| Course | NU753 Transforming the Health Care Organization |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 3 |
| Paper type | Discussion board post |
| Length | About 540 words, 2 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 discussion post |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for NU753 Unit 3
Same Goal, Two Staffing Models: A Discussion Post Arguing That Reporting Lines, Not Evidence, Chose How Each Hospital in a Composite System Gets Patients Walking the Day After Surgery
NU753 · Unit 3 Discussion Board Post
Posted by [Student Name]
The hospitals, staffing models and figures are composite; numbers are bracketed.
Initial Post
Both hospitals in our system set the same goal two years ago: surgical patients should walk outside their rooms within 24 hours of surgery. The system's quality dashboard shows how differently they did. Last year [41] percent of surgical patients at the flagship walked within 24 hours, against [68] percent at the community hospital.
The two hospitals chose different models. The flagship, where physical therapy is a separate department with its own director under operations, pays outpatient therapists a weekend premium to see inpatients on request, at about $[96,000] a year. The community hospital, where therapy is small and nursing controls most inpatient staffing, trained two mobility technicians who report to the nurse managers and walk patients on a schedule, at about $[88,000] a year in loaded wages. The costs are close; the results are not.
I would argue that each hospital chose the model its reporting lines made easiest, not the one the evidence favored. At the flagship, the nurse managers who own the goal could not hire mobility staff without a budget request crossing into the rehabilitation department, which was reluctant to create a role outside its licensure. Buying extra therapist hours was simpler. At the community hospital, nursing could create the technician role within its own budget. The evidence on early mobility supports scheduled, assisted walking rather than walking on request: in a randomized trial, older inpatients assisted to walk up to twice daily kept their community mobility after discharge better than those receiving usual care (Brown et al., 2016), and enhanced recovery programs treat early mobilization as a routine element of postoperative care rather than a referral (Ljungqvist et al., 2017).
The flagship bought more of the service its structure already had, and the community hospital built the role the goal actually needed.
My question for classmates: have you seen a goal in your organization met in different ways by different units, and could you trace the difference to who reports to whom?
Reply to [Classmate F.]
[Classmate F.], you suggested that the flagship's lower rate reflects sicker patients rather than the staffing model. That is a fair challenge, and the flagship does take more complex cases. The dashboard does not adjust for acuity, so I cannot rule it out. But even among elective colorectal patients, who are similar at both hospitals, the gap was about [20] points. Would an acuity-adjusted comparison be something your quality department could produce for a question like this?
Reply to [Classmate O.]
[Classmate O.], you described your hospital's mobility technician program being cut after a year because nobody could show it reduced length of stay. That is a warning I had not considered. Walking within 24 hours is a process measure, and a budget committee will ask about outcomes. Do you know what outcome your hospital would have accepted as proof, and would it have been realistic to measure in a year?
References
Brown, C. J., Foley, K. T., Lowman, J. D., Jr., MacLennan, P. A., Razjouyan, J., Najafi, B., Locher, J., & Allman, R. M. (2016). Comparison of posthospitalization function and community mobility in hospital mobility program and usual care patients: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA Internal Medicine, 176(7), 921-927. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.1870
Ljungqvist, O., Scott, M., & Fearon, K. C. (2017). Enhanced recovery after surgery: A review. JAMA Surgery, 152(3), 292-298. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamasurg.2016.4952
What the NU753 Unit 3 assignment asks for
The Unit 3 board asks you to compare how two organizations, or two parts of one, approached the same problem and to explain the difference in organizational terms. A strong post states the shared goal, gives each approach with its cost and results, makes one argument about why they differ, supports it with evidence, and asks classmates a question they can test in their own settings. An opening post near 450 words and two replies is common. Faculty reward posts that link the difference to structure, culture or incentives rather than to individual effort, use approximate but sourced figures, and acknowledge alternative explanations such as patient mix. Replies should take a classmate's challenge seriously and suggest how it could be tested.
How the NU 753 Unit 3 example is put together
The post opens with the shared goal and the dashboard figures for each hospital. The second paragraph describes each staffing model and its annual cost, showing that costs were close while results were not. The third argues that reporting lines chose each model, explaining why the flagship bought therapy hours and the community hospital created a nursing role, and cites a randomized trial of assisted walking and a review of enhanced recovery. The highlighted sentence contrasts buying more of an existing service with building the role the goal needed. A closing question asks classmates about their own organizations. One reply addresses acuity with elective patients; the other asks what outcome would have saved a program.
Reading the NU753 Unit 3 grading rubric
Discussion posts in NU753 are commonly scored on the quality of the comparison, organizational analysis, use of evidence, engagement and writing. The comparison earns credit when goals, approaches, costs and results are laid out on the same terms. Organizational analysis rewards an argument that explains the difference through structure, culture or incentives. Evidence is judged on whether it supports the claim about which approach works better. Engagement is credited when replies take on alternative explanations and suggest how to test them. Writing covers concision, APA citation and limits on length. Posts that invite classmates to apply the argument to their own settings usually earn the engagement points in full.
NU753 Unit 3 help from the desk
A frequent weakness is comparing two approaches without explaining why they differ. Another is attributing the difference to effort or leadership personalities rather than to structure. Some posts give results without costs, or costs without results. Others ignore obvious alternative explanations, such as sicker patients at one site. Many replies agree without testing the argument. And posts sometimes identify colleagues or units in ways that could embarrass them. Lay out both approaches on the same terms, make one organizational argument, support it with evidence, admit what could also explain the gap, and use your replies to test rather than to praise.
Get an NU753 Unit 3 example written to your instructions
Tell us which staffing problem your board poses and, if you can, the two organizations you plan to compare, even in general terms, with any limits on length or citations, plus the rubric. In 24-48h, free as a first custom sample, the post comes back comparing them on the same facts and explaining why each chose what it did. 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.
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NU753 Unit 3 questions, answered
Can both organizations be from my own health system?
Often, yes, and it can make the comparison sharper, since both sites share a parent, policies and a data dashboard, leaving local structure as the main difference. Some prompts require one outside organization, so the wording matters. The sample compares two hospitals in one composite system for exactly that reason, and it says so in its opening line.
Where do cost figures come from for a board post?
Posted pay ranges, departmental budget summaries, published salary surveys and, where a site shares it, finance reports. A board post needs approximate annual figures with a stated source, not audited numbers. The sample rounds both costs to the nearest thousand and names where each came from, which is usually the level of precision a discussion criterion expects.
What if the two organizations had different results for reasons unrelated to staffing?
Say so, as the sample's second reply does with acuity. Differences in patient mix, measurement or reporting often explain part of a gap, and a post that admits confounders reads as more credible than one attributing everything to the model it prefers. Proposing a fairer comparison, even one you cannot run yet, strengthens the argument.
Where can I find a free NU753 Unit 3 sample paper?
This page contains the full NU753 Unit 3 discussion post: the shared goal, two staffing models with costs and results, an argument that reporting lines chose each model, evidence on assisted walking and two replies, followed by two references. Drafting help for a comparison within your own system is available.
Why did the flagship buy therapy hours in NU753 Unit 3?
Physical therapy is a separate department under operations there, so creating a mobility role in nursing would have crossed departmental lines. Paying therapists a weekend premium was the path of least resistance within the existing structure.