NURS 6053 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

NURS 6053 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Sample Answer for NURS 6053 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue Included After Question

The Quadruple Aim provides broad categories of goals to pursue to maintain and improve healthcare. Within each goal are many issues that, if addressed successfully, may have a positive impact on outcomes. For example, healthcare leaders are being tasked to shift from an emphasis on disease management often provided in an acute care setting to health promotion and disease prevention delivered in primary care settings. Efforts in this area can have significant positive impacts by reducing the need for primary healthcare and by reducing the stress on the healthcare system.

Changes in the industry only serve to stress what has always been true; namely, that the healthcare field has always faced significant challenges, and that goals to improve healthcare will always involve multiple stakeholders. This should not seem surprising given the circumstances. Indeed, when a growing population needs care, there are factors involved such as the demands of providing that care and the rising costs associated with healthcare. Generally, it is not surprising that the field of healthcare is an industry facing multifaceted issues that evolve over time.

In this module’s Discussion, you reviewed some healthcare issues/stressors and selected one for further review. For this Assignment, you will consider in more detail the healthcare issue/stressor you selected. You will also review research that addresses the issue/stressor and write a white paper to your organization’s leadership that addresses the issue/stressor you selected.

RESOURCES

Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity.
Click the weekly resources link to access the resources.

WEEKLY RESOURCES

To Prepare:

• Review the national healthcare issues/stressors presented in the Resources and reflect on the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected for study.
• Reflect on the feedback you received from your colleagues on your Discussion post for the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected.
• Identify and review two additional scholarly resources (not included in the Resources for this module) that focus on change strategies implemented by healthcare organizations to address your selected national healthcare issue/stressor.

The Assignment (2-3 Pages):

Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Develop a 2 to 3 page paper, written to your organization’s leadership team, addressing your selected national healthcare issue/stressor and how it is impacting your work setting. Be sure to address the following:

• Describe the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected and its impact on your organization. Use organizational data to quantify the impact (if necessary, seek assistance from leadership or appropriate stakeholders in your organization).
• Provide a brief summary of the two articles you reviewed from outside resources on the national healthcare issue/stressor. Explain how the healthcare issue/stressor is being addressed in other organizations.
• Summarize the strategies used to address the organizational impact of national healthcare issues/stressors presented in the scholarly resources you selected. Explain how they may impact your organization both positively and negatively. Be specific and provide examples.

Looking Ahead

The paper you develop in Module 1 will be revisited and revised in Module 2. Review the Assignment instructions for Module 2 to prepare for your revised paper.

BY DAY 7 OF WEEK 2

Submit your paper.

SUBMISSION INFORMATION

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1. To submit your completed assignment, save your Assignment as WK2Assgn_LastName_Firstinitial
2. Then, click on Start Assignment near the top of the page.
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A Sample Answer For the Assignment: NURS 6053 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Title: NURS 6053 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

The Quadruple Aim provides broad categories of goals to pursue to maintain and improve healthcare. Within each goal are many issues that, if addressed successfully, may have a positive impact on outcomes. For example, healthcare leaders are being tasked to shift from an emphasis on disease management often provided in an acute care setting to health promotion and disease prevention delivered in primary care settings. Efforts in this area can have significant positive impacts by reducing the need for primary healthcare and by reducing the stress on the healthcare system.

Changes in the industry only serve to stress what has always been true; namely, that the healthcare field has always faced significant challenges, and that goals to improve healthcare will always involve multiple stakeholders. This should not seem surprising given the circumstances. Indeed, when a growing population needs care, there are factors involved such as the demands of providing that care and the rising costs associated with healthcare. Generally, it is not surprising that the field of healthcare is an industry facing multifaceted issues that evolve over time.

In this module’s Discussion, you reviewed some healthcare issues/stressors and selected one for further review. For this Assignment, you will consider in more detail the healthcare issue/stressor you selected. You will also review research that addresses the issue/stressor and write a white paper to your organization’s leadership that addresses the issue/stressor you selected.

