| Course | NUR 6063 Visionary Leadership for Nursing Education |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 2 |
| Paper type | Leadership role analysis |
| Length | 1,170 words, about 4 pages plus title and reference pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | American College of Education |
| Program | Ed.S. in Nursing Education |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for NUR 6063 Module 2
Twenty-Four More Seats, No More Faculty: The Chief Academic Nurse's Authority, Accountabilities and Answer When a College Asks a Nursing Program to Grow Faster Than It Can Teach
Student Name
American College of Education
NUR6063: Visionary Leadership for Nursing Education
Module 2 Assignment
Instructor Name
January 20, 2031
The Request
In October, the college president asked me to add 24 seats to next fall's entering class, raising it from 80 to 104. A regional hospital has offered a grant to fund the expansion, the county's vacancy rate for registered nurses is high, and the college's enrollment has fallen for three years. Every part of the request is reasonable from the president's position. From mine, the program is already short two full-time faculty, has clinical placements for its current students only because one hospital agreed to evening rotations, and has just begun to rebuild trust with a faculty that lost five colleagues in eighteen months.
The request is a useful way to examine the role of the chief academic nurse, because answering it well requires knowing what the role has authority over, to whom it is accountable, and where those accountabilities conflict. The president can ask the program to grow, but only the nurse administrator can say what growth the program can safely teach.
What the Role Is
The chief academic nurse, called the director in our college and the dean in many universities, is the registered nurse who administers the nursing program and answers for it to people outside the college. Accreditors and state boards define the role's authority because the program's quality depends on it. The accreditor's standards for administrative capacity expect the nurse administrator to be a registered nurse with graduate preparation in nursing and to have the authority and responsibility to develop and administer the program, including its budget, faculty and curriculum (Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing [ACEN], 2023). State boards of nursing set their own rules for program approval, and NCSBN, the national council to which those boards belong, has published guidelines and evidence-based quality indicators that boards can use to judge whether programs are sound, including attention to the stability and qualifications of a program's administration and faculty (Spector et al., 2020).
The role therefore has a dual character. Inside the college, the director is a middle manager who reports to a vice president and competes with other departments for money. Outside it, the director is the person a regulator will ask to explain the program's results, and the authority regulators expect the director to hold does not disappear when a college administrator disagrees.
Mapping the Accountabilities
The expansion request touches every group to which the director is accountable, and each wants something different. The college wants enrollment and the goodwill of the hospital. The hospital wants more graduates, soon, and it will be the source of many clinical placements. The state board wants the program to meet its approval standards; in our state, as in many, a substantial increase in enrollment must be approved by the board before it happens, and the board will ask whether faculty and clinical resources are sufficient. The accreditor expects resources to be adequate to achieve the program's outcomes. Current students need the program to keep its promises to them, which a crowded clinical schedule would threaten. Faculty need a workload they can sustain. And the public, which the whole regulatory structure exists to protect, needs graduates who are safe.
Set out this way, the conflict is not between the director and the president. It is between two legitimate goods, more nurses for the region and a program able to prepare them well, and the director's job is to find the answer that serves both over time rather than one of them this year.
The Evidence on Faculty Capacity
Faculty capacity is the binding constraint, and the evidence suggests it is easy to underestimate. Gerolamo and Roemer (2011), reviewing research on nurse faculty workload, found that most studies were limited to a single institution or region and that there was no systematic way to compare nursing faculty workload with other disciplines, which means that colleges often lack the data to see how heavy nursing loads are. Bittner and Bechtel (2017), surveying nurse faculty, found an aging, nondiverse workforce with increased and variable workload, no standard method of calculating it, and faculty considering retirement at a higher rate than projected. An expansion that adds 24 students without adding faculty would increase clinical groups by three, each requiring an instructor for two days a week, and it would fall on a faculty that is already carrying overloads.
I calculated what the expansion would need. At our clinical ratio of eight students to one instructor, 24 more students require three additional clinical groups each semester, which is roughly one and a half full-time positions, plus about 20% more laboratory and simulation time. The hospital grant would pay for two years of expansion but only if faculty can be hired, and our two existing vacancies have been unfilled for nine months.
My Answer
I will not refuse the request, and I will not accept it as written. My proposal to the president will be a phased expansion tied to conditions the program controls. In the first year, the entering class will grow by eight, to 88, which fits within one additional clinical group that current faculty can staff once the two vacancies are filled. The remaining sixteen seats will be added the following year, but only when two conditions are met: at least one new full-time faculty position has been filled beyond the current vacancies, and the hospital has confirmed in writing the additional clinical placements needed. I will ask that the hospital grant fund a faculty position directly, with a joint appointment so that a hospital nurse educator with a graduate degree can teach part of the load. Before any expansion, I will submit the request to the state board with the faculty and clinical plan attached, rather than after the college has already advertised the seats.
This answer gives the president a real increase, gives the hospital a path to the graduates it wants, and protects the students and faculty the program already has. It also puts on record that the director made the decision on the basis of capacity, which is the authority the regulators expect the role to exercise.
