Unit 3 Informative Essay Assignment

In your essay assignment for this unit, due in Module 10, you will be creating an informative essay, meant to inform or explain a topic. Use these instructions  to help you complete your first draft of this essay.

Purpose, Topic, and Audience

What are you curious about? We report and explain information when we want to understand an issue and share this understanding with others. Your purpose in this essay is to learn about a topic and explain it to others. The ability to accurately summarize information is important in most academic papers and in many professional settings. This type of writing appears in many academic and professional genres, such as public service announcements, brochures, magazine articles, internet sites, business reports, white papers, proposals, and briefs. In this assignment, though, you will write an academic essay following MLA format for an audience of peers: college students who would like to learn more about your topic. Please remember, however, that you should not use one of the topics to avoid as discussed in our Topic Ideas and Topics to Avoid for Your Unit 3 Informative Essay resource.

Evidence/Content

You may build on the experience you wrote about in Unit 2 or start on a new topic (See Topic Ideas for Your Unit 3 Informative Essay in the Unit 3 introductory module if you need help!). Once you decide on a topic, be sure to include what you already know about the subject. Then, use a variety of reliable sources to help you learn—web sites, interviews, magazine articles, or newspaper articles. All sources must be accessed through the GALILEO databases or community, educational, or government websites; include three to five sources total, one of which must be a peer-reviewed journal article. The best databases to use in GALILEO are Academic Search Premiere and ProQuest. You may not use any books unless you get prior approval, and you must not use AI to find sources, as AI often misrepresents what sources say.

Organization

Your organization should be logical and help the reader follow your ideas. Consider the guidelines of quantity, quality, relevance, and manner as you select and organize your material, but also remember to move beyond just reporting to explaining your information (show reasons for, connections within, or implications of the information you present).

Clarity, Readability, and Format

Write with your audience (engaged, intelligent adults) in mind, striving for academic English and effective style. Write in the third person only. Please do not use the first or second person in this essay. Your essay should follow MLA format and be submitted as a Microsoft Word file or PDF. Cite all ideas and facts with in-text citations, all words from sources with quotation marks and in-text citations, and a Works Cited page in MLA format for every source that informed your essay.

Requirements

Your essay should meet the following markers for success:

• Effective overview of the topic and its main ideas, with clearly articulated and specific thesis;
• Well introduced, contextualized, accurately represented, and explained textual evidence in each body paragraph;
• Strong organization, including topic sentences, logical relation of points within paragraphs, and transition sentences;
• Use of clear and straightforward language with little error;
• Evidence of critical thinking and synthesis, not just summary;
• Informed use of three to five credible sources, one of which must be a peer-reviewed journal article;
• Full attribution of all summarized, paraphrased, or quoted source materials through use of signal phrases, in-text citations, and works cited page;
• Completed development of a 3-5 page final draft in full MLA document format.

Grading Criteria

• Your ability to communicate a thesis: in this case a clear articulation of the topic to be explained, ideally with the points you will address to explain it;
• On the development and support of the main ideas in your paragraphs, including the use of properly introduced, contextualized, and analyzed information from your sources;
• On the organization of your work, and how effectively you have structured the synthesis of your information;
• On the clarity of your writing, and whether any errors of grammar or spelling, or places where the writing is awkward, remain after revision;
• On your use of full and correct MLA document formatting and complete and proper MLA citation for all quoted, summarized, or paraphrased source materials;
• On whether you have successfully addressed any aspects of the work that were confusing or needed further development in your rough draft.

Submissions

Your final draft must:

• Be in MLA document format, complete with running header, block header, and appropriate font, indentation, and line spacing.
• Be submitted as a Word .DOC or .DOCX file, or as a .PDF.

TOPIC

Topic Ideas for Your Personal Narrative Essay

For this essay, you will brainstorm ideas for your work and share these ideas with your classmates and professor to get feedback. The good news is that you are the expert in your own life and on what has been meaningful to you, so we hope you’ll have any number of great ideas! However, if you’re struggling to come up with a topic, here are some sample ideas. Use these to come up with something new!

