, improving the profession, and enhancing the quality of the health care that nursing delivers.
To prepare
- Review the Week 6 Required Reading and Media Resources.
- Read the Week 6 Assignment Rubric, provided in the Course Information area.
- Go to the Writing Resources tab to download the SON Writing Template to format your paper. There you will also find APA-related resources.
- Find at least one current Walden Library article to support your scholarly opinions in the paper.
Assignment: 2-to-3-page Paper
- In this Assignment you will discuss how furthering your nursing education, with a focus on social change, will enhance your current practice and supports your future career planning. Nursing’s Social Contract entails expectations between the nursing profession and society to elevate the health of society.
- Choose 2 of Nursing’s Social Contract elements and discuss how they are foundational to your nursing practice. Elements include caring service; privacy of the patient; knowledge, skill, and competence; hazardous service; responsibility and accountability; progress and development; ethical practice; collaboration; promotion of the health of the public; etcetera.
- Address your future career planning. How do you intend to make a difference by confronting a current challenge in health care where you live, in your profession, or on a global scale?
- Support your responses with at least two scholarly sources from the Learning Resources and/or outside sources. Reference in proper APA format.
Before you submit your final paper for grading, submit it to the Safe Assign Draft area of the course. Use the information provided in the Originality Report (Walden University, n.d.) to revise your paper. Paraphrasing and citing your sources in-text will decrease the similarity score. Go to Academic Integrity to learn how to interpret your originality score. Revise your paper before submitting it to Week 6 Assignment within the course.
By Day 7
Submit your paper.
Submission and Grading Information
To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:
- Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “WK6Assgn1+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name.
- Click the Week 6 Assignment 1 Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
- Click the Week 6 Assignment 1 link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
- Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “WK6Assgn1+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open.
- If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
Expert Answer and Explanation
Positive Social Change
There is a relationship between nursing and the society considering that the former exists to serve the needs within the society. The nursing-society relationship constitutes the social contract, and based on this contract, nurses and the society have reciprocal expectations. Based on this arrangement, nursing practitioners are responsible of meeting the health needs of individuals and the society. The nurse’s ability to meet these needs depends on various factors including their nursing knowledge and skills. This underscores the need for nurses to further their education (Mathole et al., 2018). It is important to examine the impact of furthering of education on nursing practice and career planning, and determine how the selected social elements are core to my practice as a nurse.
Impact of Furthering Nursing Education on Practice and Career Planning
As a nurse, engaging in academic programs focused on advancing my education in social change will help shape my practice, and support my career planning. Furthering my education in this context will help me develop skills in decision-making, communication, negotiation, and leadership. By acquiring these skills, I will be able to make critical decisions on issues concerning the social health needs of patients. I will also use these skills to call for and support social change so that patients will be treated fairly. Learning these skills will help me identify my priorities in terms of career goals, and help me plan for my career (Karami, Farokhzadian, & Foroughameri, 2017). What I manages to learn in the event of furthering my education in social change will help define the path I would take as a nurse.
How the Nursing Social Contract Elements are Foundational to my Nursing Practice
Collaboration and ethical practice are the social elements to which my nursing practice hinges. Collaboration is core to the nursing practice, and as a nurse, I experience clinical situations in which I have to seek different perspectives to address patients’ clinical issues. I also work with colleagues and other groups to advocate for patients. For this reason, I see collaboration as a fundamental element of my practice. Ethical practice is also core to my nursing practice and to me as an agent of social change. For nurses to practice effectively, and influence change, they need to hold and demonstrate high moral standards such as respecting the patients’ autonomy and privacy. As a nurse therefore, I see ethics as being crucial to my practice (Collier & Molina, 2019).
Future Career Planning and how I intend to make a Difference
My career goal is to further my education, acquire knowledge, and be more competent so that I can be able to provide competent care to patients. Poor care is one of the factors which contribute to the inequality in access to the case because it results to re-hospitalization, and can cause patients to exhaust financial resources. Thus, I intend to make a difference by leveraging methods such as evidence-based practice to offer patients the best care possible (Corley, Thornton, & Glass, 2016) .
Conclusion
In conclusion, a nursing professional can be an agent of social change by improving their competency and collaborating with the different professionals and individuals to address health needs of their patients and the society as a whole. When a nurse furthers their education, they acquire skills and knowledge which are essential for the nursing practice. Still for nurses, going through the skill advancement programs can help them make better choices concerning their career path.
References
Collier, A. Y., & Molina, R. L. (2019). Maternal Mortality in the United States: Updates on Trends, Causes, and Solutions. NeoReviews, 20(10), e561–e574. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1542/neo.20-10-e561.
Corley, A.G., Thornton, C.P., & Glass, N.E. (2016). The Role of Nurses and Community Health Workers in Confronting Neglected Tropical Diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 10(9), e0004914.Doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0004914.
Karami, A., Farokhzadian, J, & Foroughameri, G. (2017). Nurses’ professional competency and organizational commitment: Is it important for human resource management? PLoS ONE 12(11), e0187863.Doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0187863.
Mathole, T., Lembani, M., Jackson, D., Zarowsky, C., Bijlmakers, L., & Sanders, D. (2018). Leadership and the functioning of maternal health services in two rural district hospitals in South Africa. Health policy and planning, 33(suppl_2), ii5–ii15.Doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/heapol/czx174.
Use Coupon Code: NEW30 to Get 30% OFF Your First Order
Solved Questions:
SOLVED! Healthcare continues to be a lucrative target for
SOLVED! Post a brief explanation of the differences between
SOLVED!! Explain how interprofessional collaboration will
SOLVED! Mr. EBR is a 74-year-old retired Hispanic gentleman
SOLVED! A 58-year-old obese white male presents to ED
SOLVED! Tell us about a healthcare program within your