What the Case Shows About the Role
Three lessons about the role emerge from the case. First, the chief academic nurse's authority is real but must be used deliberately; a director who simply agrees with the institution's requests gives away the authority that regulators and accreditors assume the director holds. Second, the role requires translating nursing's standards into terms other administrators understand, such as clinical groups, positions and costs, since a president cannot weigh a claim that the program is stretched but can weigh a figure. Third, the role is a relationship with the institution over years, not a single negotiation. If the phased plan works, the next request will be easier to grant, and if I had refused outright, the college might have looked for a director who would say yes.
References
Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing. (2023). ACEN 2023 accreditation manual: Section III, standards and criteria.
Bittner, N. P., & Bechtel, C. F. (2017). Identifying and describing nurse faculty workload issues: A looming faculty shortage. Nursing Education Perspectives, 38(4), 171-176. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000000178
Gerolamo, A. M., & Roemer, G. F. (2011). Workload and the nurse faculty shortage: Implications for policy and research. Nursing Outlook, 59(5), 259-265. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2011.01.002
Spector, N., Silvestre, J., Alexander, M., Martin, B., Hooper, J. I., Squires, A., & Ojemeni, M. (2020). NCSBN regulatory guidelines and evidence-based quality indicators for nursing education programs. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 11(2), S1-S64. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2155-8256(20)30075-2
What the NUR 6063 Module 2 instructions ask for
Module 2 of NUR 6063 often asks you to examine what the chief academic nurse does, the dean, director or chair who leads a nursing program, and what makes the role demanding. Prompts typically want the role's authority and responsibilities described from accreditation and regulatory sources, the relationships the leader must manage, and the challenges of the position today, such as faculty shortages and resource pressures. Some versions ask you to interview a nursing program leader; others supply a scenario or let you analyze your own program. The deliverable is usually a paper of four to six pages in APA 7. If your instructor requires an interview, arrange it early and confirm in the Canvas instructions whether the leader may be named.
How this NUR 6063 Module 2 example is built
The example uses a single decision to show the role at work. It opens with the president's request and the program's constraints, then defines the chief academic nurse from the accreditor's standards on administrative capacity and from the NCSBN guidelines, pointing out the role's dual position inside and outside the college. The next section maps each stakeholder's interest and source of authority, including the state board's approval rules. Research on nurse faculty workload follows, and the writer converts 24 extra seats into clinical groups, positions and laboratory time. The answer is a phased plan with conditions, including a jointly appointed hospital educator and board approval before any seats are advertised. A short closing section draws three lessons about the role from the case.
NUR 6063 Module 2 rubric: what full marks look like
Most versions of the Module 2 rubric weigh the accuracy and depth of the role description first: authority, responsibilities and accountabilities described from authoritative sources, not job postings. A second criterion looks at analysis of challenges, and top scores go to papers that show a challenge working through a real decision, as the enrollment request does here. Graders often reward attention to the regulatory side of the role, since many students forget that the state board and the accreditor hold the director responsible. Evidence counts, particularly current research on faculty workload and shortage. The final points usually cover organization, clarity and APA 7 formatting, including correct citation of accreditation manuals, which do not follow journal format.
NUR 6063 Module 2 help from the desk
Role papers go wrong when they read like a job description, listing duties with no sense of the conflicts between them. Another common problem is ignoring the regulators; a director's accountability to the state board and the accreditor is what separates this role from other academic chairs. Some writers portray the institution as the villain, which weakens the analysis, since the college's interests are usually legitimate too. Avoid claims about board rules that you have not checked for your state, and cite the current accreditation manual. Numbers help, since they are what the leader uses to persuade. The desk can prepare a custom version built around your own program, an interview you conducted or the scenario your instructor assigned.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official American College of Education document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
More NUR 6063 and Ed.S. in Nursing Education sample papers
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- NUR 6063 Module 4: Ethical Decision Analysis
- NUR 6063 Module 5: Reflective Practice and Resilience
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- NUR 6023 Module 5: Classroom Management Analysis
- NUR 6043 Module 2: Curriculum Design Comparison
- NUR 6053 Module 4: Quality Improvement Project Plan
- NUR 6053 Module 5: Remediation and Learner Support
NUR 6063 Module 2 questions, answered
What does NUR6063 Module 2 usually ask for?
NUR6063 Module 2 often asks you to examine the role and responsibilities of the chief academic nurse, including authority, accountability and the challenges of the position. Your classroom's instructions decide whether you analyze a scenario, an interview or your own program.
Who is the chief academic nurse?
The registered nurse who administers a nursing program, often titled dean, director or chair. Accreditors and state boards expect this person to hold authority over the program's budget, faculty and curriculum and to answer for its results.
Does a nursing program need board approval to increase enrollment?
In many states, yes, for substantial increases. Check your state board of nursing's rules, and plan to show that faculty and clinical resources are sufficient before seats are added.
Where can I find a free NUR 6063 Module 2 sample paper?
Here, free and complete. The Module 2 chief academic nurse paper includes its APA title page, six sections built around an enrollment request, a note beside each section on why it scores well, and four references.
How can a nursing director say no to an administrator without refusing outright?
Translate the program's limits into figures the administrator uses, such as positions, clinical groups and costs, and offer a phased plan with conditions, as the example does with a staged enrollment increase.