• The day I challenged myself to do something I thought I couldn’t do
• An unexpected encounter or event that changed my perspective on life
• The experience of moving to a new place and adjusting to a new environment
• A difficult decision I had to make that shaped who I am today
• A mistake I made and had to face
• A moment when I had to confront my fears and overcome them
• An event that involved a special pet
• A vacation mishap or something unique that happened on a journey
• Meeting or losing a friend
• A realization I had about myself or someone close to me that had a profound impact on my life
• An experience of culture shock that challenged my assumptions and expanded my worldview
• A time when I had to stand up for myself or for someone else in the face of adversity

Topics to Avoid

Because this course includes dual-enrolled students who may be under the age of 18, it is important that all writing topics remain appropriate for a mixed-age, academic setting. Avoid subjects that are explicitly sexual, graphically violent, or otherwise unsuitable for minors. In addition, steer clear of overly personal topics that could make you or others uncomfortable, such as detailed accounts of trauma or sensitive private matters.

When in doubt, choose topics that allow for thoughtful analysis and academic discussion while respecting the boundaries of our shared learning environment. If you are unsure whether a topic is appropriate, please check with your instructor before beginning your assignment.

Topic: Do the social networks have a positive or negative effect in the adolescents?

Position: Negative

Thesis Statement: I have to comment that the social networks in my opinion have a negative effect in the adolescents because these cause problems of mental health and lower their academic performance.

Arguments:

Argument 1: Mental health

· Exists a social comparison constant that generates low self-esteem and causes body dissatisfaction.

· Anxiety and depression provoked by the necessity of validation that do another with a like.

· The existence of a cyberbullying, that affects to a porcient considerable approximately of young people and causes emotional traumas.

Argument 2: Academic performance

· The addictive distraction that provokes a reduction of the concentration in tasks and studies.

· Decrease of the cognitive efficiency for the multitasking between networks and homework.

· Investigations link the excessive use of the networks with averages of qualifications minors.

Counterargument:

· Offer educational resources and learning content.

· Allow maintain friendships in spite of the distance and create communities of support between young people.

Refutation:

The educational benefits we see that are overshadowed by the distracting content, and the friendships that are reached of virtual form are not going to substitute never the real human interaction. Many studies from the point of view of the psychology confirm us that the negative psychological effects are much more generalized that the positives.

Using the annotated bibliography from Assignment 2 and the Topic Outline from Assignment 3, the student will develop a coherent literature review based on 10 peer-reviewed journal articles that present empirical research derived from primary sources. Note: These SHOULD be the same sources used in Assignments 2 and 3; however, if any of the 10 sources used in Assignment 2 were not peer-reviewed journal articles based on empirical research and derived from primary sources, then additional sources will need to be included. An NSU librarian will provide additional training on using the library databases in preparation for this Assignment. The paper should be approximately 5-7 pages in length (not including the cover page and references section) and adhere to APA style.

Upload a draft of your literature review for submission to Turnitin. Then click Submission Details. You should see a hyperlinked number. Click the number/colored box to view your Turnitin report. If the number is significantly high (yellow, orange, or red), you need to address any areas of concern before submitting your final draft.

Please see the Assignment for additional details and the corresponding rubric.

Week 7 Assignment

Healthcare Finance

 Developing Financial Statement

All organizations, including those in the healthcare industry, need to make money to be profitable and survive. Financial statements, such as balance sheets, profit and loss statements, and cash flow statements summarize an organization’s profitability and overall financial status. For this Assignment, you practice developing three key financial statements using data from a medical center.

To prepare for this Assignment: 

• Review the Week 7 Assignment document provided to you by the instructor in the Announcements. Examine the data from the medical center described in the document. Reflect on how you will use this data to develop a balance sheet, profit and loss statement (statement of operations), and cash flow statement (statement of changes in net assets). Refer to the course text for additional guidance.
• Download the Week 7 Financial Statement Excel Template

Submit the following:

• Complete a balance sheet, profit and loss statement (statement of operations), and cash flow statement (statement of changes in net assets) using the “Week 7 Financial Statement Excel Template.”

