NURS 3100 – Issues and Trends in Nursing
Assignment 2: Workplace Issue Analysis and Professional Advocacy Paper

Course and assessment overview

Course: NURS 3100 – Issues and Trends in Nursing (RN–BSN)

Assessment type: Individual written assignment (workplace issue analysis and advocacy plan)

Suggested placement: Week 4 or 5, Assignment 2

Length: 1,200–1,500‑word academic paper (approximately 4–6 double‑spaced pages)

Weighting: 20–25% of total course grade

Assignment brief

Assignment title

Analyzing a Current Workplace Issue and Planning Professional Advocacy

Purpose

The purpose of this assignment is to move beyond describing problems in nursing and instead analyse one specific workplace issue in depth, connect it to current evidence and standards, and outline a realistic advocacy plan that fits your RN–BSN role. The focus stays on how individual nurses participate in system‑level improvement rather than solving everything alone.

Context

Nurses routinely encounter issues such as unsafe staffing, communication breakdowns, inequitable care, moral distress, and limited resources. These problems affect patient safety, staff well‑being, and public trust in nursing. As an RN completing a BSN, you are expected to recognize patterns, use evidence to frame problems, and participate in advocacy at the unit, organisation, or community level.

Task description

Write a 1,200–1,500‑word paper that analyzes a current workplace issue affecting nursing practice and outlines a feasible advocacy plan you can begin to implement.

In your paper, you must:

1. 1. Select and describe one current workplace issue in nursing. Choose an issue you know directly (for example, frequent missed breaks, unsafe nurse‑to‑patient ratios, inconsistent handoff communication, lack of interpreter services, or bullying and incivility). Describe the setting and the issue clearly without naming your organisation.
2. Explain why this issue matters. Discuss how the issue affects patients, nurses, and the broader healthcare team. Include at least one recent statistic, guideline, or research finding that supports your concerns.
3. Connect the issue to professional standards and ethics. Identify at least one professional standard, code of ethics principle, or organisational policy that is relevant to the issue, and briefly explain how the current situation aligns or conflicts with those expectations.
4. Summarise current evidence and recommended strategies. Using at least two recent peer‑reviewed articles, summarise what the literature says about addressing this type of issue (for example, staffing interventions, teamwork and communication tools, resilience and mental‑health supports, or equity‑focused changes).
5. Develop a realistic advocacy plan. Describe two to three specific actions you can take over the next 3–6 months in your role as an RN–BSN student or graduate to help address the issue. Indicate who you would need to work with, what resources you would need, and how you would know if your efforts were making a difference.
6. Reflect on your professional growth. Briefly explain what you will need to learn or strengthen (knowledge, skills, or attitudes) to advocate effectively on this issue and how this connects to your long‑term professional goals.

Assignment requirements

• Length: 1,200–1,500 words, excluding title page and reference list.
• Structure: Introduction with a clear purpose statement, logically organised body sections, and a concise conclusion that pulls the main points together.
• Sources: At least three recent (2018–2026) peer‑reviewed journal articles plus one professional standard, policy, or guideline.
• Style: Academic tone, clear paragraphing, and consistent referencing (e.g., APA or Harvard, as required by your programme).
• Confidentiality: Do not use real patient or colleague names; avoid identifiable organisational details.

Marking criteria (scoring rubric)

Criterion	Excellent (85–100%)	Proficient (70–84%)	Developing (55–69%)	Needs improvement (0–54%)	Weight
Clarity and significance of workplace issue	Issue is described clearly and specifically with enough context to understand the practice setting and impact; significance for patients and staff is compelling and well‑articulated.	Issue is described clearly with adequate context; significance is evident but may be less fully developed.	Issue is described in general terms with limited detail; significance is mentioned but not strongly supported.	Description is vague, confusing, or not clearly related to nursing practice; significance is unclear.	20%
Use of evidence and professional standards	Integrates multiple current sources and at least one relevant standard or code; evidence is well‑chosen and clearly connected to the issue and analysis.	Uses several relevant sources and at least one standard; some connections could be more explicit.	Includes a small number of sources; relevance or integration into the discussion is limited.	Evidence is minimal, outdated, or not clearly related; standards/codes are absent or misused.	25%
Depth of analysis	Provides thoughtful, logical analysis of underlying causes, consequences, and broader implications; goes beyond description to examine patterns and systems.	Offers clear analysis of main aspects of the issue with some insight into causes and implications.	Analysis is mostly descriptive or focused on surface details; limited discussion of causes or wider implications.	Very limited or inaccurate analysis; largely anecdotal or opinion‑based without critical thinking.	25%
Advocacy plan and feasibility	Advocacy actions are specific, realistic, and well aligned with the issue, evidence, and RN–BSN role; roles, timelines, and potential outcomes are clearly described.	Advocacy actions are clear and relevant but may lack some detail on feasibility or evaluation.	Advocacy actions are present but vague, generic, or only loosely connected to the analysis.	Few or no concrete advocacy actions; ideas are impractical or disconnected from the issue.	20%
Organisation, clarity, and referencing	Paper is well structured, flows logically, and is clearly written with minimal errors; referencing is accurate and consistent.	Organisation is clear with minor lapses; writing is understandable; referencing mostly correct.	Organisation is uneven; some sections are unclear; referencing shows noticeable errors.	Paper is difficult to follow; frequent language errors; referencing is inconsistent or incomplete.	10%

Many medical–surgical units have normalised staffing patterns where nurses routinely care for more patients than recommended, and that pattern slowly becomes invisible until adverse events, burnout, and turnover force attention back on the issue. Recent evidence shows that improved staffing levels and supportive work environments are associated with fewer missed care episodes and better patient outcomes, which means safe workloads are not only a staff satisfaction concern but also a patient‑safety requirement (Cho et al., 2020). When nurses use both local incident data and national research to frame staffing as a quality‑of‑care problem, conversations with managers, committees, and professional organisations tend to shift from individual coping strategies to collective advocacy for structural change.

References

1. Cho, E., Lee, N., Kim, E.Y. and Kim, S. 2020, ‘Effects of nurse staffing on missed nursing care and adverse patient outcomes’, BMC Health Services Research, vol. 20, no. 1, 235, viewed 28 January 2026, <https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-05337-9>.
2. Dall’Ora, C., Ball, J., Reinius, M. and Griffiths, P. 2020, ‘Burnout in nursing: a theoretical review’, Human Resources for Health, vol. 18, no. 1, 41, <https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-020-00469-9>.
3. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2021, The Future of Nursing 2020–2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity, The National Academies Press, Washington, DC, <https://doi.org/10.17226/25982>.
4. American Nurses Association 2015, Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements, American Nurses Association, Silver Spring, MD, viewed 28 January 2026, <https://www.nursingworld.org/coe-view-only>.
5. Lasater, K.B. et al. 2021, ‘Clinical nurse work environments, nurse burnout, and patient safety outcomes’, Medical Care, vol. 59, no. 10, pp. 858–864, <https://doi.org/10.1097/MLR.0000000000001583>.

• “Compose a 4–6‑page NURS 3100 assignment in which you describe a workplace issue in nursing, connect it to evidence and ethics, and design a practical advocacy plan for your RN–BSN role.”