| Course | NURS 618 Nurse Educator II: Teaching Strategies (NURS618) |
|---|---|
| Module/Week | 5 |
| Assignment | Teaching Plan on a General Nursing Topic |
| Paper type | Teaching plan on the course worksheet (3 to 5 scholarly sources) |
| Length | about 863 words, 3 double-spaced pages plus title page and references. Course guide: a teaching plan completed on the course worksheet for a general nursing topic, with an APA reference page of three to five scholarly sources besides the textbooks |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| Points | 100 |
| School | Liberty University Online |
| Program | MSN |
| Where it sits | Module/Week 5 in Liberty's published NURS 618 course guide; current sections can differ |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NURS 618 Week 5
Teaching Plan: Recognizing and Escalating Clinical Deterioration, a Three-Hour Lesson for Second-Semester Nursing Students
[Student Name]
School of Nursing, Liberty University
NURS 618: Nurse Educator II: Teaching Strategies
Teaching Plan: General Nursing Topic
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The course, learners and lesson are composites written for a model plan; complete the worksheet your course provides, whose headings take priority.
Teaching Plan: Recognizing and Escalating Clinical Deterioration, a Three-Hour Lesson for Second-Semester Nursing Students
Topic, Learners and Rationale
The topic is recognizing and escalating clinical deterioration in adult inpatients. The learners are 32 second-semester prelicensure students in a medical-surgical course who have completed health assessment and fundamentals and are in their first acute care clinical rotation. They can measure vital signs and perform a focused assessment but have little experience interpreting trends or deciding when to call for help. The lesson addresses a known gap: Billings and Halstead (2016) emphasize that learning experiences should be planned from learners' needs, and clinical instructors in this course report that students frequently record abnormal findings without acting on them.
Research shows why this topic requires more than knowledge of normal values. Archer et al. (2026) synthesized 24 studies of nurses' views on recognizing and responding to deterioration and identified six themes: situational awareness, teamwork and communication, leadership and culture, intuition, level of experience, and fear of retribution. Supportive team culture and strong communication helped nurses recognize and escalate, while inexperience and fear of criticism delayed action. Recognizing deterioration is therefore a skill of noticing, deciding and speaking up, not only a matter of knowing which numbers are abnormal.
Learning Objectives
When the lesson ends, each student should be able to:
- Calculate an early warning score from a set of vital signs and assessment findings without error.
- Interpret trends in a patient's data to identify early signs of deterioration.
- Prioritize nursing actions for a deteriorating patient, including when to activate a rapid response.
- Communicate a deteriorating patient's situation to a provider using SBAR.
Content Outline
The content covers the physiology behind common early signs of deterioration, including rising respiratory rate, falling blood pressure and altered mental status; the components and use of the hospital's early warning score; patterns that precede sepsis, respiratory failure and hypovolemia; the nurse's responsibilities when a score rises; rapid response activation criteria; and structured communication using SBAR.
Lesson Sequence
| Time | Objective | Strategy | Evaluation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0:00 to 0:20 | All | Opening case: a patient who deteriorated over eight hours with normal-looking individual readings; students identify what was missed | Discussion responses |
| 0:20 to 0:50 | 1 | Brief explanation of early warning score components, then paired practice scoring five patient snapshots | Five scored snapshots checked against key |
| 0:50 to 1:30 | 2 and 3 | Unfolding case in small groups, released in three stages, with groups deciding at each stage whether to escalate and what to do first | Group decision sheets scored with a short rubric |
| 1:30 to 1:40 | Break | ||
| 1:40 to 2:20 | 4 | SBAR practice: each student calls a faculty member playing the provider about the case patient | Faculty checklist for SBAR completeness |
| 2:20 to 2:50 | 2, 3 and 4 | Ten-minute manikin simulation for two volunteer groups, observed by others with a cue-tracking sheet, followed by debriefing | Observer sheets and debriefing participation |
| 2:50 to 3:00 | All | Exit ticket: each student writes one cue they will watch for in clinical this week and when they would call for help | Exit tickets reviewed by instructor |
Rationale for the Strategies
The lesson emphasizes application because recognizing deterioration depends on interpreting patterns. Early warning scores give students a structured way to combine findings, and recent research supports their value as more than alarms. Drawing on routine records from 24 medical and surgical wards, Kim et al. (2026) showed that higher early warning scores were associated with more nursing hours per patient day, suggesting that the scores track how much nursing care a patient actually needs. Teaching students to calculate and act on the score therefore connects directly to how nurses will plan their work.