Healthcare Financial Management and Economics Week 7 Assignment – NorthWest Medical Center

Assignment: Developing Financial Statements

All organizations, including those in the healthcare industry, need to make money to be profitable and survive. Financial statements, such as balance sheets, profit and loss statements, and cash flow statements, summarize this profitability and an organization’s overall financial status. For this Assignment, you practice developing three key financial statements using data from the NorthWest Medical Center.

 NorthWest Medical Center

North Medical Center is a large NorthWestern acute care and ambulatory facility serving an urban city population.

 To prepare for this Assignment:

 Examine the data from NorthWest Medical Center. Reflect on how you will use this data to develop a Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss Statement, and Cash Flow Statement. Refer to the course text for additional guidance.

The Assignment:

Complete a Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss Statement (Statement of Operations), and Cash Flow Statement (Statement of Changes in Net Assets) using the Week 7 Financial Statement Excel Template located in the Learning Resources.

Your Assignment is due by Day 7 of Week 7.

Introduction

As patient safety concerns continue to be addressed in healthcare settings, nurses can play an active role in implementing safety improvement measures and plans. Often root-cause analyses are conducted and safety improvement plans are created to address sentinel or adverse events such as medication errors, patient falls, wrong-site surgery events, and hospital-acquired infections. Performing a root-cause analysis offers a systematic approach for identifying causes of problems, including process and system-check failures. Once the causes of failures have been determined, a safety improvement plan can be developed to prevent recurrences. The baccalaureate nurse’s role as a leader is to create safety improvement plans as well as disseminate vital information to staff nurses and other healthcare professionals to protect patients and improve outcomes.

As you prepare for this assessment, it would be an excellent choice to complete the Quality and Safety Improvement Plan Knowledge Base activity and to review the various assessment resources, all of which will help you build your knowledge of key concepts and terms related to quality and safety improvement. The terms and concepts will be helpful as you prepare your Root-Cause Analysis and Safety Improvement Plan. Activities are not graded and demonstrate course engagement.

Overview

Nursing practice is governed by healthcare policies and procedures as well as state and national regulations developed to prevent problems. It is critical for nurses to participate in gathering and analyzing data to determine causes of patient safety issues, in solving problems, and in implementing quality improvements.

For this assessment, use the specific safety concern identified in your previous assessment as the subject of a root-cause analysis and safety improvement plan.

Instructions

The purpose of this assessment is to demonstrate your understanding of and ability to analyze a root cause of a specific safety concern in a healthcare setting. You will create a plan to improve the safety of patients related to the safety quality issue presented in your Assessment Supplement PDF in Assessment 1. Based on the results of your analysis, using the literature and professional best practices as well as the existing resources at your chosen healthcare setting, provide a rationale for your plan.

Use the Root-Cause Analysis and Safety Improvement Plan [DOCX] template to complete the assessment.

Additionally, be sure that your plan addresses the following, which corresponds to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. Please study the scoring guide carefully so you understand what is needed for a distinguished score.

• Analyze the root cause of a patient safety issue or a specific sentinel event in an organization.
• Apply evidence-based and best-practice strategies to address the safety issue or sentinel event.
• Create a viable, evidence-based safety improvement plan.
• Identify existing organizational resources that could be leveraged to improve your plan.
• Communicate in writing that is clear, logical, and professional, with correct grammar and spelling, using current APA style.

Additional Requirements

• Length of submission: Use the provided template to create a root-cause analysis and safety improvement plan. There is no page limit. A title page is not required but you must include a reference list as per the template.
• Number of references: Cite a minimum of 3 sources of scholarly or professional evidence that support your findings and considerations. Resources should be no more than 5 years old. Use the BSN Nursing Program Library Guide as needed.
• APA formatting: Format references and citations according to current APA style. See the APA Module.