From a general perspective, healthcare provision involves identifying health problems
affecting the populace and developing practical intervention measures. As this happens, policies
are made to streamline care delivery as healthcare providers keep learning to improve outcomes.
The overall mandate of care providers is to enhance patient safety while striving to optimize
quality always. However, everything does not occur smoothly as envisioned since many
healthcare stressors affect care delivery and prevent healthcare providers from meeting the set
goals. This paper assesses the impacts of nursing shortage as a pertinent healthcare issue at the
organizational level and summarizes evidence-based interventions applied by other
organizations.

A Sample Answer 3 For the Assignment: NURS 6053 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Title: NURS 6053 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

The selected national stressor in the healthcare sector for the assignment is medical errors. Medical errors have been defined as the failure of undertaking or completing planned actions as intended or completion utilizing a wrong plan. Medical errors results in negative health outcomes such as harm to patients (Makary & Daniel, 2016). Medical errors are a critical issue being experienced in the US healthcare systems. It is estimated that medical errors account for 3.9% of all the events in patients hospitalized with cardiac problems. The incidence of medical errors in the U.S. healthcare system is estimated to be 25 in every 100 outpatients. This rate makes medical errors the most frequent cause of injury caused by medical care in not only the US but also other developed economies. It is further reported that between 44000 and 98000 people in the US die on an annual basis from adverse events due to medical errors (Ohta et al., 2019).  

Impact on My Organization 

The issue of medical errors is not only affecting the state but also our organization too. The impacts of medical errors are evident in the institution. One of them is the increased hospital stay among the admitted patients. Patients who suffer adverse events of medical errors often stay too long in the hospital due to unintended care needed by them. The other impact is the increase in the operational costs. The insurance reimbursement claims due to incidences of medical errors have also been high in the institution. The hospital also has to spend its resources in lawsuits due to harm in care. The last impact is the rise in the mortality rate in the affected patients. Patients with chronic conditions such as heart failure and kidney disease often die due to the complications of medical errors (Kaur et al., 2019). Therefore, these effects of medical errors have affected the ability of my organization to achieve its objectives.  

Article Summary on How the Issue is Being Addressed in Other Organizations 

The articles that were selected to explore the issue of medical errors include those by FDA (2019) and Pérez et al. (2019). The article by FDA (2019) reveals that the incidence of medical errors in the US is high. The number of reported medical errors annually in the state is more than 100,000. The outcomes of these errors include disability, hospitalization, and death. Pérez et al. (2019) echo similar assertions in their research where medical errors were identified as the leading stressors experienced in not only the US healthcare system but also globally too. The articles by Pérez et al. (2019) and FDA (2019) provide practical solutions that health organizations in America can embrace to address the issue of medical errors. They include container labelling and proprietary branding to minimize the risk of confusion in drug dispensing. The articles also point the need for provider training, prioritized counselling to providers, and refresher training opportunities to minimize the risk of medical errors (FDA, 2019; Pérez et al., 2019). Health organizations in my state have embraced a number of interventions to address the issue of medical errors in their setting. They include increasing nurse to patient ratio to minimize burnout, adopting technology use to increase efficiency, improving inter-professional communication, and incident reporting and review to minimize the risk of future occurrence of medical errors.  

Strategies Used to Address the Impacts of the Stressor and Impact on my Organization 

Studies have been conducted to identify and determine the effectiveness of various strategies utilized to address the issue of medical errors. The research by Zikhani (2016) provides a seven-step approach that health organizations can use to prevent and minimize the risk of medical errors. The seven steps include health provider education and training, development of rules and policies, implementation of protocols such as checklists and reminders and simplifications and standardization of procedure. The steps also include automation and computerization of organizational functions and forcing function. According to Zikhani (2016), an effective use of these seven steps of preventing and minimizing medical errors creates patient safety culture in an organization. Consistent findings to the above are seen in the study by Adelman et al. (2017) where automation and computerization of operations in the NICU resulted in the significant reduction in wrong-patient orders. Distinct naming of drugs and ID re-entry was also associated with a significant reduction in the overall incidence rate of medical errors. Other strategies proposed by Rishoej et al. (2018) in their study include standardization of procedures, provide education, refresher training for skill acquisition, and the adoption of double-check processes to minimize the risk of confusion.  

