NU580 Unit 8 DQ 1: Course Objectives Reflection
The five objectives are the outline. Reflections that write one flowing appreciation of the course lose marks the moment the marker starts looking for objective four.
Editorial process
Last reviewed · August 16, 2026
Five objectives, five analyses — the structure is given to you
This is a reflection with a fixed structure, and the structure is handed to you: five AACN Essential VIII objectives, each needing an analysis of how the course supported it. Use them as headings. A single narrative about what you learned reads well and scores badly, because a marker checking objective by objective has to hunt for four of them. Notice the verb in each objective, since they are deliberately different. Synthesize asks you to have combined ecological, global, genetic and epidemiologic material into one design. Evaluate asks about judging effectiveness using health information technology and data sources. Design asks for patient-centred, culturally responsive strategies. Advance is about policy and equity. Integrate is about education and communication. Matching the wrong course activity to an objective is the error that shows most clearly, so pair each objective with the specific assignment or discussion that actually developed it.
Analysis of how the course supported the objective means more than naming the week it appeared. Say what you could not do before and can do now, and give the evidence — the state report card exercise that taught you to read indicators, the cultural planning post that made you ask who makes health decisions in a family, the functional patterns assessment that changed how you take a history. Then the second requirement: how this becomes professional application. Be specific about the setting you are heading into and one thing you will do differently in it. The instruction to provide citations is real and easy to satisfy honestly — cite the standards, guidelines and studies the course used, since a reflection supported by the sources it was built on is stronger than one supported by nothing, and inventing a reference to satisfy the requirement is the one way to fail a reflection outright.
Likely learning objectives
Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.
- 01Map course activities onto stated programme objectives accurately.
- 02Evidence a claim about learning rather than asserting it.
- 03Translate an objective into a specific practice change.
- 04Support reflective writing with the sources the learning rested on.
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. NU580-7B Unit 8 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
- 01Five sections, one per objective, each named.
- 02A specific course activity paired with each objective.
- 03Evidence of what changed in your capability, not only your interest.
- 04A professional application statement tied to a named setting.
- 05Citations to the standards and studies the course used.
One section per AACN objective, then the application
Synthesising determinants, genomics and epidemiologic data
Analyse how the course built the synthesis the first objective describes.
Evaluating prevention effectiveness with data
Show where the course developed evaluation using health information technology.
Designing patient-centred, culturally responsive strategies
Trace the design objective to the cultural planning work.
Advancing equitable prevention and policy
Connect the policy and equity objective to course material.
Integrating education and communication, and what comes next
Cover the final objective and state the professional application.
Citing a reflection without inventing sources
Recommended databases
- American Association of Colleges of Nursing Essentials
- Healthy People 2030
- PubMed Central
- Your own course readings
Search sequence
- 1.Reread the five objectives and list which course activity produced each before writing.
- 2.Pull the citations from your own course materials first — those are the honest ones.
- 3.Add one current source per objective where the course reading is dated.
- 4.Check every reference resolves before submitting, since a reflection is easy to over-cite.
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
Healthy People 2030
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion · 2024
The prevention agenda the course objectives are written against.
- 02
Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services
Office of Minority Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services · 2024
The standards behind the culturally responsive design objective.
- 03
Leading Health Indicators - Healthy People 2030
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services · 2024
The data sources the evaluation objective refers to.
- 04
Social Determinants of Health - Healthy People 2030
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion · 2025
Determinants material for the synthesis objective.
- 05
Health promotion and disease prevention: Advanced Practice Nursing competencies in women's health
Journal of Advanced Nursing · 2026
Advanced practice prevention competencies, connecting the objectives to the role you are heading into.
Review before submission
Common mistakes
- Writing one continuous narrative so four objectives become hard to locate.
- Pairing an activity with the wrong objective because the verbs were not read.
- Describing enjoyment of the course instead of analysing what it developed.
- Adding citations that were never part of the course to satisfy the requirement.
Submission checklist
- Does each of the five objectives have its own labelled section?
- Is a specific course activity named in each section?
- Have you said what you can now do that you could not before?
- Are your citations to sources the course actually used?
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.

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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.