Nightingale Information Discussion NR 390

Nightingale Information Discussion NR 390

Nightingale Information Discussion NR 390

Week 3: Nightingale Information New to You

The basic story of Florence Nightingale is familiar to most nurses. This week we learned more about Nightingale’s life and work. Select at least one piece of the Nightingale legacy that was new to you and tell us how this changed your understanding of this great woman and her contributions to nursing.

After reading about Florence Nightingale, I have to admit that I did not know the extensive contributions she made to nursing, such as with being a researcher, statistician, teacher, opening a school, paving the way for women to be recognized in a profession, an advocate, initiating nursing practices, and professing the attributes that a nurse should possess.

One of Florence Nightingale’s areas of leadership that I did not expect to read about, is in being a statistician.  I read about her being from an upper-class family, and that she was good in math in writing, so maybe I should not be so surprised, as she did receive an education.  Being the first nurse to accomplish many firsts, Nightingale collected data and statistically analyzed it.  This way she could vindicate treatment and policy changes to improve the outcome of patients.  (Judd & Sitzman, 2014).  There were no nursing rules and procedures to follow before Florence Nightingale’s time, so with Nightingale’s statistical analysis expertise, she was paving the way for effective patient care.  Today, with the nursing process, we implement and evaluate treatment, in hopes of improving patient outcomes with evidence-based practices.  Although Florence Nightingale did not know it, she was using a form of evidence-based practices with her medical statistical analyses.   

Nightingale also used statistical analysis with the building of her hospital, modernization of nursing, sanitary improvements, surgical operations, and in advising governments on Army health reform.  (Aravind & Chung, 2010).  With the building of her hospital, illnesses, ages, and the set up of wards were analyzed, to name some.  Florence Nightingale was always concerned with cleanliness and sanitation, and her statistical analysis justified the importance.  In surgical operations, Nightingale was looking at outcomes and hospital expenditures.  These factors are still important today.  Today, in building a hospital, units are set up and even rooms are designed for ergonomics and efficiency.  Cleanliness and sanitation are still priorities that are provided in patient care.  Hospital expenditures are always under scrutiny.  And of course, positive surgical outcomes are always a goal.

I never knew of all the contributions that Florence Nightingale contributed to the nursing profession.  I have respect for all that she did in paving the way for nurses then and today.  Nightingale proved her dedication to nursing with being involved in all aspects of nursing.  I am glad she investigated patient data and used statistics to evaluate what improves patient’s outcomes (what we now call today, evidence-based practices).  Using statistical analyses proves that she was a forward thinker.    Florence Nightingale made sure that she covered everything involved with nursing, such as in providing nursing care, improving patient outcomes, and making nursing a respectable profession. 

References

Aravind, M., & Chung, K. C. (2010). Evidence-based medicine and hospital reform: tracing origins back to Florence Nightingale. Plastic and reconstructive surgery, 125(1), 403–409. https://doi.org/10.1097/PRS.0b013e3181c2bb89Links to an external site.

Judd, D., & Sitzman, K.  (2014).  A history of American nursing.  Trends and eras.  Second Edition. 

NR 390 Week 4 Discussion Latest-DeVry

Week 4: Impact of 19th-Century Nurses

Important nurses of the 19th century are often overshadowed by Nightingale’s prominence. Select one 19th-century nurse other than Nightingale and describe this person’s contributions to the profession. Although some duplication is expected, please try to select a nurse who has not already been presented by a classmate.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-

checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

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Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

• Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
• Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
• One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
• I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

• Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
• In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
• Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
• Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

• Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
• Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
• I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6^th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

• I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
• As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
• It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

LopesWrite Policy

• For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
• Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
• Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
• Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

• The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
• Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
• If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
• I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
• As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

• Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
  • Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
  • Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.