The above strategies have significant implications to our hospital. They increase the need for the provision of training to the healthcare providers on different types of medical errors and ways of preventing them. They also raise the need for the provision of refresher training courses to the healthcare providers to ensure that they remain up-to-date on the effective strategies to address the issue of medical errors. The other implication is the need for the development and implementation of policies and regulations that relate to medication errors in the organization. The hospital needs to develop policies that guide the manner in which medical errors in the institution are prevented and addressed. The last implication is the need for provider transparency and responsibility in communicating error incidences. Medical errors should be utilized as a learning tool rather than for punitive purposes. The lessons learned from the errors are used to prevent similar occurrences in the future. Therefore, the strategies have a positive impact on the organization. 

 

References 

Adelman, J. S., Aschner, J. L., Schechter, C. B., Angert, R. M., Weiss, J. M., Rai, A., Berger, M. A., Reissman, S. H., Yongue, C., Chacko, B., Dadlez, N. M., Applebaum, J. R., Racine, A. D., & Southern, W. N. (2017). Evaluating Serial Strategies for Preventing Wrong-Patient Orders in the NICU. Pediatrics, 139(5). https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-2863 

FDA. (2019). Working to Reduce Medication Errors. FDA. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-information-consumers/working-reduce-medication-errors 

Kaur, A. P., Levinson, A. T., Monteiro, J. F. G., & Carino, G. P. (2019). The impact of errors on healthcare professionals in the critical care setting. Journal of Critical Care, 52, 16–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrc.2019.03.001 

Makary, M. A., & Daniel, M. (2016). Medical error—The third leading cause of death in the US. Bmj, 353. 

Ohta, Y., Miki, I., Kimura, T., Abe, M., Sakuma, M., Koike, K., & Morimoto, T. (2019). Epidemiology of Adverse Events and Medical Errors in the Care of Cardiology Patients. Journal of Patient Safety, 15(3), 251–256. https://doi.org/10.1097/PTS.0000000000000291 

Pérez, C. D., Fuentes, P. S., García, E. J., Pérez, C. D., Fuentes, P. S., & García, E. J. (2019). Addressing medical errors: An intervention protocol for nursing professionals. Revista Da Escola de Enfermagem Da USP, 53. https://doi.org/10.1590/s1980-220×2018012703463 

Rishoej, R. M., Lai Nielsen, H., Strzelec, S. M., Fritsdal Refer, J., Allermann Beck, S., Gramstrup, H. M., Thybo Christesen, H., Juel Kjeldsen, L., Hallas, J., & Almarsdóttir, A. B. (2018). Qualitative exploration of practices to prevent medication errors in neonatal intensive care units: A focus group study. Therapeutic Advances in Drug Safety, 9(7), 343–353. https://doi.org/10.1177/2042098618771541 

Zikhani, R. (2016). Seven-step pathway for preventing errors in healthcare. Journal of Healthcare Management, 61(4), 271–281. 

A Sample Answer 4 For the Assignment: NURS 6053 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Title: NURS 6053 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

The value of nursing care has a direct relationship with quality and safety outcomes. The nursing shortage is a persistent national health issue affecting the ability of nurses to provide effective nursing care to patients; thus, undermining the safety and quality of care. The effects of the nursing shortage in healthcare are multifaceted impacting nurses, patients, and healthcare organizations. Nursing shortage leads to work overload, resulting in burnout and stress for nurses. According to studies, burnout and stress has multiple negative outcomes, including medication errors, adverse events, high rates of infections, patient safety issues, poor nurse performance, high turnover rates, increased length of hospital stay, and negative patient experience(Dall’Ora et al., 2020). These factors have quality and safety implications as hospitals struggle to enhance the patient experience, reduce infection, adverse events, length of hospital stay, and other quality indicators and improve overall population health. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of the nursing shortage at my organization and identify possible strategies for remedying the healthcare stressor from scholarly sources.

