NURS 489 is Liberty's BSN leadership course. Its written work is five discussion forums, a servant leader interview (presentation and paper), a delegation-focused nursing peer interviews paper and a 20-slide group project on leadership from De Pree's Leadership Jazz.
Liberty's catalog lists the course as NURS 489 Leadership in Nursing, 3 credit hours; Canvas and the course guide file print it as NURS489.
What NURS 489 covers
The catalog description: Benner's work on the novice to expert continuum and the seven domains of nursing will be explored, and students will apply concepts to their own practices, past, present, and future. The leadership roles of the nurse as an individual and a group member while utilizing the Christian principles such as godly character, servant attitude, honesty, and commitment will be emphasized. While caring for groups of patients and individuals, students will explore a variety of content areas including systems theory, professional practice models, care delivery models, nurse sensitive quality indicators, and foundational documents that drive the nursing profession that are relevant to the support of nursing care in the practice setting, the influence of regulatory agencies on the delivery of care, and health policies that affect health care in general. Students are expected to synthesize previously learned knowledge in complex nursing situations and to expand their abilities to use the problem-solving and decision-making processes.
The course explores Benner's novice-to-expert continuum and the nurse's leadership role as an individual and a group member, emphasizing Christian principles such as godly character, servant attitude, honesty and commitment. Content includes systems theory, professional practice and care delivery models, nurse-sensitive quality indicators, regulatory influences and health policy. The texts are De Pree, Leadership Jazz; Finkelman, Leadership and Management for Nurses; and Patterson et al., Crucial Conversations.
The group project runs through the course with three individual benchmarks (Weeks 2, 4 and 6) before the final 20-slide PowerPoint with speaker's notes in Week 8; the benchmarks assess each member's contribution and are covered in the group project guide below.
Textbook named in the published guide: De Pree, Leadership Jazz: The Essential Elements of a Great Leader (2008). Finkelman, Leadership and Management for Nurses (2016). Patterson et al., Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High (2012). Check the current edition in your Canvas section.
NURS 489 assignments, week by week
Every graded written assignment in the published guide has its own how-to guide below. Quizzes, exams, checklists and class introductions are left out because there is nothing to write.
| Week | Assignment | Points | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Discussion Board Forum 1 | 75 | Thread at least 400 words |
| 2 | Discussion Board Forum 2 | 75 | Thread at least 400 words |
| 3 | Servant Leader Interview | 160 | 10 to 20 slides lasting at least 5 to 10 minutes, plus a 3 to 4-page paper |
| 4 | Discussion Board Forum 3 | 75 | Thread at least 400 words |
| 5 | Nursing Peer Interviews | 160 | 3 to 4 pages (title and reference pages not counted) |
| 6 | Discussion Board Forum 4 | 75 | Thread at least 400 words |
| 7 | Discussion Board Forum 5 | 75 | Thread at least 400 words |
| 8 | Group Project | 200 | 20 slides with speaker's notes |
Week 1: Discussion Board Forum 1
A 400-word thread with 2 citations and two 200-word replies, each with a source and a biblical reference. How to write NURS 489 Week 1 Discussion Board Forum 1.
Week 2: Discussion Board Forum 2
The second forum: a 400-word thread with 2 citations and two 200-word replies with a source and a biblical reference. How to write NURS 489 Week 2 Discussion Board Forum 2.
Week 3: Servant Leader Interview
Interview a nurse who models servant leadership, present the interview in Adobe Spark, and write a 3 to 4-page APA paper. How to write NURS 489 Week 3 Servant Leader Interview.
Week 4: Discussion Board Forum 3
The third forum: a 400-word thread with 2 citations and two 200-word replies with a source and a biblical reference. How to write NURS 489 Week 4 Discussion Board Forum 3.
Week 5: Nursing Peer Interviews
A 3 to 4-page paper on your state's delegation rules and three peers' awareness of them, with 2 recent scholarly sources and biblical principles. How to write NURS 489 Week 5 Nursing Peer Interviews.
Week 6: Discussion Board Forum 4
The fourth forum: a 400-word thread with 2 citations and two 200-word replies with a source and a biblical reference. How to write NURS 489 Week 6 Discussion Board Forum 4.
Week 7: Discussion Board Forum 5
The last forum: a 400-word thread with 2 citations and two 200-word replies with a source and a biblical reference. How to write NURS 489 Week 7 Discussion Board Forum 5.
Week 8: Group Project
The group's 20-slide PowerPoint on leadership from De Pree's Leadership Jazz, with speaker's notes on every slide. How to write NURS 489 Week 8 Group Project.
How NURS 489 is graded
The published guide totals 1,010 points. The five forums are 75 each (375). The group project is 200, plus 105 for its three benchmarks (25, 30 and 50). The servant leader interview and the nursing peer interviews are 160 each, and the checklist 10.
| Graded item | Points |
|---|---|
| Discussion Board Forums (5) | 375 |
| Group Project | 200 |
| Group Project Benchmarks (3) | 105 |
| Servant Leader Interview | 160 |
| Nursing Peer Interviews | 160 |
| Course Requirements Checklist | 10 |
The published scale puts an A at 900 to 1010 points.
Week timing in the published guide: Each course module/week (except Module/Week 1) begins on Tuesday morning at 12:00 a.m. (ET) and ends on Monday night at 11:59 p.m. (ET). The final module/week ends at 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Friday.
How to approach NURS 489
Arrange both interviews early. The servant leader interview (Week 3) needs a nurse who shows servant leadership qualities and 10 to 20 minutes of their time; the peer interviews (Week 5) need three nursing colleagues and your state board of nursing's delegation rules.
Every forum reply needs a source and a biblical reference, so prepare a short list of passages on leadership (Mark 10:45, John 13, Philippians 2:3-4, 1 Peter 5:2-3) to draw on.
Questions students ask
What does the NURS 489 servant leader interview require?
Interview a nurse who shows servant leadership qualities using 3 to 5 questions from the provided list for 10 to 20 minutes, create a 10 to 20-slide Adobe Spark Video or Page presentation of at least 5 to 10 minutes, and write a 3 to 4-page APA paper with the questions and answers, at least 2 scholarly sources under 7 years old and biblical principles.
What is the NURS 489 group project?
A 20-slide PowerPoint about leadership drawn from De Pree's Leadership Jazz, with speaker's notes on every slide, due in Week 8; three individual benchmarks track each member's contribution along the way.
Working through NURS 489 now?
Tell us the week and the assignment. A tutor who knows the course replies with a plan for the draft.