SMSU Department Of Nursing

NURS 440

Module 13 Guide

Holistic Self-Care of the Nurse

Description of Module: This module brings together a potpourri of topics relate to self-care, such as holistic care, mindfulness, preventing burnout, and substance abuse. As a nurse and/or leader, caring for oneself is often overlooked. However to care and lead others effectively, you need to care for yourself. The student will be guided towards improved holistic self-care throughout this module.

Module Objectives:

1.  Discover the importance of holistic self-care and life-work balance

2. Distinguish three holistic self-care activities

3. Analyze self-care and mindfulness for nurses

Resources provided for module:

Readings:

American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2008).
The essentials of baccalaureate education for nursing practice.

Read Essential VIII on pages 26-29

Barber, J., & Courie, A. F. (2022). Stop pouring from an empty cup.
American Nurse Journal, 17(4), 62.

Cox, S., & Cohen, S. (2015). Essential skills for nurse managers. HCPro, a division of

BLR.

Read Chapters 19 & 24

Davidson, J. E., Choflet, A., Earley, M., Clark, P., Dilks, S., Morrow, L., Tucker, S., &

Mims, R. (2021). Nurse suicide prevention starts with crisis intervention.

American Nurse Today, 16(2), 14-18.

Howland, Lo. C., & Bauer-Wu, S. (2015). The mindful nurse.
American Nurse Today,

10(9), 12-43.

NIOSH [2024].
Impact Wellbeing™ Guide: Taking action to improve healthcare worker

wellbeing. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, DHHS (NIOSH) Publication 2024-109,

Nolan, S. (2022). Leading with self-empathy: Self-empathy can help leaders find

meaning and purpose during difficult times.
American Nurse Today, 17(2), 48.

Olsen, N. C. (2019). Mindful leaders are effective leaders.
Reflections on Nursing

Leadership, 45(3), 74-77.

Roux, N., & Benita, T. (2020). Best practices for burnout self-care.

Nursing Management, 51(10), 30-35.

White, K., & Fontaine, D. (2017).
Boost your nursing leadership career: 50

lessons that drive success. Health Administration Press.

Read Chapter 8, 47, & 48

Videos:

An Introduction to Mindfulness

Nurses Helping Nurses

Optional Reading:

Mindful Awareness

Optional Website:

National Institute of Health, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health

Additional Resources:

American Psychological Association (2020).
Publication manual of the American

Psychological Association (7th ed.).

Assignments:
This is the thirteenth module in NURS 440. The assignment due dates are found in the NURS 440 calendar.

Module 13 – assignments:

i.
Utilize Resources provided above

ii.
Discussion 4 (30 points)

Prepare a response to the topics listed below in a word document.

Place this word document (initial posting only) into the NURS 440 Discussion 4 Assignment Dropbox for Initial Posting found in Module 13 and utilize the Turn-it-in data that will be made available to you to prevent plagiarism. You may make changes to your initial posting in order to prevent plagiarism and resubmit it within this assignment dropbox as many times as you’d like. Please know that you are required to place the initial posting in the NURS 440 Discussion 4 Assignment Dropbox for Initial Posting noted above prior to placing it in the Discussion 4 area. You will receive 1 point for placing the item in the Discussion 4 Assignment Dropbox.

Once the Turn-it-in data has been reviewed and changes have been made to prevent plagiarism, please post the initial posting discussion response in the NURS 440 Discussion 4 area in Module 13. Be sure to follow the discussion rubric guidelines found at the bottom of this module guide.

Please note the due dates for postings on the NURS 440 calendar. It is important to know that as the faculty member, I am sensitive to our student’s busy schedules with family, work, and school. There are due dates for postings, created to allow productive discussions between students in this course. If students ever feel that meeting a due date creates a significant challenge for them, please let the faculty member know and we will discuss an alternative plan. If students do not contact the faculty member ahead of the due date to arrange alternative plans, the grading criteria for late submissions will be followed.

After the student completes their initial posting, and has responded to at least two other students, the student will self-grade their discussion using the NURS 440 Discussion 4 Self-Grading quiz, located within NURS 440 Module 13 content area. The student’s self-grade will be reviewed by the course instructor for accuracy, and adjusted as needed.

Discussion 4 Assignment:

Address the following points in your initial posting:

 

It is important for the professional nurse to practice self-care. The “essentials” state that the baccalaureate program prepares the graduate to “recognize the relationship between personal health, self-renewal, and the ability to deliver sustained quality care” (AACN, 2008, p. 28).

This week, you have been directed to several chapters, articles and videos on self-care and mindfulness. After reading and watching the materials, please answer the following questions and post your thoughts in the discussion forum. The goal of this discussion is to help you engage in self-reflection and to grow from feedback from your peers. Because of that, all citations in your work can be from the weekly readings.

1. What are some ways you are caring for yourself already (ie, keeping up on immunizations, engaging in a hobby, yoga)? How has this benefitted you as a nurse? Suppose you are trying to get a group together to participate in this practice. What would you say to encourage participation from your peers?

2. Is there some way in which you are finding it difficult to care for yourself (ie, getting enough sleep)? What would you like to incorporate into your lifestyle to care for yourself? Here is a potential question for your posting: Does anyone have any suggestions how you might improve in this area?