National Healthcare Issue/Stressor and Its Impact on the Organization

A recent quality assessment and audit at my organization revealed several issues negatively impacting quality and safety outcomes. First, the review noted a higher rate of hospital-acquired infections (HAI) than the value of last year’s review. Secondly, the assessment also pointed out that some patients had a longer hospital stay (LOS) than necessary. Thirdly, the review revealed significant cases of medication errors and adverse events such as avoidable patient falls. A separate assessment investigating the experience of nurses and patients with work and care, respectively, also showed that nurses are stressed because of the high workload. A significant portion of the patient population surveyed reported a low level of satisfaction with the services and care experience. Equally, nurses reported high workload, stress, and low job satisfaction.

Summary of Two Articles

The article, A nursing shortage – a prospect of global and local policies, examines the factors driving nursing shortage around the world, primarily, the rising population of senior citizens. According to the article, the nursing shortage has no single cause but multiple interrelated factors. Some of the contributors tothe nursing shortage include ineffective planning and utilization of nursing resources, demographic changes, and poor recruitment practices (Marć et al., 2018). The authors provide strategies for addressing the nursing shortage from policies point of view. Similarly, the article, Discuss Reasons for Acute and Chronic Problems with The Crisis of Nursing, acknowledges that recruitment and retention of nurses remains a crisis in countries worldwide. The author argues that one of the causes of the perennial nursing shortage is the nursing education structure, which dwells on theory and allocates less time for practical experience (Wada, 2020). As such, nurses enter the profession with less practical experience, giving them anxiety and a high tendency to quit. Additionally, the article notes that time constraints and high workloads limit the nurses’ ability to deliver ideal care(Wada, 2020).

Recognizing the negative implications of the nursing shortage, organizations have come up with strategies attempting to address the issue and enhance patient outcomes. One of the strategies implemented in other organizations is an onboarding program to reduce new nurses’ turnover rates. A recent RN Staffing report reveals that the turnover rate for novice nurses is 18.7%, a 2.8% increase from the 2020 survey (NSI Nursing Solutions, 2021). Novice nurses are likely to resign because of poor organizational culture, bullying, challenging clinical environment, and feelings of isolation. Onboarding programs help new nurses feel welcomed, supported, and part of the community. The second strategy used in other organizations is long-term training and development of nurses. Studies link training and development to motivation, staff engagement, better performance, and staff satisfaction, reducing turnover rates (Zahoor & Mustafa, 2020).

Summary of Strategies Used To Address the Organizational Impact of Nursing Shortage

The articles selected provide various strategies for addressing nurse shortages. According to Wada (2020),higher wages attract and retain nurses leading to a low turnover rate. Additionally, improving the relationship between nurses and physicians and other healthcare workers is essential as nurses want recognition and respect, enhancing motivation. An additional strategy is to identify and address the negative factors affecting the work environment, such as hard shifts and heavy workload. Similarly, managerial support and the adoption of information technology to eliminate manual work are also strategies for improving nurse retention rates (Wada, 2020). Strategies reported by Marć et al. (2018) include salary regulation to ensure fair compensation, creating a positive work environment, implementing information technology, and introducing lifelong learning for professional development. My organization can benefit from these strategies to improve staff retention. For example, introducing an onboarding program for novice nurses is a good idea, as most face challenges acclimatizing with the organizational culture, work environment, and challenging shifts, causing them frustrations that lead to turnover. Nevertheless, the organization will face challenges implementing some of these strategies; for example, salary increase and training and development require resources, yet, the organization’s financial resources are already strained.