Competencies Measured

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:

• Competency 1: Analyze the elements of a successful quality improvement initiative.
  • Apply evidence-based and best-practice strategies to address a safety issue or sentinel event.
  • Create a feasible, evidence-based safety improvement plan to address a specific patient safety issue.
• Competency 2: Analyze factors that lead to patient safety risks.
  • Analyze the root cause of a specific sentinel event or a patient safety issue in an organization.
• Competency 3: Identify organizational interventions to promote patient safety.
  • Identify existing organizational resources that could be leveraged to improve a plan.
• Competency 5: Apply professional, scholarly, evidence-based strategies to communicate in a manner that supports safe and effective patient care.
  • Organize content so ideas flow logically with smooth transitions; contains few errors in grammar or punctuation, word choice, and spelling.
  • Apply APA formatting to in-text citations and references exhibiting nearly flawless adherence to APA format.

Hallmark Assignment: Community Project Presentation Overview

You must complete 22.5 hours of practical experience for this course. It is NOT “hands-on” but instead is “research-based.” You will log the time spent researching/collecting the data for the Hallmark (worksheets located in week 7 module). You will log all time on the Practicum Time Log (also located in week 7’s module). This form will be turned in week 13 to complete the course. In addition, you are required to interview a public health nurse (PHN) which may count toward these practicum hours. We will offer 3-4 interview opportunities (dates and links will be provided in the announcements) or you may interview a PHN nurse in your community. Only 1 hour per interview up to 5 total interviews may be counted toward the practicum hours.

Introduction

For this assignment, you will examine the role of the nurse in caring for the community as your patient, utilizing a population-focused nursing process. You will create an educational PowerPoint presentation (instructions below). This final assignment will reflect ability and achievement in the following areas:

Intentional Learning, Reflection, and Clinical Judgment Decision Making and Evidence-Based Practice Professionalism and Leadership Organization and Presentation Writing and APA Formatting Objectives

Demonstrate collaborative standardization of safe practices through health promotion. Integrate course concepts, incorporating understanding of principles and practices of providing and coordinating culturally competent, comprehensive client-centered nursing care from a community and population-health standpoint. Instructions

You are a community health nurse preparing a presentation to board members about your community. There is a need to determine demographic information and top health concerns, develop a preventative teaching proposal about a priority health concern, and then develop a disaster plan. You will record this presentation as though you are presenting it to board members.

Identify the community in which you currently reside or will practice in as a nurse.

From Worksheet #1: Identify demographic, community, and social data Identify the top 3 Chronic Health Disease and support with statistical data Identify the Healthy People 2030 goal for each Identify the top 3 Infectious Diseases and support with statistical data Identify the Healthy People 2030 goal for each Identify the top 3 Health Risk Factors and support with statistical data

From Worksheet #2: Develop a preventative teaching proposal Determine one top priority community concern from your research about the chronic and infectious diseases and risk factors affecting your community Include at least 3 objectives written as SMART goals Include at least 2 topics per objective Include educational strategy, delivery method, and evaluation method

From Worksheet #3: Choose a disaster that could affect your community Identify emergency resources available Identify 4 vulnerable populations Identify the potential effects of the disaster on: infrastructure, emergency services, and the general population Identify at least 3 anticipated health issues related to the disaster List 3-5 nursing interventions you could perform immediately following the disaster (without immediate access to EMS or the hospital) Your presentation should be 15-20 slides (not including title, objectives, and references slides) with detailed presenter notes with in-text citations for each slide. Include at least four (4) scholarly sources. Follow best practices for PowerPoint presentations related to text size, color, images, effects, wordiness, and multimedia enhancements. Review the rubric criteria for this assignment. Audio recording is required. Be sure to completely answer all the prompts/questions. Use clear headings that allow your professor to know which bullet you are addressing on the slides in your presentation. Support your content with in-text citations throughout your presentation. Make sure to reference the citations using the APA 7th Edition writing style for the presentation. Include at least one slide for your references at the end.

Assignment Expectations

Length: 15-20 slides; answers must thoroughly address the questions in a clear, concise manner. Include at least four (4) scholarly sources. Include audio recording narration. Below is a recommended breakdown for the assignment. Title: 1 slide Objectives/Introduction: 1 slide Community demographics & social data: 3-4 slides Chronic Health Diseases: 1 slide Infectious Health Diseases: 1 slide Health Risk Factors: 1 slide Teaching Proposal: 4-5 slides Disaster Assessment: 4-5 slides Conclusion: 1 slide References: 1 slide