3. From the readings this week, what is at least one self-care practice you would like to incorporate into your lifestyle? How can you incorporate this? What will help you to make this a continued practice?

4. What do you personally see as the benefit of mindfulness? Can you give an example of how you have seen this used by yourself or another colleague? Can you think of a time when mindfulness was not used, but would have been beneficial?

Words of encouragement – optional activity for Module 13: Complete a holistic self-care activity this week for yourself. Perhaps go for a walk or bike ride, meditate, practice mindfulness, do an adult coloring activity….

Again, the goal of this discussion is to help you self-reflect on your self-care practices. I will be looking more at authentic communication and less on resources for all postings for this discussion.

Discussion Evaluation Rubric

Please note: Discussions are not collaborative team assignments. Discussions are to be completed individually by each student.

Initial assigned discussion posts are due by 11:59 PM on Thursday of the assignment week and a response to at least two other people is due by 11:59 PM on the following Sunday. Any discussion posts after the 11:59 PM deadline on Sunday will be given zero credit. It is expected that students
actively participate in the discussion forums. Each student is expected to contribute one initial discussion posting for each assigned discussion question, read all student’s initial discussion posts, and contribute participation discussion responses to at least two other student’s posts. Please note that when there are two discussion topics, at least one of your replies must be to the topic you did not address in your original post.

Students self-grade their initial posts each week by the following Thursday at 11:59 pm using the assigned Discussion Self-Grading tool in the NURS 440 course.

The faculty member will review the self-grades for accuracy and reserves the right to adjust any grades.

Read the entire rubric below – this will guide your discussion grade.

30 points
are possible for each discussion and will be assigned as follows:

Rating Points	Mechanics of Posting
6	Complete sentences, well organized, grammatically correct and free of spelling errors (have used spell check to help ensure this)
4	Complete sentences, well organized, but some (2 or less per paragraph) grammar and/or spelling errors
2	Complete sentences, comprehensible, organization could be improved to present a more coherent argument or statement, has three or more grammar and/or spelling errors per paragraph
0	Poor sentence structure inadequate organization, several grammar and/or spelling errors; run-on sentences. Initial discussion posting not completed by the Sunday night due date

Rating Points	Participation in Discussion
6	Makes postings on at least two different days (Thursday initial post due by 11:59PM, response to two peer postings are due by Sunday at 11:59PM). Responds to at least 2 peers’ postings.
4	Late first post and/or posts everything 1 day only. Responds to at least 2 peers’ postings
2	Responds to only 1 peer’s posting
0	Does not reply to or provides minimal comments and information to other participants. Initial discussion posting and/or replies to peers not completed by the Sunday night due date

Rating Points	Content of Initial Posting
6	Initial posting thoroughly addresses all parts of the discussion, is clearly and concisely stated, and demonstrates that the content was appropriately reviewed, understood, and synthesized. At least two references are presented for student’s initial posting. Posting includes a question related to the topic to stimulate further discussion. Posts by 11:59PM Thursday.
4	Initial posting addresses most, but not all, of the discussion. Comments are reasonably organized and demonstrate adequate familiarity and analysis of the content and posts by 11:59PM Thursday
2	Initial posting shows limited knowledge and evaluation of the topic or limited to information that could be derived from prior posts and/or late initial post
0	Message was unrelated to discussion Initial discussion posting not completed by the Sunday night due date

Rating Points	Critical Thinking Evidenced by Replies to Peer’s Postings
6	In replies to peer’s postings, offered a critical analysis of an existing posted idea or introduced a different interpretation to an existing idea. Critical analysis must be substantial, including support by a valid resource/reference, and may include a story about a related experience, a probing question, or point(s).  Analysis must include citations and references from the resource/reference utilized. When there are two topics for a discussion assignment, at least one of your peer replies must be to the question you did not address in your initial post.
4	Agreed or disagreed with existing discussion and provided limited justification/explanation
2	Agreed or disagreed with existing discussion but provided no justification/explanation or support.  Responds to two peers who responded to the same topic as your initial post.
0	Provided no evidence of agreement or disagreement with existing discussion Initial discussion posting and/or replies to peers not completed by the Sunday night due date

Rating Points	APA Format
6	Provides evidence-based, scholarly resources to support one’s position on the posed topic or idea; References for initial posting are correctly & accurately presented in APA format — uses in-text referencing within the posting
4	Provides evidence-based, scholarly resources, but uses incorrect APA Format for in-text referencing
2	Provides evidence-based, scholarly references and incorrect APA Format OR provides non-scholarly references with correct APA Format in-text
0	Provides no scholarly reference to support position/ideas in postings/discussion AND/OR uses no APA format Initial discussion posting not completed by the Sunday night due date

Rubric authored by Laura M. Schwarz, adapted by Nancyruth Leibold, further adapted by Laurie Johansen/Nancyruth Leibold, and again further adapted by Laurie Johansen

Checklist: A checklist has been created for you own personal use in each module in NURS 440. If you choose to use the checklist tool, it may provide you with a system to double check if you have everything done for each module.