Conclusion

Nurse shortage is a profound health stressor that undermines quality and safe care services to patients and populations. Scholarly articles provide several strategies to address the problem, promote nurse retention, and improve the quality and safety of care. One strategy is increasing wages to ensure fair compensation for the challenging nursing work and enhance motivation. The second strategy is introducing training and development to help nurses learn new skills and knowledge and attain professional development. Other techniques are creating a positive work environment, implementing an onboarding program for new nurses, effective management, and implementing information technology to reduce workload.

 

References

Dall’Ora, C., Ball, J., Reinius, M., & Griffiths, P. (2020). Burnout in nursing: a theoretical review. Hum Resour Health, 18, 41. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-020-00469-9.

Marć, M., Bartosiewicz, R., Burzyńska, J., Chmiel, Z., & Januszewicz, P. (2018). A nursing shortage – a prospect of global and local policies. International Nursing Review, 9-16. https://doi.org/10.1111/inr.12473.

NSI Nursing Solutions. (2021). 2021 NSI National Health Care Retention & RN Staffing Report. NSI Nursing Solutions, Inc.

Wada, Y. (2020). Discuss reasons for acute and chronic problems with the crisis of nursing shortage in relation to nursing education and review The Strategies and. Nursing & Primary Care, 4(4), 1-4. https://www.scivisionpub.com/pdfs/discuss-reasons-for-acute-and-chronic-problems-with-the-crisis-of-nursing-shortage-in-relation-to-nursing-education-and-review-the-1337.pdf.

Zahoor, H., & Mustafa, N. (2020). Training and development and health workers’ motivation and performance. Intraders.

A Sample Answer 5 For the Assignment: NURS 6053 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Title: NURS 6053 Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

A national healthcare issue I have selected for this discussion is shortage of healthcare workers, especially nurses. Nursing shortage is one major issue that I have experienced since I began working as a nurse some years back.  “According to the American Nurses Association (ANA) there is a shortage of 7.2 million healthcare workers with regard to health needs, whereas the report by the ‘Third Global Forum on Human Resources for Health’ estimates that by 2035, the nursing deficit will reach 12.9 million. (Rya & Shim, 2021). Working in skilled transitional care unit, nursing shortage creates unsafe nurse to patient staffing ratios.  Unlike California, Maryland does not have a specific nurse-to-patient ratio in every hospital Unit, as a result, I have worked shifts with three patients; two of those were intubated on full ventilator support.  An appropriate skilled assignment is one nurse for one invasively ventilated patient due to the close monitoring required to adequately care for the patient. (Broome & Marshall, 2021).

Impact on Work Setting

Nursing shortage has negatively impacted my work setting in several ways. It produced poor patient experience of care, low staff retention, and increased hospital acquired infections.   When patient load exceeds available nurses, patient experience is compromised.  Patients become aware that their nurses were difficult to call at bedside or spent their time tasking, instead of showing care and compassion.  Also, unsafe staffing ratios increases burnout and nurses tend to leave for higher education or a different career entirely.  Patient care is also compromised with nursing shortage.  Studies have found increased length of stay for patients when higher nurse-to-patient ratios result in more complications (Heinz, 2021).  For example, one transitional care unit nurse with three patients (all requiring total care) will not be able to turn patients every two hours for pressure ulcer prevention and provide mouth care every two hours for ventilator associated pneumonia prevention.  Hence, increase in hospital acquired injuries or infections.

Strategies to address this stressor.

Finding ways to survive the nursing shortage at my work setting can be challenging for nurse leaders and the facility as a whole. Several techniques such as listening to nurses concerns, prioritizing workplace culture, adjusting protocol to meet nurse’s needs, addressing and supporting nurses are different avenues the facility had utilized to help solve the issue, but overall, Listening to Nurses Concerns is the most effective mechanism of all.  Simply listening to nurses’ concerns had help the facility in retaining nurses, nurses want to feel their loyalty to a system is of value, and not as though it is actually being used against them. Finally, administrators and finance department agreed offering sign-on bonuses, three times higher pay, and flexibility with schedules so as to address the staffing issues.