Simulation is included because the skill involves acting under pressure. Rajasekaran et al. (2025) reviewed 14 studies comparing virtual and mannequin-based simulation for teaching undergraduate students to recognize and manage clinical deterioration, finding that both have roles in preparing students for this task. Because the course has access to a manikin but not to a virtual platform, the lesson uses a short manikin simulation, with observers given structured tasks so all students participate.
The SBAR practice responds to the communication and fear-of-retribution themes identified by Archer et al. (2026). Practicing the call with a faculty member who responds respectfully gives students a rehearsal for speaking up before they face a busy provider at night.
Addressing Learner Differences
Students who are anxious about speaking will practice SBAR first in pairs before calling the faculty member. Students who learn best visually will receive a one-page graphic of the early warning score and escalation pathway. Students for whom English is an additional language will receive the case materials before class so they can preview vocabulary. Students who already work as nursing assistants will be invited to share how deterioration looked from their role, which values their experience and enriches the discussion for others.
Resources
The lesson requires the case materials and five patient snapshots, the hospital's early warning score card, a manikin with programmable vital signs, phones or a call setup for SBAR practice, cue-tracking sheets and exit tickets. Two faculty members are needed for the SBAR and simulation segments.
Evaluating and Revising the Lesson
The lesson will be judged against its objectives rather than on how much students enjoyed it. The snapshot scoring shows whether students can calculate the early warning score; a target is that at least 90% score four of five snapshots correctly. The group decision sheets show whether they can interpret trends and prioritize, and the SBAR checklist shows whether each student can communicate the situation. The exit tickets give a first look at transfer, and clinical instructors will be asked over the following two weeks whether students are reporting abnormal findings earlier. If students score well on the snapshots but poorly on the unfolding case, the next version of the lesson will shorten the explanation and lengthen the case work. If SBAR calls are complete but hesitant, more practice time will be added in pairs before the faculty call. The plan will be revised after its first delivery, with changes recorded on the worksheet so the reasoning behind each revision is clear to the next instructor who teaches it.
Faith and Purpose
Ezekiel was told that a watchman who sees danger and does not sound the warning bears responsibility (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, Ezekiel 33:6). Nurses are often the watchmen at the bedside, and this lesson aims to give students both the skill to see danger early and the confidence to sound the alarm.
References
Archer, D., Rashidi, A., Kaur, R., Roderick, A., & Gallagher, O. (2026). Nurses' perceptions of their non-technical skills in recognising and responding to clinical deterioration in hospital settings: A systematic review. Journal of Clinical Nursing. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.70497
Billings, D. M., & Halstead, J. A. (2016). Teaching in nursing: A guide for faculty (5th ed.). Elsevier.
English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)
Kim, S., Cho, S. H., & Kim, E. (2026). Early warning scores as indicators of nursing hours in general wards: A cross-sectional analysis of inpatient physiological parameters. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 183, Article 105643. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2026.105643
Rajasekaran, R., Zhao, L., Cleary, S., & Harland, J. (2025). The impact of virtual versus mannequin-based simulation on undergraduate nursing students' preparedness for early recognition of clinical deterioration: A systematic review. Nurse Education in Practice, 88, Article 104563. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2025.104563
What the NURS 618 Week 5 instructions ask
The guide describes teaching plans as the cornerstone of an effective course and asks students to develop two during NURS 618: one on a general nursing topic and one built around service learning. Each uses the worksheet provided in the course as its framework, and students are encouraged to be creative. Each plan closes with an APA reference page listing three to five scholarly works, and the textbooks do not count toward that number. The general-topic plan is due in Module/Week 5, when Billings and Halstead's chapter on planning and Halstead's competency on facilitating learning are assigned. Because the plan becomes the basis of the Week 8 presentation, it is worth choosing a topic with clear outcomes and room for active learning.
