Week 1 Discussion
Mission, Vision, and Personal Goals
Are you familiar with Walden University’s vision and
mission? Were they a factor in selecting this University? How do they relate to
your professional and academic goals? Does it matter if there is a tight or
loose relationship or one at all? This week’s Discussion asks you to think
about how the Walden mission and vision and the School of Nursing (SON) mission
and vision apply to your professional and academic goals. Is there a match? How
does Walden's mission and vision relate to your becoming a scholar-practitioner
committed to social change?
To prepare:
Review the Walden and SON mission and vision statements,
Walden’s goals and University Outcomes, and the MSN Program Learning Outcomes
presented in this week's Learning Resources.
Reflect on your professional and academic goals as they
relate to your program/specialization.
Consider how the information in the documents, identified
above, fit with your own goals and to your becoming a scholar-practitioner.
Think about how you will incorporate your commitment to
social change into your professional and academic goals, particularly as it
relates to the area(s) of interest represented by your program/specialization.
By Day 3
Post a description of one or more significant ways in which
Walden’s and the School of Nursing’s perspectives (i.e., vision, mission,
social change message, and outcomes) relate to your professional and academic
goals and to your becoming a scholar-practitioner. Include how you plan to incorporate
social change into your professional and academic goals.
Support your Discussion assignment with specific resources
used in its preparation using APA formatting. You are asked to provide a
reference for all resources, including those in the Learning Resources for this
course.
By Day 6
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different
days in one or more of the following ways:
Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional
background information, evidence or research.
Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings,
synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings
from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.
Validate an idea with your own experience and additional
research.
Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from
readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.
Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional
insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence.
Click on the Reply button below to reveal the textbox for
entering your message. Then click on the Submit button to post your message
Week 2 Discussion
Online Learning Strategies
Completing courses in the absence of a physical classroom
and frequent face-to-face contact can be challenging, even for those who are
comfortable with technology and the online environment. You need to be able to
plan and manage your time well, particularly since there is no structured
“class time”; communicate clearly and effectively where there is no visual or
nonverbal feedback; and use technology effectively. This Discussion provides
you with an opportunity to think about your skills in the above areas, to
explore strategies for successful online learning, and exchange strategies with
your colleagues.
To prepare:
Review this Week’s assigned readings from the Walden e-Guide
and the document, “Technical Tips for Learning at Walden,” in the Learning Resources.
Review this week’s media program, "Tips for Effective
Online Composition and Communication."
Think about some strategies you have used, or read about,
that may be beneficial for effective planning, time management, communication,
and technology use.
Consider how the strategies you have identified can
contribute to being a successful online learner.
By Day 3
Post a description of at least one strategy for each of the
following areas related to online success: planning, time management,
communication, and technology use. Explain how/why you think use of each
strategy will contribute to your success as an online learner.
Support your Discussion assignment with specific resources
used in its preparation using APA formatting. You are asked to provide a reference
for all resources, including those in the Learning Resources for this course.
By Day 6
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different
days in one or more of the following ways:
Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional
background information, evidence or research.
Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings,
synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings
from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.
Validate an idea with your own experience and additional
research.
Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from
readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.
Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional
insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence.
Click on the Reply button below to reveal the textbox for
entering your message. Then click on the Submit button to post your message.
Week 3 Discussion
Scholarly Writing and Plagiarism
As a nurse embarking on an advanced degree, you are
developing the characteristics of a scholar-practitioner, which includes strong
communication skills. Writing in a scholarly manner involves supporting your
thoughts with evidence from the literature and appropriately using APA.
One of the challenges of scholarly writing is paraphrasing
the thoughts of others in your work. Paraphrasing, and correctly citing the
original author for his or her ideas, allows you to take the ideas of others,
summarize them, and incorporate them into your own writing. When summarizing
the ideas of others, it is important to avoid plagiarizing (copying the words
and ideas of others as though they were your own). In addition to expanding
your knowledge of APA, this week’s Learning Resources help you to distinguish
between paraphrasing and plagiarizing.
To prepare:
Think about the sometimes subtle difference between
plagiarizing and paraphrasing.
Read the following paragraphs, which were written by
Patricia O’Conner:
A good writer is one you can read without breaking a sweat.
If you want a workout, you don’t lift a book—you lift weights. Yet we’re
brainwashed to believe that the more brilliant the writer, the tougher the going.
The truth is that the reader is always right. Chances are,
if something you’re reading doesn’t make sense, it’s not your fault—it’s the
writer’s. And if something you write doesn’t get your point across, it’s
probably not the reader’s fault—it’s yours. Too many readers are intimidated
and humbled by what they can’t understand, and in some cases that’s precisely
the effect the writer is after. But confusion is not complexity; it’s just
confusion. A venerable tradition, dating back to the ancient Greek orators,
teaches that if you don’t know what you’re talking about, just ratchet up the
level of difficulty and no one will ever know.
Don’t confuse simplicity, though, with simplemindedness. A
good writer can express an extremely complicated idea clearly and make the job
look effortless. But such simplicity is a difficult thing to achieve because to
be clear in your writing you have to be clear in your thinking. This is why the
simplest and clearest writing has the greatest power to delight, surprise, inform,
and move the reader. You can’t have this kind of shared understanding if writer
and reader are in an adversary relationship. (pp. 195–196)
Source: O’Conner, P. (2003). Woe is I: The grammarphobe’s
guide to better English in plain English. New York: Riverhead Books.
