Under NU434 Unit 9, a composite step-down nurse's self-care plan tests Three Good Things after each night shift against a ProQOL burnout score for six weeks. Searches like "nu 434 unit 9 assignment example", "nu434 unit 9 sample" and "nu434 unit 9 example" land here.
Three Good Things in the Parking Garage: A Six-Week Self-Care Plan Judged by a Burnout Score
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
NU434: Holistic Nursing
Unit 9 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Composite nurse written as a model document. Thresholds are set before starting.
My Current Pattern
Three 12-hour nights a week on a step-down unit. Sleep broken by daytime noise. A habit of replaying errors, real and imagined, on the drive home. None of this is a crisis; it is a slow wear I have noticed for about a year.
The Practice
After each shift, before driving home, I write three things that went well and the part I played in each. This is the Three Good Things exercise from positive psychology. In the original trial, writing three good things each night for a week was associated with higher happiness and fewer depressive symptoms for up to six months (Seligman et al., 2005). In a study of health care workers, the same practice was followed by lower emotional exhaustion (Sexton & Adair, 2019). Both studies have limits: participants chose to take part, and follow-up was short.
Schedule and Setting
Every worked night for six weeks: eighteen entries. Written in the parked car, in the notes app on my phone, before I start the engine. Tying the entry to the moment I get into the car attaches the practice to something I already do every shift, which is the main reason I expect it to last.
Measure and Rule
The burnout subscale of the Professional Quality of Life scale, taken at week 0 and week 6 (Stamm, 2010), and a count of entries completed. Rule, set now: continue if my burnout score falls and I complete at least 15 of 18 entries; if I complete fewer than 12, change the time or place before judging the practice itself.
What the Plan Leaves Out
Mandatory overtime and patient ratios are organizational matters I cannot set, and a three-line journal will not fix them. If my burnout score stays high despite completing the practice, that is information to take to my manager, not a personal failure.
Why This Belongs in My Practice
Among the core values in the holistic nursing standards is attention to the nurse's own reflection and care, on the grounds that a nurse's well-being affects the care she gives (American Holistic Nurses Association & American Nurses Association, 2019). This plan treats that value as something to test, not only to agree with. At week six I will share the result, whatever it is, with the two colleagues on my unit who asked about the practice, so that the decision to continue or stop is made in the open.
References
American Holistic Nurses Association & American Nurses Association. (2019). Holistic nursing: Scope and standards of practice (3rd ed.). American Nurses Association.
Seligman, M. E. P., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60(5), 410-421. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.60.5.410
Sexton, J. B., & Adair, K. C. (2019). Forty-five good things: A prospective pilot study of the Three Good Things well-being intervention in the USA for healthcare worker emotional exhaustion, depression, work-life balance and happiness. BMJ Open, 9(3), e022695. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-022695
Stamm, B. H. (2010). The concise ProQOL manual (2nd ed.). ProQOL.org.
How this NU434 Unit 9 example is structured
Each part of the plan answers one question a skeptical reader would ask. Why this practice: the evidence section summarizes the original positive psychology trial and the health care worker study, with their designs and limits, including self-selection and brief follow-up periods. Why this timing: tying entries to the end of a shift attaches the practice to an existing routine, which the plan cites as the reason it is likely to last. How success is judged: the ProQOL burnout score at weeks zero and six, plus a count of entries completed, with a stated rule for continuing. What the plan leaves out is also written down, since mandatory overtime and a patient ratio the writer cannot set are organizational matters. Lastly, the plan connects to the self-reflection and self-care core value in the AHNA standards.
Get an NU434 Unit 9 example written to your instructions
A self-care plan works best built on your actual schedule and a practice you would genuinely keep. Describe your shifts and the practice you are considering, add the Unit 9 prompt and rubric, and the sample returns within 24-48h, first request free, written to your instructions with a named measure and a stated test. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
NU434 Unit 9 questions, answered
Can the sample plan reflect my own details if I share them?
The sample can reflect the schedule and practice you describe, but the plan you submit should rest on your own experience, and on your own data if you carry it out. This page's example uses a composite nurse. Treat it as a model of structure and evidence, then substitute your routine, your chosen practice and your measurements.
Is the ProQOL free to use?
The Professional Quality of Life scale is freely available for non-commercial use with attribution, and nursing courses use it widely for that reason. It scores compassion satisfaction, burnout and secondary traumatic stress. If your instructor names another measure, such as a single-item burnout question or the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory, the measurement section can adopt it without changing anything else.
What if the practice I choose does not help?
Report that honestly. A plan with a measure can show no change, and that result is still useful: it tells you to adjust the practice, the timing or the expectation. Instructors generally value a clear account of what the data showed over a claimed improvement with nothing behind it. The sample includes a rule for what happens if scores do not move.