NU 500 Unit 7 DQ 1: nursing theory and the profession
Describe how nursing knowledge and theory development define nursing as a profession, explain how applying theory benefits you personally and advances the profession, say how your answer has changed since your Week 1 post, and name the theory you expect to affect your practice most.
Editorial process
Last reviewed · August 14, 2026
Why theory is what makes nursing a profession, not a job
The first question is doing more work than it looks. Asking how knowledge and theory development define the profession of nursing is asking what separates a profession from an occupation, and the standard answer has a shape: a profession owns a body of knowledge that it generates and polices itself, rather than borrowing one from another discipline. Nursing theory is where that ownership lives. Before nursing built its own theoretical base it described its work in borrowed medical terms, and a discipline that can only describe itself in another field's vocabulary cannot claim autonomous practice, set its own standards, or defend a scope of practice in law. So the answer runs from theory to knowledge to autonomy to the practice acts and licensure that follow from it. Name specific theorists rather than gesturing at theory in general, and say what each of them made it possible to talk about that could not be said before.
The other three questions are progressively more personal, and the third is the one you cannot research. It asks how your answer has changed since your Week 1 discussion board post, which means you need to go back and read what you wrote then, quote or paraphrase your own earlier position, and say what moved it. A post that skips this and simply asserts growth loses the marks attached to it, because the assessor is looking for the before and the after. The last question asks which theory will most affect your professional practice, and the strength of that answer comes from specificity: tie a named theory to the setting you actually work in and to a decision you actually make, rather than choosing the theory with the widest scope. Every claim still needs peer-reviewed journal evidence behind it, so pair each of the four answers with a citation as you draft.
Likely learning objectives
Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.
- 01Explain what distinguishes a profession from an occupation in terms of an owned body of knowledge.
- 02Trace the line from nursing theory to disciplinary autonomy, licensure and scope of practice.
- 03Relate a named nursing theory to a decision you make in your own practice setting.
- 04Evaluate how your own position on nursing theory has shifted across the course.
- 05Support each claim with peer-reviewed journal evidence rather than course slides.
Read the full question
Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.
Course-wide instructions that accompany this question
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS Discussion Questions (DQ) Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words. Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source. Herzing NU 500 Unit 7 DQ 1 One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words. I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses. Weekly Participation Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately. In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies. Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work). Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week. APA Format and Writing Quality Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required). Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation. I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition. Use of Direct Quotes I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly. As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content. It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source. LopesWrite Policy For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me. Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes. Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own? Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score. Late Policy The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies. Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances. If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect. I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension. As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading. Communication Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class. Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.
Turn the brief into deliverables
- 01An account of how knowledge and theory development define nursing as a profession.
- 02The personal benefit of applying nursing theory, stated concretely.
- 03The professional benefit — how theory empowers or advances nursing as a whole.
- 04An explicit comparison with your Week 1 discussion board post, saying what changed.
- 05One named theory you expect to affect your practice most, with your reasoning.
- 06Peer-reviewed citations and an APA reference list.
Four questions, and one of them is about you
What makes an occupation a profession
Set the criteria — an owned body of knowledge, self-regulation, autonomous practice — before applying them.
Theory development as nursing's knowledge base
Name theorists and say what each made it possible to describe.
From theory to autonomy, licensure and scope
Show the practical consequence: practice acts and standards rest on an owned knowledge base.
Personal benefit and professional advancement
Separate what theory does for your own practice from what it does for the profession.
What changed since Week 1
State your earlier position, then what moved it and why.
The theory you expect to matter most
Choose one theory and justify it against your own setting and caseload.
Where the professional claim is authoritatively stated
Recommended databases
- CINAHL
- PubMed
- StatPearls via NCBI Bookshelf
- Your state board of nursing's practice act
- Your own Week 1 discussion board post
Search sequence
- 1.Retrieve your Week 1 post before drafting anything else; the comparison question depends on it.
- 2.Find a peer-reviewed article defining the characteristics of a profession in nursing terms.
- 3.Read the scope-of-practice section of your own state's nursing practice act.
- 4.Select two theorists whose work you can summarise in one sentence each.
- 5.Locate one journal article applying your chosen theory in a setting like yours.
Reference shortlist
These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.
Nothing here is cleared for citation until you have read it.
- 01
Nursing Practice Act
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2023
Shows how an owned body of knowledge becomes a legally defined scope of practice, which is the concrete end of the professional claim.
- 02
Nursing Process
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2023
The clearest example of nursing theory operationalised into everyday practice, useful for the personal-benefit question.
- 03
Nursing Ethical Considerations
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2023
Self-regulation through a professional code is one of the criteria the first question turns on.
- 04
Nursing Professional Development Evidence-Based Practice
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2024
Connects theory and generated knowledge to the practice change the profession claims as its own.
Review before submission
Common mistakes
- Answering the profession question with a definition of nursing rather than a definition of a profession.
- Discussing theory in the abstract without naming a single theorist.
- Ignoring the Week 1 comparison entirely, which is a whole question of the four.
- Claiming your view has changed without saying what it used to be.
- Choosing the broadest theory available instead of the one that fits your setting.
- Citing the textbook and course materials when the brief specifies peer-reviewed journal evidence.
Submission checklist
- All four questions are answered, each identifiable in the post.
- At least two named nursing theorists appear.
- Your Week 1 position is stated before the change is described.
- The chosen theory is tied to a real decision in your practice setting.
- Every substantive claim carries a peer-reviewed citation.
- References are formatted in APA and match the in-text citations.
Use this guide to plan and review your own work. Follow your institution's rules and read our academic-integrity policy.
Written by
Aaron Bishop
MA, Education
assignment interpretation and research-methods coaching across disciplines
Aaron leads the EssayCrackers editorial desk. He works on how assignment briefs are read — what a rubric is actually asking for, and where students most often answer a different question than the one set.
Reviewed by
Dr. Nathan Cole
PhD, Rhetoric & Composition
Argumentation and thesis development
Nathan teaches first-year composition and directs a university writing center. He reviews EssayCrackers guides for argumentative soundness and citation accuracy.