Contemporary Nursing Practice

Just a few reminders as you look to begin working on your week 2 formal paper. YOU MAY WISH TO PRINT THIS AS A REFERENCE for this paper as well as a help for future assignments.

1. Please make sure you have reviewed (or printed) the rubric and UNDERSTAND THE EXPECTATIONS you are being graded on. The rubric can be found as a link when you click on the Assignment due date from the calendar. This is a formal paper; therefore, possessive pronouns like “you, we, our, us, my, I” should NOT be used – *

2. Follow the APA guidelines regarding your formatting. There is a sample APA paper in the Classroom Resources Announcement for you to review. No abstract is needed. Remember, you are required to use APA 7th edition.

3. Watch your word count – there is a deduction for exceeding the word count in the body of the paper- It will result in a “1” under the Mechanics of Writing criteria). Word count begins with Title at top of page 2 and ends with the word References at end of paper.

4. Make your THESIS clear….what is your paper about? This paper will discuss, explain, examine, describe…..YES, I really want to see The following paper/This essay will……and a clear, detailed thesis.

5. Use APA Level headers that are based on the different critical elements of the assignment. Suggested Level headers:

The Evolution of Nursing Practice

Differentiated Practice Competencies

Patient Care Situation

Evidence-Based Practice in BSN Education

Interdisciplinary Teams

Using level headers is also a tool to ensure your writing stays on track to meet the expectations of the element.

6. The patient care situation needs to be SPECIFIC. The patient care situation needs to be thoroughly described. This is not a general comparison of statistics. It may be something you’ve seen in practice. The differences in approach to nursing care and scope of practice based upon ADN and BSN education need to be described in detail. Narrative demonstrates insight into patient care, decision making, and differing approaches between ADN and BSN. Here is an example that NO ONE can use

The following is an example of the differences in patient care based on formal education and patient care approach. A BSN nurse is part of a PICC-line team. She is responsible for educating nurses on the floor regarding the proper maintenance and use of PICC lines. The PICC nurse observes a new ADN graduate flushing a line after administering a medication and notes the ADN nurse flushing the line with a slow and constant pressure; placing the line at greater risk for clotting and becoming inoperable. The PICC nurse demonstrated the proper “push-pull” flushing technique and shared that evidence-based practice supports the “push-pull” flush technique due to the pressure requirements needed to maintain PICC line patency. The ADN nurse was able to perform a return demonstration using proper the “push-pull” flush technique and verbalized understanding of the reason and importance for the technique as a measure to prevent PICC line complications.

7. Intext citations and your reference page need to be complete and properly formatted. www.purdueowl.edu has all of the rules for properly citing the different sources (with example)

· “Direct quotes” (last name, date, page x or para. x). Period AFTER citation

· Paraphrasing (last name, date). Period AFTER citation (not before and after)

8. Write out all abbreviations with first use.

9. THIS IS VERY, VERY IMPORTANT!!!!! YOU ARE REQUIRED TO SUBMIT YOUR PAPER TO LOPESWRITE BEFORE CLICKING THE FINAL SUBMIT BUTTON. Your LopesWrite score needs to be 20% or less BEFORE clicking final submission. A LopesWrite score between 21-34% will be penalized 10%. A submission with a LopesWrite score 35% or above will not be accepted and receive a score of zero. Remember, you can review these guidelines under Announcements > CLASSROOM RESOURCES > multiple documents available for review.

10. Maintain double spacing throughout your paper – including the References. Do not add additional line spaces between any paragraphs or references.

11. Use at least THREE references (TWO scholarly sources outside of our textbook). Scholarly sources have an Author and should be published within the last 7 years (for this assignment).