| Course | NUR 685 Nurse Educator Capstone |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 3 |
| Paper type | nurse educator capstone project proposal milestone |
| Length | About 1,050 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Southern New Hampshire University |
| Program | MSN |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for NUR 685 Module 3
Milestone One: A Simulation Course on Early Sepsis Recognition and Escalation for New Graduate Nurses
[Student Name]
Southern New Hampshire University
NUR 685: Nurse Educator Capstone
Module Three Milestone One
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Milestone One: A Simulation Course on Early Sepsis Recognition and Escalation for New Graduate Nurses
The needs assessment showed that new graduate nurses in Lakeshore Regional's residency record abnormal vital signs promptly but take roughly twice as long as experienced nurses to escalate early sepsis, and that their gap lies in interpreting borderline findings and acting on them with confidence. This milestone proposes an educational response. It states the purpose, the target practice, the objectives and how they were written, the course outline, the scope and timeline and the educator's role.
Purpose
The purpose of the project is to shorten the time between a patient meeting sepsis screening criteria and a provider being notified when a first-year nurse is caring for that patient. The teaching will replace the current 45-minute lecture with a four-hour simulation course during the residency's fourth month, when residents have finished orientation and begun working independently.
Target Practice
The Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines by Rhodes et al. (2017) recommend that hospitals run performance improvement programs for sepsis that include screening of acutely ill, high-risk patients, and they treat sepsis as a medical emergency in which antibiotics should begin within an hour of recognition and resuscitation should start promptly for low blood pressure or high lactate. For a floor nurse, the practical translation is to recognize screening criteria, including subtle or borderline patterns, to notify the provider promptly with a structured report and to anticipate the first orders, such as blood cultures, lactate and antibiotics. Those three behaviors are the practice the course aims to change.
Writing the Objectives
Krathwohl (2002) described the revision of Bloom's taxonomy, which separates two dimensions: the kind of knowledge involved, from factual and conceptual to procedural and metacognitive, and the kind of thinking asked of the learner, which climbs from recalling a fact to building something new, with judging and taking apart a problem near the top. The current post-test tests mostly factual knowledge at the remembering level, which residents have already mastered. The new objectives aim at procedural and metacognitive knowledge at the applying, analyzing and evaluating levels, since the gap is in using knowledge under uncertainty.
Miller (1990) proposed a pyramid for assessing clinical competence with four levels: knows, knows how, shows how and does. Written tests reach the first two; simulation can show the third; only observation in real practice reaches the fourth. Matching each objective to a level of the pyramid makes clear how it will be assessed and prevents the familiar mismatch of objectives about performance measured by a knowledge quiz.
Objectives
By the end of the course, and in the eight weeks after it, each resident will be able to do the following. First, given a simulated patient with borderline vital signs and a subtle change in mental status, identify that sepsis screening criteria are met within five minutes of assessment. Second, compare two sets of findings over time and state whether the trend supports escalation. Third, notify the provider within ten minutes of meeting criteria using a structured report that includes the screening result, trend and a request. Fourth, anticipate and prepare for the first-hour orders. Fifth, in debriefing, evaluate their own decision point and describe one change they will make in practice. On the floor, the fourth level of Miller's pyramid will be assessed through the chart review of time to escalation.
Table 1. Objectives by Taxonomy and Pyramid Level
| Objective | Knowledge type and process | Miller level | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identify criteria in a borderline case | Conceptual; analyze | Shows how | Simulation rubric |
| Judge the trend over time | Procedural; evaluate | Shows how | Simulation rubric |
| Notify provider with a structured report | Procedural; apply | Shows how, then does | Simulation rubric; chart review |
| Anticipate first-hour orders | Procedural; apply | Shows how | Simulation checklist |
| Evaluate own decision point | Metacognitive; evaluate | Knows how | Debriefing reflection |
Note. Levels follow the revised taxonomy and Miller's pyramid.
Why Simulation Rather Than a Better Lecture
A revised lecture with more cases would be cheaper, and it is worth asking why it will not do. The needs assessment showed that residents already hold the knowledge a lecture delivers; they fail at the moment of deciding and calling. That moment involves uncertainty, time pressure and a social risk, the chance of being wrong in front of a physician. Only a method that recreates those conditions lets residents practice the decision, make mistakes safely and hear feedback on their reasoning. Simulation with debriefing does that. The course will still use a short briefing for the screening tool, but most of the time goes to rehearsal and reflection.
Course Outline
The course runs for four hours in the hospital's simulation center with groups of six residents. A twenty-minute briefing reviews the screening tool and the structured report. Three scenarios follow, each about fifteen minutes with a forty-minute debriefing: a daytime patient with pneumonia whose findings are borderline, a night-shift patient with a urinary source whose physician is unfamiliar and curt and a patient who deteriorates quickly if escalation is delayed. Residents rotate roles so each leads at least one scenario. The session closes with a brief reflection on a decision each resident will change.
Scope, Timeline and Role
The project covers the current cohort of 38 residents across seven sessions in months four and five of the residency. Scenario writing and piloting with two experienced nurses occur in months two and three. Evaluation continues for eight weeks after the last session. The student serves as course designer, facilitator and evaluator under the supervision of the residency coordinator, who precepts the teaching immersion. Simulation center staff operate the manikins, and a hospitalist volunteer plays the physician by phone.
