OutlineNursing leadership

Evaluating a nursing leadership problem

Each scenario is a conflict rather than a knowledge gap, which is why an in-service will not fix any of them. The response plan has to name who is in dispute and what would resolve it.

Editorial process

Last reviewed · August 22, 2026

Written by

Maren Caldwell

MSN, RN, CNE

Medical-surgical nursing, pharmacology and NCLEX preparation

Reviewed by

Dr. Tessa Redmond

DNP, RN, CNE

Evidence-based practice and clinical education

On this page

Interpret the task
Assignment instructions
Deliverables
Proposed outline
Research plan
Reference shortlist
Final review

These are conflicts, not knowledge gaps

Read each scenario for the dispute rather than for the deficiency, because that is what changes the response plan. In the nephrology scenario nobody is failing to complete daily weights through ignorance; two shifts disagree about whose task it is, and the physicians have escalated to a manager rather than to the nurses. A plan built around education or a reminder will therefore not work, and neither will a directive that assigns the task without addressing the workload claim underneath it, since the night shift's argument is about staffing rather than about weights. Say that in the assessment section of the outline and the rest of the plan writes itself. The same reading applies to the other scenarios: find the dispute, name the claim underneath it, and the intervention follows from what would make that claim untrue rather than from what the complaint literally asked for.

Use the same structure across all three so the outlines are comparable, and keep it to a page each as the brief requires. Assessment comes first: what is actually happening, what the data show, and who the stakeholders are, including the ones who have not complained. Then engagement, since the brief specifically mentions stakeholder cooperation, which means bringing both shifts and the physicians into the same conversation rather than relaying messages between them. Then the intervention, which for a documentation problem should include a structural fix rather than an exhortation: a defined time in the shift, a single accountable role, a visible record, and a removal of whatever makes the task genuinely harder on one shift. Then evaluation, with a measure, a review date and a plan for what happens if it fails. As a new manager you should also say what you would not do first, because acting before understanding the workload claim is how a manager loses a unit.

Likely learning objectives

Distinguish a conflict from a knowledge deficit.
Identify the underlying claim beneath a surface dispute.
Structure a response plan consistently across scenarios.
Include a structural fix rather than an exhortation.

Assignment instructions

Read the full question

Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.

Assignment Evaluating a nursing leadership problem Evaluating a nursing leadership problem Create 1 page outlines of your response plan for three intervention scenarios. Nurse leaders need to quickly identify a strategy for evaluating a nursing leadership problem and the dynamics related to the problem, in order to orchestrate intervention efforts and put together a plan of action that leads to stakeholder cooperation. Directions: Choose three scenarios and develop a Response Plan, in the form of an outline. Scenario One: Inpatient nephrology unit You are the new nurse manager for a busy nephrology medical/surgical unit in a large university medical center. The renal physicians have complained that daily weights and intake/output records are not being completed. This lack of documentation affects the patient’s plan of care and is resulting in an increased length of stay for the unit. The night-shift nurses think the day-shift nurses need to do the daily weights since they have more staffing. The day-shift nurses think the night-shift needs to do the weights since breakfast arrives during report most days. No one is consistently recording the intake/output records. How will you handle this problem? · National Kidney Foundation: Clinical Practice Guidelines. Scenario Two: Outpatient chest pain/stroke unit You have just been promoted to the nurse manager position in a 12-bed chest pain/stroke outpatient center. The hospital is at 18 months of the 36-month Joint Commission accreditation cycle, so you are expecting a survey sometime within the next 18 months. You are reviewing the Joint Commission Core Measures for Outpatient Departments. You discover an issue with the administration of aspirin on arrival for the chest pain/acute MI patients not being documented 50 percent of the time. Also, the time to CT scan for ruling out acute ischemic stroke patient is 75 minutes, which is 30 minutes above benchmark time of 45 minutes. Who needs to be involved in examining these processes in order to improve compliance prior to the survey? Would you develop one team to work on both issues or two teams so that each works on one issue? Why? Scenario Three: School nurse You are the only school nurse in a high school (grades 10, 11, and 12). The school is located in a small rural conservative town. There has been a 15 percent increase in students contracting sexually transmitted diseases and three girls in the junior class are pregnant. The community insists that the area schools only teach abstinence to the students. The school board does not want to anger the parents. While you respect the culture of the town, you realize this is a huge community health problem. Where do you start to address this issue? · CDC: Adolescent and School Health; Sexual Risk Behaviors. Scenario Four: Inpatient psych unit You are the nurse manager of an inpatient psychiatric unit and are preparing a report for a Joint Commission survey. An epidemic of bath salts abuse has struck the community. Following initial treatment in the intensive care unit, violent psychiatric patients are being admitted to the unit. You reviewed the Joint Commission guidelines and discovered deficiencies in several categories of the patient discharge records and your seclusion hours are increasing. · Hospital Based Inpatient Psychiatric Services (HBIPS). Who will you involve in the interdisciplinary team to work on the discharge issues? How will you work on decreasing seclusion hours in these patients? Scenario Five: Pediatric vaccinations. Assignment Evaluating a nursing leadership problem You are the nurse manager in a large pediatric practice. It is late summer and parents are bringing their children in to get their “blue cards” filled out for school. Several parents have been asking for medical exemptions because the local news has been reporting on a rash of adverse reactions to vaccinations, even linking an incident relating a child’s recent diagnosis of autism to an MMR vaccine. How will you proceed in obtaining the best evidence to help work with the parents? · CDC: MMR ACIP Vaccine Recommendations (Measles, Mumps and Rubella). Preparation for Evaluating a nursing leadership problem Use the Capella library and the Internet to research change theory, leadership, and communication strategies. Use the Suggested Resources to research leadership and communication concepts and change theory. · The challenge in this assessment is to create a response plan for several intervention scenarios. . There are three deliverables required for this assessment. Rationale for this assessment: Nurse leaders solve problems or resolve conflict on a daily basis. Understanding how change theory can be applied to a situation and examining various types of interventions in advance can relieve pressure on the nurse leader and improve the workplace environment and outcomes. Rehearsing potential interventions provides a mental toolkit on which to rely during stressful times. Your management training workshop continues: The second day of HR’s Nursing Leadership Workshop is designed to help you identify and practice effective responses and interventions to common problems and situations. Participants are presented with three scenarios and must create a response plan for each scenario, in the form of a 1 page outline. Deliverables: Submit three Response Plans to complete this assessment. · Choose 3 of the 5 Intervention Scenarios included for this assessment. · For each scenario you choose, develop a separate Response Plan in the form of a 1-page outline.Evaluating a nursing leadership problem.

Course-wide instructions that accompany this question

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation Hi Class, Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts. Contact me if you have any questions. Important information on Writing a Discussion Question Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references) There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article. Include in-text citations in your response Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information Follow APA-7th edition Points will be deducted if the above is not followed Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week. Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references) Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count. Follow APA 7th edition Points will be deducted if the above is not followed Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points. Here are some helpful links Student paper example Citing Sources The Writing Center is a great resource Welcome to class Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to. I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you. Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. 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A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week. I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Turn the brief into deliverables

01Three one-page response plan outlines.
02An assessment section identifying the real dispute.
03Stakeholders named, including those who have not complained.
04A stakeholder engagement approach.
05A structural intervention rather than education alone.
06A measure, a review date and a contingency.