Paraphrase this passage from O’Conner using no more than
75–100 words. Remember that paraphrasing means summarizing the essence of the
original text. It does not mean creating a thesaurus-based revision of the
author’s original words or copying the piece, or any part of it, word for word.
For this activity, do not use any direct quotes.
Turn your paraphrase into Grammarly and Safe Assign.
Review your reports.
Review the other tools, resources, and services available to
you through the Walden Writing Center that support your growth as a scholarly
writer.
Consider which of these resources you find to be most
useful.
Review learning resources on APA formatting rules and
information within the Walden Writing Center on APA.
By Day 3
Post a description of your experience of using Grammarly and
Safe Assign and share at least one insight you gained about paraphrasing and
avoiding plagiarism as a matter of academic integrity. Recommend at least one other
online resource that supports scholarly writing, and explain your rationale.
Lastly, share two APA formatting rules with the class and a specific page
number in the APA manual where this rule can be located
Support your Discussion assignment with specific resources
used in its preparation using APA formatting. You are asked to provide a
reference for all resources, including those in the Learning Resources for this
course.
By Day 6
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different
days in one or more of the following ways:
Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional
background information, evidence or research.
Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings,
synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings
from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.
Validate an idea with your own experience and additional
research.
Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from
readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.
Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional
insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence.
Click on the Reply button below to reveal the textbox for
entering your message. Then click on the Submit button to post your message.
Week 4 Discussion
Using the Walden Library
Where can you find evidence to inform your thoughts and
scholarly writing? Throughout your degree program, you will use the research
literature to explore ideas, guide your thinking, and gain new insights. As you
search the research literature, it is important to use resources that are
peer-reviewed and from scholarly journals. You may already have some favorite online
resources and databases that you use or have found useful in the past. For this
Discussion and this week’s Assignment, you explore databases available through
the Walden Library.
Note: Review the Assignment and complete the relevant items
in the To prepare section prior to engaging in the Discussion.
To prepare:
Review the information presented in the Learning Resources
for using the Walden Library, searching the databases, and evaluating online
resources.
Begin searching for a peer-reviewed article that pertains to
your practice area and is of particular interest to you.
Identify the database that you used to search for a
peer-reviewed article in your area of practice and interest.
Reflect on your experience with searching the database. Did
you note any difficulties when searching for an article? What steps/strategies
did you find helpful for locating a peer-reviewed article? Would this database
be useful to your colleagues? Would you recommend this database?
Once you have select your peer-reviewed article, evaluate
its strengths and weaknesses in terms of scholarly writing, bias, opinion,
quality of evidence, and appropriateness to its target audience.
By Day 3
Post a brief summary of your peer-reviewed article, the
database you located your article in, your database searching experience, key
words utilized in the search, and analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of
the article.
Support your Discussion assignment with specific resources
used in its preparation using APA formatting. You are asked to provide a
reference for all resources, including those in the Learning Resources for this
course.
By Day 6
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different
days in one or more of the following ways:
Offer insights or strategies for locating research articles
using the Walden Library.
Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings,
synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
Validate an idea with your own experience and additional
research.
Click on the Reply button below to reveal the textbox for
entering your message. Then click on the Submit button to post your message.
Week 6 Discussion
Critical Thinking
Recall your early clinical nursing experiences—what guided
your decisions? Did you practice nursing ‘by the book’? Now, consider how you
make decisions today. How have your clinical experiences fostered a greater
depth of knowledge and critical thinking?
This week’s Learning Resources explore skill development and
levels of knowledge acquisition based on clinical experience. For example,
Benner suggests that as a nurse gains more experience, knowledge and skill
level increases. Nurses move from novices—making decisions based on rules—to
experts who are able to see connections between actions and outcomes using
critical thinking. This Discussion focuses on the role of critical thinking in
nursing practice and the connection between critical thinking, clinical
competence, and scholarship.
To prepare:
Review the Learning Resources focusing on critical thinking
and Benner’s interpretation of the Novice to Expert theory.
Reflect on how critical thinking is used in clinical
practice. How does critical thinking relate to, or support, clinical
competence?
What critical thinking strategies do you use to improve your
clinical competence and thus move from novice to expert?
Consider the connection between critical thinking, nursing
practice, and scholarship.
By Day 3
Post your observations on how critical thinking is used in
clinical practice (provide examples); how you employ critical thinking
strategies to improve clinical competence; and your thoughts on the connections
between critical thinking, scholarship, and practice.
Support your Discussion assignment with specific resources used
in its preparation using APA formatting. You are asked to provide a reference
for all resources, including those in the Learning Resources for this course.
By Day 6
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different
days in one or more of the following ways:
Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional
background information, evidence or research.
Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings,
synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings
from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.
Validate an idea with your own experience and additional
research.
Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from
readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.
Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional
insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence.
Click on the Reply button below to reveal the textbox for
entering your message. Then click on the Submit button to post your message.
