NRS-415 Nursing Leadership and Interprofessional Collaboration

Benchmark Assignment: Leadership Response to a Nursing Practice Issue

Assessment Overview

Course: NRS-415 Nursing Leadership and Interprofessional Collaboration / Nursing Leadership and Management (upper-division BSN or RN–BSN)
Assessment type: Individual benchmark leadership analysis paper focused on a nursing practice issue and leadership response
Length: 1,000 to 1,250 words, approximately four to five double-spaced pages, excluding the title page and references
Weighting: 20 to 25 percent of the course grade and positioned as a major written assignment in the middle or later weeks of the course
Purpose: Evaluate the student’s ability to analyse a significant nursing practice issue, appraise leadership approaches, and propose a feasible, evidence-based solution that considers quality, safety, and financial impact

Task Description

Topic Selection

Select one nursing practice issue commonly used in NRS-415 leadership assignments:

• Workplace violence

• Workplace injury

• Unit restructuring

• Floating within the organisation

• Nurse turnover

• Nurse staffing ratios

• Use of contract staff such as agency, registry, or travel nurses

Choose an issue that is clearly observable in your current or recent clinical environment so that you can discuss real-world implications for patient care quality, staff wellbeing, and organisational performance.

Required Paper Structure

Organise the paper using the following APA 7 level-one headings:

• Introduction

• Description of the Nursing Practice Issue

• Impact of the Issue on Quality and Safety

• Evidence-Informed Solution and Financial Considerations

• Leadership Style and Implementation Approach

• Conclusion

Section Guidance

Introduction (approximately 100 to 150 words)

• State the purpose of the paper, which is to analyse a significant nursing practice issue, propose an evidence-based solution, and examine leadership strategies that support implementation in a healthcare setting.

• Identify the selected issue and the general type of setting, such as an acute care unit, long-term care facility, or community health service, without naming specific organisations.

Description of the Nursing Practice Issue (approximately 200 to 250 words)

• Definition of the issue: Provide a clear and concise explanation of the practice issue so that a reader unfamiliar with the setting can understand its nature.

• Local context: Describe how the issue presents in your workplace or a recent clinical placement, including frequency, observable patterns, staff perceptions, and existing policies.

• Scope and urgency: Explain why the issue requires immediate leadership attention, such as rising incident rates, staff turnover, safety reports, or patient complaints.

Impact of the Issue on Quality and Safety (approximately 200 to 250 words)

• Quality of care: Analyse how the issue influences care processes and outcomes, including missed care, delays, errors, patient satisfaction, or continuity of care.

• Patient safety and staff wellbeing: Explain how the issue contributes to safety risks for patients and to negative outcomes for staff, such as burnout, moral distress, or intention to leave.

• Use of data: Support the discussion with at least one current research finding, benchmark, or national statistic that quantifies the impact of the issue.

Evidence-Informed Solution and Financial Considerations (approximately 250 to 300 words)

• Proposed solution: Present one coherent intervention or intervention bundle designed to address the selected issue.

• Evidence base: Summarise key research or guideline evidence supporting the effectiveness of the proposed solution.

• Financial implications: Identify major cost elements such as training, staffing, technology, or program development, along with potential cost offsets including reduced turnover, fewer adverse events, or lower overtime use.

• Feasibility: Discuss whether the solution is realistic within organisational budget constraints and whether phased implementation or pilot testing is required.

Leadership Style and Implementation Approach (approximately 250 to 300 words)

• Leadership style: Identify one leadership style most appropriate for addressing the issue, such as transformational, authentic, servant, transactional, or situational leadership.

• Justification: Explain why this style aligns with the clinical context and staff needs, using leadership theory and evidence related to change in healthcare organisations.

• Application to practice: Describe how a nurse leader using this style would communicate the need for change, engage staff and interprofessional partners, manage resistance, maintain psychological safety, and monitor outcomes during implementation.

Conclusion (approximately 100 to 150 words)

• Summarise the selected practice issue, its impact on quality and safety, the proposed solution, and the leadership approach most likely to support sustainable improvement.

• Reinforce the nurse leader’s responsibility to integrate evidence, ethical considerations, and financial realities into everyday decision-making.

Assignment Requirements and Formatting

• Length must be 1,000 to 1,250 words, using 12-point font, double spacing, and one-inch margins.

• A minimum of five current scholarly or authoritative sources published between 2018 and 2026 is required, including empirical research and leadership or change-management literature.

• APA 7th edition guidelines must be followed for in-text citations and the reference list.

• Writing must be formal and academic, with organisations and individuals anonymised.

• Original analysis is required, and reuse of prior coursework or online samples for the same assignment is not permitted.

Your Study Bay

Workplace violence has become a routine aspect of care delivery on many medical–surgical units, yet incident reporting often underrepresents its true prevalence because staff perceive verbal abuse and minor physical aggression as unavoidable. Repeated exposure to these events undermines psychological safety, contributes to burnout, and accelerates turnover, which disrupts team cohesion and continuity of care. Structured violence prevention programs that integrate staff education, clear reporting mechanisms, environmental risk assessment, and visible managerial follow-up have been shown to reduce incident rates and reinforce a culture of accountability and safety (Liu et al., 2022).

Leadership engagement plays a critical role in shaping how nursing practice issues are addressed at the unit and organisational levels. When nurse leaders consistently model transparent communication, support reporting without blame, and align improvement initiatives with frontline input, staff are more likely to participate in change efforts and sustain new practices. Research indicates that leadership behaviours grounded in relational trust and shared decision-making are associated with improved staff satisfaction and stronger safety cultures, particularly during periods of operational stress or workforce instability (Wong et al., 2019).

Learning Resources

Liu, J., Gan, Y., Jiang, H., Li, L. and Dwyer, R. (2022). Nurse leadership, workplace violence and turnover intention: A multi-site cross-sectional study. Journal of Nursing Management, 30(4), 1013–1022.

Shirey, M.R. (2020). Leadership in practice: Transformational and authentic leadership in nursing. Nursing Management, 51(12), 28–34.

Aiken, L.H., Sloane, D., Griffiths, P. et al. (2021). Nursing staffing and patient outcomes in 10 European countries: A cross-sectional study. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 118, 103923.

Clarke, S.P. and Donaldson, N.E. (2019). Nurse staffing and patient outcomes. In Hughes, R.G. (Ed.), Patient safety and quality: An evidence-based handbook for nurses. Rockville, MD: AHRQ.

Tourangeau, A.E., Wong, M. and Saari, M. (2020). Building and sustaining a healthy nursing work environment. Healthcare Management Forum, 33(4), 168–172.

Wong, C.A., Cummings, G.G. and Ducharme, L. (2019). The relationship between nursing leadership and patient outcomes: A systematic review update. Journal of Nursing Management, 27(1), 1–20.