Establishing Relationships and Influencing Change

Purpose:
The purpose of required threaded discussions is an interactive dialogue among instructors and students to assist the student in organizing, integrating, applying and critically appraising one’s knowledge regarding the nursing profession and selected area of practice. Scholarly information obtained from current sources as well as professional communication is required. Application of information to professional experiences promotes the analysis and use of principles, knowledge and information learned and related to real-life professional situations. Interactive dialogue among instructors and peers foster the development of a learning community as ideas, perspectives and knowledge is shared.

Total Points Possible: Varies with course, please see specific course syllabus. These guidelines are for a required threaded discussion worth 50 points. Please note that week 8 will be worth only 25 points.
Requirements:
Description of the Assignment
1. Initial posting: This is defined to be the initial post in which the student responds to the
required threaded discussion topic. The first posting by a student within the required
discussion area is considered to be the initial posting and will be evaluated using the rubric
criteria. Scholarship in communication is expected. Required scholarly source(s) provide
specific information that thoroughly address the required topic. For the initial posting,
one scholarly source must be presented. The scholarly source must be an outside
source. The student may use the required course textbook (s), assigned readings and lesson
information in the initial post; however, these are not considered outside scholarly sources.
2
This response does not require a scholarly reference unless information is paraphrased and/or direct quotes are used, then APA guidelines apply.  Peer responses must be a minimum of 150 words. References do not apply toward word count.