Hi! Today we will be going over the requirements for your Week 4 APN Development Plan paper.
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The purpose of this assignment is to give you an opportunity to explore the nurse practitioner (NP) scope of practice requirements in in the state where you plan to practice after graduation. You will also be taking a look at the NONPF NP competencies and leadership skills required in the NP role. You will be considering scholarly activities you can do to help yourself achieve the competencies and expand your leadership skills.
The due date for the assignment is Sunday 11:59 p.m. MT at the end of Week 4. Please submit the paper to the APN Development Plan Paper dropbox.
The Total Points Possible for the assignment is 200.
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The assignment will address course outcomes 1, 3, and 4.
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The assignment should be created using Microsoft Word. It will be graded on the quality of information you provide. Be sure to support your work with scholarly resources and include citations in APA format. Follow the rules for Standard English grammar and sentence structure. Content should be well-organized with appropriate transitions between paper sections.
Also, be sure to follow the assignment instructions and rubric closely. Scroll down in the assignment guidelines to see the criteria and point distribution.
If you have questions, post them in the Q & A Forum. If questions are of a more personal nature, please email your instructor.
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The paper should be 5-8 pages in length, excluding the title and reference pages. APA format is required, with both a title page and reference page.
Be sure to support ideas with a minimum of 3 scholarly sources. Also, while the minimum requirement is that you use material from at least three scholarly sources, it is expected that you provide appropriate reference support throughout the paper. You should have a reference citation for any ideas that are not your own and are not common knowledge. You may use first-person voice when describing the state where you plan to practice, and your personal strengths and opportunities for growth in relation to the competencies and leadership skills.
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Here are some reminders about what does and does not constitute a scholarly source.
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Be sure to include section headings in your paper. Including headings will make your paper easier to follow and will help you to be sure that you’ve covered all the required content. Information about how to format section headings is contained on page 62 of your APA Publication Manual. The first section of your paper is an introduction. Just a reminder, in APA format, the heading of the introductory section should be a restatement of the paper title, not the word Introduction.
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The first section of this paper is the introduction. Your introduction should provide a brief overview of what will be covered in the paper. Include some general statements on the nurse practitioner scope of practice, nurse practitioner competencies, and leadership. Be sure that you identify the purpose of your paper in the introduction.
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In the next section of the paper, you will explore the scope of practice guidelines for the state in which you plan to practice after graduation. Describe the educational and certification requirements for NPs in your state. Discuss whether your state is a full, reduced, or restricted practice state in relation to physician collaboration. Discuss the state’s guidelines for NP prescriptive authority. Are there any limitations or special requirements? The section should be supported by at least one scholarly resource. Your state’s board of nursing website is a good place to start looking for information for this section and may be used as your scholarly source.
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Next, you will explore the topic of nurse practitioner competencies. Please use the competencies described by the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties or NONPF. A link to the competencies document is located under the readings for week 2. Additional information about the competencies is provided in the week 4 lesson. Review the competencies. Describe two competency areas in which you feel you have strengths and two areas in which you would like to grow by the end of the program. For the areas in which you’d like to grow, discuss two scholarly activities you could do to help improve your competencies. Examples of things you could do might include joining a professional organization, doing a literature search in the library, finding a mentor, or participating in research or quality improvement initiatives in your current practice environment. Be sure to support this section with at least one scholarly source.
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As master’s prepared nurse practitioners, you will be in a position to provide professional leadership. There are many skills that help nurses be good leaders. Analyze three leadership skills the help NPs to provide leadership. Describe two strategies for improving your personal leadership skills. Provide support for this section from at least one scholarly source. A library search will yield a number of great articles on APN leadership.
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The conclusion of your paper should include a brief summary of what you discussed as well as a sentence or two tying everything together.
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Be sure to follow APA guidelines for formatting your paper. You may find it helpful to have your APA Manual on hand as you’re writing. If you are not familiar with APA or if you need more information, there are great tips and tools under the APA Citation and Writing link in Resources and in the library. Your paper will need to have title and reference pages. Some common APA errors include not having a running head on title page, putting extra spaces between paragraphs and references, using incorrect capitalization in references, or using incorrect in-text citation format.
Chapters 6 and 7 of your APA Manual contain a lot of detailed information and sample formatting for your references and in-text citations. If you are using direct quotes in your paper, be sure to put them in quotation marks and provide a page or paragraph number in the citation. Just note that it’s important to limit your use of direct quotes in graduate level writing. You are expected to synthesize ideas in your own words.
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Be sure that your writing follows Standard English rules for grammar, spelling, word usage, and punctuation. Limit the use of first-person voice unless you are talking about your personal competencies and leadership skills. You may also you first person voice when you discuss which state you plan to practice in. Content should be well-organized. Be sure to stay within the required page count. Part of writing at the graduate level involves being able to edit your work to fit assignment parameters.
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