How this NURS 618 Week 5 example is built
The plan moves through the sections most teaching worksheets share. It identifies the learners and what they already know, states four objectives with measurable verbs across cognitive levels, and outlines the content. A table sets out the lesson in timed segments, pairing each objective with a strategy, such as an unfolding case, an early warning score exercise and a brief simulation, and with the evaluation that will show whether it was met. Short sections explain how the plan addresses learner differences and what resources are needed. Recent evidence on nontechnical skills, early warning scores and simulation supports the main choices.
NURS 618 Week 5 grading rubric: where the points go
Teaching plans in NURS 618 are generally graded on clear, measurable objectives appropriate to the learners, content that matches the objectives, teaching strategies that actively engage learners and suit the objectives, evaluation methods aligned with each objective, use of the worksheet, and scholarly support. Alignment is the central test: each objective should appear in the content, a strategy and an evaluation method. Plans earn more when the timing is realistic and when strategies require learners to apply knowledge rather than only listen. A plan that considers learner differences and names the resources required shows the practical thinking expected of a nurse educator.
NURS 618 Week 5 help: mistakes that cost points
Teaching plans often lose points when objectives use verbs such as "understand" or "know" that cannot be measured, when the content outline is a list of topics with no link to the objectives, or when the only strategy is lecture. Many plans forget evaluation, or evaluate only one objective. Others pack far more content into the time than learners could absorb. Write objectives with action verbs at the right level, map each objective to content, a strategy and an evaluation, time each segment realistically, include at least one strategy that requires application, and cite three to five recent scholarly sources that justify your choices. Then read the plan as if you were a substitute instructor; if you could teach it without asking questions, it is complete.
Related NURS 618 sample papers
Other NURS 618 weeks
- NURS 618 Week 2: Teaching Philosophy Paper
- NURS 618 Week 3: Discussion Board Forum 1
- NURS 618 Week 4: Discussion Board Forum 2
- NURS 618 Week 6: Teaching with Technology Paper
- NURS 618 Week 7: Teaching Plan: Service Learning
- NURS 618 Week 8: Teaching Plan Presentation
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NURS 618 Week 5 questions, answered
What is the NURS 618 Teaching Plan on a general nursing topic?
Due in Module/Week 5 and worth 100 points, it asks students to complete the course worksheet for a lesson on a general nursing topic, with objectives, content, strategies and evaluation, and an APA reference page of three to five scholarly sources.
Where can I find a free NURS 618 Week 5 sample paper?
A complete NURS 618 Week 5 teaching plan on recognizing clinical deterioration, with objectives, a timed lesson table and references, is open on this page to read freely.
How do you write objectives for a nursing teaching plan?
Name the observable behavior expected once the lesson ends, using a measurable action verb, the content, and where useful a condition or standard, such as "calculate an early warning score for a patient case with no errors."
What teaching strategies work for clinical deterioration?
Unfolding case studies, early warning score practice, simulation with debriefing and structured communication practice such as SBAR all help students recognize cues and act on them.
How do you evaluate whether a teaching plan worked?
Match an evaluation method to each objective, such as a short quiz, a scored case analysis or an observed simulation, and review the results along with learner feedback to revise the plan.
Use it as a model, or ask for your own
This paper is an original model written by our desk for study. It is not a submitted student paper and not an official Liberty University document. Read it for structure and reasoning, then write your own to the instructions in your Canvas course. If you want a version built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
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