Anticipated Challenges
Three challenges are expected. Releasing residents from unit schedules for four hours is harder than for forty-five minutes, so sessions are placed on residency days already protected. Some residents feel anxious in simulation and may perform worse than they would on the floor, which the briefing will address by setting ground rules about confidentiality and learning. And scenarios can drift from reality if written only by educators, so experienced floor nurses will review each one.
Conclusion
The proposal replaces a lecture that residents pass with a simulation course aimed at what they do not yet do: interpret borderline findings and escalate with confidence. The objectives are written at the right levels and linked to assessments. The next milestone will ground the design in learning theory.
References
Krathwohl, D. R. (2002). A revision of Bloom's taxonomy: An overview. Theory Into Practice, 41(4), 212-218. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip4104_2
Miller, G. E. (1990). The assessment of clinical skills/competence/performance. Academic Medicine, 65(9), S63-S67. https://doi.org/10.1097/00001888-199009000-00045
Rhodes, A., Evans, L. E., Alhazzani, W., Levy, M. M., Antonelli, M., Ferrer, R., Kumar, A., Sevransky, J. E., Sprung, C. L., Nunnally, M. E., Rochwerg, B., Rubenfeld, G. D., Angus, D. C., Annane, D., Beale, R. J., Bellinghan, G. J., Bernard, G. R., Chiche, J.-D., Coopersmith, C., . . . Dellinger, R. P. (2017). Surviving Sepsis Campaign: International guidelines for management of sepsis and septic shock: 2016. Intensive Care Medicine, 43(3), 304-377. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00134-017-4683-6
What the NUR 685 Module 3 instructions ask for
Milestone One in NUR 685 usually asks for the teaching project proposal: the learning gap, the purpose, target practice, measurable objectives, a course outline, scope, timeline and your role as educator. Four to six APA 7 pages is typical. Write objectives as observable behaviors with a condition and a standard, place them at the cognitive level the gap requires and show how each will be assessed. Connect the target practice to a guideline or standard, describe the course concretely enough that a colleague could deliver it and keep the scope realistic for your immersion. Faculty read objectives closely, so check that none describes what the teacher will cover. Justify the method too.
How this NUR 685 Module 3 milestone one example is built
This proposal replaces a sepsis lecture with a four-hour simulation course for 38 new graduate nurses who escalate early sepsis late. The Rhodes Surviving Sepsis guidelines supply the target practice: recognize criteria, notify promptly with a structured report and anticipate first-hour orders. Krathwohl's revised taxonomy moves objectives from remembering to applying, analyzing and evaluating, and Miller's pyramid matches each to knows how, shows how or does. Five objectives with conditions and standards appear in a table with assessments. Three scenarios, including a curt physician at night, are outlined, along with scope, timeline and roles. A section explains why simulation, not a better lecture, fits the gap. Challenges close it.
Where the NUR 685 Module 3 rubric puts the points
Project proposal milestones in the NUR 685 capstone tend to be marked on how clearly the gap and purpose are stated, the link to a practice standard, the quality of objectives, alignment between objectives and assessments, the concreteness of the course plan, feasibility and APA 7. Strong proposals write objectives as learner behaviors with conditions and standards, place them at the level the gap demands and name the assessment for each. Proposals lose credit when objectives start with verbs such as understand or learn, when they sit at the remembering level for a performance gap or when the course is described only by its topics and not by what learners will do.
NUR 685 Module 3 help: the mistakes that cost points
In NUR 685, this milestone often loses points for objectives that cannot be observed, for mismatches between performance objectives and knowledge tests, for course outlines that list content and for scopes too large for the immersion. Another common gap is forgetting to link the target practice to a standard or guideline. Write objectives with a behavior, condition and standard, map them to a taxonomy and an assessment, describe what learners will do in each segment and keep the scope realistic. If your preceptor requires a specific objective format, include it in your NUR 685 notes and the proposal will use it. Clear tables linking objectives to assessments help graders.
Get NUR 685 Module 3 written to your instructions
Send the NUR 685 Milestone One prompt, your needs assessment and the teaching you are planning. The proposal will link the target practice to a standard, write observable objectives at the right level, match each to an assessment and outline the course concretely, within 24 to 48 hours, free the first time. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Southern New Hampshire University document.
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NUR 685 Module 3 questions, answered
Where can I find a free NUR 685 Module 3 Milestone One sample?
The full proposal is on this page: a sepsis simulation course for new graduate nurses with five objectives mapped to the revised taxonomy and Miller's pyramid.
How do I write a measurable learning objective?
State an observable learner behavior, the condition under which it occurs and the standard for success, avoiding verbs such as understand.
What is the revised Bloom's taxonomy?
An update of Bloom's framework that pairs what sort of knowledge an objective involves with how demanding the thinking is, from simple recall up to creating.
What is Miller's pyramid?
A model of clinical competence with four levels, knows, knows how, shows how and does, each suited to different assessments.
Why use simulation for sepsis escalation?
Simulation lets new nurses rehearse interpreting borderline findings and calling a provider under realistic pressure, which lectures cannot do.