Grading Rubric

Performance Category	100% or highest level of performance 100% 16 points	Very good or high level of performance 88% 14 points	Acceptable level of performance 81% 13 points	Inadequate demonstration of expectations 68% 11 points	Deficient level of performance 56% 9 points	Failing level of performance 55% or less 0 points
Total Points Possible= 50	16 Points	14 Points	13 Points	11 Points	9 Points	0 Points
Scholarliness Demonstrates achievement of scholarly inquiry for professional and academic topics.	Presentation of information was exceptional and included all of the following elements: Provides evidence of scholarly inquiry relevant to required TD topic(s). Presents specific information from scholarly sources to develop a comprehensive presentation of facts. Uses at least one outside scholarly reference that is relevant, less than 5 years old (use of older references requires instructor permission) and reliable for the required topic.* Uses in-text citation and full reference at end of posting when presenting another person’s thoughts as quotes or paraphrase of information.	Presentation of information was good, but was superficial in places and included all of the following elements: Provides evidence of scholarly inquiry relevant to required TD topic(s). Presents specific information from scholarly sources to develop a comprehensive presentation of facts. Uses at least one outside scholarly reference that is relevant, less than 5 years old (use of older references requires instructor permission) and reliable for the required topic.* Uses in-text citation and full reference at end of posting when presenting another person’s thoughts as quotes or paraphrase of information.	Presentation of information was minimally demonstrated in all of the following elements: Provides evidence of scholarly inquiry relevant to required TD topic(s). Presents specific information from scholarly sources to develop a comprehensive presentation of facts. Uses at least one outside scholarly reference that is relevant, less than 5 years old (use of older references requires instructor permission) and reliable for the required topic.* Uses in-text citation and full reference at end of posting when presenting another person’s thoughts as quotes or paraphrase of information.	Presentation of information is unsatisfactory in one of the following elements: Provides evidence of scholarly inquiry relevant to required TD topic(s). Presents specific information from scholarly sources to develop a comprehensive presentation of facts. Uses at least one outside scholarly reference that is relevant, less than 5 years old (use of older references requires instructor permission) and reliable for the required topic.* Uses in-text citation and full reference at end of posting when presenting another person’s thoughts as quotes or paraphrase of information.	Presentation of information is unsatisfactory in two of the following elements: Provides evidence of scholarly inquiry relevant to required TD topic(s). Presents specific information from scholarly sources to develop a comprehensive presentation of facts. Uses at least one outside scholarly reference that is relevant, less than 5 years old (use of older references requires instructor permission) and reliable for the required topic.* Uses in-text citation and full reference at end of posting when presenting another person’s thoughts as quotes or paraphrase of information.	Presentation of information is unsatisfactory in three or more of the following elements Provides evidence of scholarly inquiry relevant to required TD topic(s). Presents specific information from scholarly sources to develop a comprehensive presentation of facts. Uses at least one outside scholarly reference that is relevant, less than 5 years old (use of older references requires instructor permission) and reliable for the required topic.* Uses in-text citation and full reference at end of posting when presenting another person’s thoughts as quotes or paraphrase of information
	16 Points	14 Points	13 Points	11 Points	9 Points	0 Points
Application of Course Knowledge Demonstrate the ability to analyze and apply principles, knowledge and information learned in the outside readings and relate them to real-life professional situations	Presentation of information was exceptional and included all of the following elements: Applies principles, knowledge and information from scholarly resources to the required topic. Applies facts, principles or concepts learned from scholarly resources to a professional experience. Application of information is comprehensive and specific to the required topic.	Presentation of information was good, but was superficial in places and included all of the following elements: Applies principles, knowledge and information from scholarly resources to the required topic. Applies facts, principles or concepts learned from scholarly resources to a professional experience. Application of information is comprehensive and specific to the required topic.	