CNA149 Professional and Discipline Studies in Nursing

Question:

Essay or Digital Narrative

This assignment requires you to develop and extend your skills in sourcing scholarly information to answer a question on a specific topic.

Assignment topics

Please choose one topic from the choices below.

1. There are eight National Safety & Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards developed by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care in 2018. Choose three (3) of these Standards and discuss how they relate to nursing. Your discussion should explain why it is essential that nurses are aware of the quality and safety frameworks that govern nursing practice.
   
   
2. Nursing research generates disciplinary knowledge, which underpins and informs nursing practice. Drawing on the Standards and Codes of nursing and the scholarly literature, discuss the ways in which nurses can use research to inform their practice and improve patient care. You may use the work of one or more influential nursing theorists to illustrate your argument.
   
   
3. Social media has brought enormous changes to the way in which we communicate with each other, both professionally and personally. Drawing on unit content and the scholarly literature, discuss the benefits and dangers of social media in the clinical setting, and the appropriate behaviour that nurses must observe when using these.
   
   
4. You may choose another topic based on extended unit content that you would like to explore more deeply. If you choose to do this, you MUST have your topic approved by the unit coordinator prior to commencing work, to ensure that it will address the intended learning outcomes (ILOs) for this unit appropriately.

Essay option: How to structure an essay

To write a correctly structured essay, your paper needs three sections: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. For your first assignment, these sections might look like this.

1. The introduction

The introductory paragraph to your essay should set out the topic of the paper and how you are planning to address it. This sets the context for the rest of the essay, so the reader knows what to expect, and it should clearly address the assignment requirements. For an assignment of 750 words, two or three sentences should be sufficient, and it is here that you can use the first person to establish the personal (reflective) aspect of your work. Introductions do not usually contain references; if you are using a definition (and therefore a reference), this should be included in the first paragraph of the body of your paper rather than in the introduction.

For example: "In this essay I will be exploring some of the characteristics that a professional nurse should exhibit and the professional behaviour that is appropriate to the role, in order to fulfil the responsibilities of our social contract with society. I will be concentrating on the characteristics of XXX and YYY, and describing how they can be demonstrated by a professional nurse."

2. The body

This is where you discuss the topic in detail. It should consist of a number of paragraphs, each of which focuses on a particular aspect of the discussion. The first sentence of each paragraph (known as the topic sentence) should explain the context of that paragraph, and the rest of the paragraph will expand on this. (Please note a single sentence is NOT a paragraph - you need to expand on the idea in the sentence, or merge it with the previous or following paragraph.) It is a good idea to plan your paper around these topic sentences - use them to set out the structure of your discussion, then fill in the details. Ideas should flow from one paragraph to the next, with clear links between ideas so the flow is logical and the reader can follow your argument.

Ideas and opinions should be supported by references as they are expressed (ie don't leave the references to the end of the paragraph, use them at the end of sentences in which the idea is used). Remember to use references whenever you use somebody else's ideas, and to support your own ideas to produce a stronger argument.

3. The conclusion

A conclusion is not a summary of what you have done step-by-step through your essay (eg 'I started by defining the concept, then I discussed it using references to support my argument, and now I'm concluding'). Instead, the conclusion draws together the threads of your discussion and demonstrates to your reader that you have addressed the topic you outlined in the introduction, and shows how you have proven your argument/supported your viewpoint. Again, in a paper of this length it will be quite short. (You don't need to start it with 'In conclusion', as the fact that it is at the end of the essay will let your reader know that.) This is also another good opportunity to use the first person, to finish the paper strongly in your own voice. For example: "I have shown how XXX and YYY are essential characteristics for a nurse, as they allow the nurse to carry out their duties effectively and efficiently by [behaviour]. By behaving in this manner, nurses display professionalism and gain the trust and confidence of their patients and from society."