Discussion postHealthcare delivery

DQ 2 : Identify a new trend that you have seen in healthcare, based on your personal experiences.

It starts from what you have seen and then asks what the literature says. The interesting case is when the two disagree — the trend is local, older than you thought, or already evaluated.

Editorial process

Last reviewed · August 18, 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

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

A trend you have seen, checked against the literature

Start from something you have actually observed, since the prompt says so, and describe it concretely: what changed, when you noticed it, and what it replaced. Candidates that are genuinely visible from the floor include the growth of telehealth and its partial retreat, hospital-at-home programmes, the spread of contract and travel staffing, artificial intelligence in documentation and triage, retail and employer-run primary care, remote patient monitoring, and the movement of behavioural health into primary care settings. Then do the literature check properly, and be willing to report a mismatch: the trend may be national or purely local to your organisation, it may be a decade old rather than new, and it may already have been evaluated with results that are more equivocal than the enthusiasm around it suggests. Saying so is a stronger post than confirming your own impression. Describing what it replaced is what makes it a trend rather than a thing you noticed.

The APRN role question then has to be specific about function rather than presence. In telehealth the advanced practice nurse is often the one delivering the service and the one whose licensure and payment rules constrain where it can be delivered. In hospital-at-home they carry the assessment that decides whether a patient stays home. In behavioural health integration they are frequently the prescriber the model depends on. Say what the APRN does that determines whether the trend works. Then take the safety and quality question in both directions, because the prompt asks about impact rather than benefit: remote monitoring generates alerts nobody has capacity to review; documentation automation introduces errors that look authoritative; contract staffing brings competent clinicians unfamiliar with local systems; and telehealth misses the examination finding that would have changed the plan. Name one risk and one safeguard, and cite the evidence rather than speculating.

Likely learning objectives

Describe an observed trend concretely, including what it replaced.
Test a personal observation against published evidence.
State the APRN's function within the trend rather than their presence.
Assess impact on safety in both directions.

Assignment instructions

Read the full question

Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.

NU580-7B Unit 2 DQ 2 Discussion Question/Prompt Answer one of the following questions: Identify a new trend that you have seen in healthcare, based on your personal experiences. What does the literature say about this trend? What is the role of the APRN in this trend? How will this impact patient safety and quality of care? Please be sure to validate your opinions and ideas with citations and references in APA format. Please review the rubric to ensure that your response meets the criteria. Estimated time to complete: 2 hours Discussion Peer/Participation Prompt Respond to at least two other student’s postings with substantive comments. Do you agree with your fellow students’ conclusions about the trend? Support your position. Substantive comments add to the discussion and provide your fellow students with information that will enhance the learning environment. NU580-7B Unit 2 DQ 2 References and citations should conform to APA standards. Remember: Please respect the opinions of others, even if their views differ. In other words, disagree professionally and respectfully. Plagiarism is never acceptable – give credit when credit is due – cite your sources. Responses need to address all components of the question, demonstrate critical thinking and analysis and include peer-reviewed journal evidence to support the student’s position. Please review the rubric to ensure that your response meets the criteria. Estimated time to complete: 1 hour

Course-wide instructions that accompany this question

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, 6th 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.

Turn the brief into deliverables

01A specific observed trend with a timeframe.
02What the literature says, including any mismatch with your impression.
03The APRN's determining function in the trend.
04One safety risk and one safeguard.
05Peer-reviewed support.