Presentation of information was minimally demonstrated in the all of the following elements: Applies principles, knowledge and information from scholarly resources to the required topic. Applies facts, principles or concepts learned from scholarly resources to a professional experience. Application of information is comprehensive and specific to the required topic.	Presentation of information is unsatisfactory in one of the following elements: Applies principles, knowledge and information from scholarly resources to the required topic. Applies facts, principles or concepts learned from and scholarly resources to a professional experience. Application of information is comprehensive and specific to the required topic.	Presentation of information is unsatisfactory in two of the following elements: Applies principles, knowledge and information from scholarly resources to the required topic. Applies facts, principles or concepts learned from scholarly resources to a professional experience. Application of information is comprehensive and specific to the required topic.	Presentation of information is unsatisfactory in three of the following elements Applies principles, knowledge and information and scholarly resources to the required topic. Applies facts, principles or concepts learned scholarly resources to a professional experience. Application of information is comprehensive and specific to the required topic.
	10 Points	9 Points			6 Points	0 Points
Interactive Dialogue Initial post should be a minimum of 300 words (references do not count toward word count) The peer and instructor responses must be a minimum of 150 words each (references do not count toward word count) Responses are substantive and relate to the topic.	Demonstrated all of the following: Initial post must be a minimum of 300 words. The peer and instructor responses must be a minimum of 150 words each. Responses are substantive Responses are related to the topic of discussion.	Demonstrated 3 of the following: Initial post must be a minimum of 300 words. The peer and instructor responses must be a minimum of 150 words each. Responses are substantive Responses are related to the topic of discussion.			Demonstrated 2 of the following: Initial post must be a minimum of 300 words. The peer and instructor responses must be a minimum of 150 words each. Responses are substantive Responses are related to the topic of discussion.	Demonstrated 1 or less of the following: Initial post must be a minimum of 300 words. The peer and instructor responses must be a minimum of 150 words each. Responses are substantive Responses are related to the topic of discussion.
	8 Points	7 Points	6 Points	5 Points	4 Points	0 Points
Grammar, Syntax, APA Points deducted for improper grammar, syntax and APA style of writing. The source of information is the APA Manual 6th Edition Error is defined to be a unique APA error. Same type of error is only counted as one error.	The following was present: 0-3 errors in APA format AND Responses have 0-3 grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors AND Writing style is generally clear, focused on topic,and facilitates communication.	The following was present: 4-6 errors in APA format. AND/OR Responses have 4-5 grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors AND/OR Writing style is somewhat focused on topic.	The following was present: 7-9 errors in APA format. AND/OR Responses have 6-7 grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors AND/OR Writing style is slightly focused on topic making discussion difficult to understand.	The following was present: 10- 12 errors in APA format AND/OR Responses have 8-9 grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors AND/OR Writing style is not focused on topic, making discussion difficult to understand.	The following was present: 13 – 15 errors in APA format AND/OR Responses have 8-10 grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors AND/OR Writing style is not focused on topic, making discussion difficult to understand. AND/OR The student continues to make repeated mistakes in any of the above areas after written correction by the instructor.	The following was present: 16 to greater errors in APA format. AND/OR Responses have more than 10 grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors. AND/OR Writing style does not facilitate communication
	0 Points Deducted					5 Points Lost
Participation Requirements	Demonstrated the following: Initial, peer, and faculty postings were made on 3 separate days					Failed to demonstrate the following: Initial, peer, and faculty postings were made on 3 separate days
	0 Points Lost					5 Points Lost
Due Date Requirements	Demonstrated all of the following: The initial posting to the graded threaded discussion topic is posted within the course no later than Wednesday, 11:59 pm MT. A minimum of one peer and one instructor responses are to be posted within the course no later than Sunday, 11:59 pm MT.					Demonstrates one or less of the following. The initial posting to the graded threaded discussion topic is posted within the course no later than Wednesday, 11:59 pm MT. A minimum of one peer and one instructor responses are to be posted within the course no later than Sunday, 11:59 pm MT.