| Course | NU 726 Professionalism and Leadership for Advanced Practice |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 5 |
| Paper type | Advocacy brief to a nursing executive |
| Length | About 830 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Herzing University |
| Program | MSN |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NU 726 Unit 5
Advocacy Brief to the Chief Nursing Officer: Fund Take-Home Naloxone at Emergency Department Discharge
Student Name
Department of Nursing, Herzing University
NU 726: Professionalism and Leadership for Advanced Practice
Instructor Name
February 19, 2026
Advocacy Brief to the Chief Nursing Officer: Fund Take-Home Naloxone at Emergency Department Discharge
The Ask
To: Chief Nursing Officer, with a copy to the Chief Medical Officer. From: Emergency Department Nurse Practitioner Group. I am asking you to approve $41,000 from the nursing quality budget to dispense a naloxone kit, with brief overdose education by the discharging nurse, to every patient leaving our emergency department after an opioid overdose or with opioid use disorder, for a 12-month pilot beginning July 1, and to add naloxone dispensing to the discharge nursing standard of work.
The Problem
Drug overdose deaths in the United States reached nearly 108,000 in 2022, most involving synthetic opioids such as fentanyl (Spencer et al., 2023). Our county's health department reports that overdose deaths have risen for three consecutive years. The emergency department is often the last health care contact before a fatal overdose. In a statewide study, about 1 in 20 patients treated in an emergency department for a nonfatal opioid overdose died within a year, and a substantial share of those deaths occurred within the first month after the visit (Weiner et al., 2020).
Last year, our emergency department treated 312 patients for opioid overdose and discharged 241 of them. A chart review of 60 of those discharges found that 9 left with a naloxone prescription and 2 with a naloxone kit in hand. A prescription is often not filled: patients may not go to a pharmacy, may not afford the copay, or may be discharged at night.
A Person Behind the Numbers
In January, a 26-year-old man was treated in our department after his roommate found him unresponsive and called 911. He was given naloxone by paramedics, observed for four hours, and discharged at 3 a.m. with a prescription and a list of treatment programs. He did not fill the prescription. He was brought back by paramedics nine days later and could not be resuscitated. This account is shared, with identifying details changed, to show what the current process leaves to chance.
The Evidence That This Works
Distributing naloxone directly to people at risk and those around them, with brief education, reduces overdose deaths. In Massachusetts communities that implemented overdose education and naloxone distribution, opioid overdose death rates were significantly lower than in communities without it, with greater reductions where enrollment was higher (Walley et al., 2013). Handing a kit to the patient at discharge removes the steps where a prescription is lost.
Why a Kit Rather Than a Prescription, and Why Now
Naloxone nasal spray has been available over the counter since 2023, which has led some colleagues to ask why the hospital should supply it. Over-the-counter availability has not removed the barriers our patients face: a two-dose package costs about the same as the kit we would dispense, many of our patients have little cash, pharmacies near our department close at night, and some pharmacies keep the product behind the counter. A kit placed in the patient's hand, with a two-minute demonstration and the patient's family or friends included when they are present, removes all of those steps. With fentanyl now present in much of the local drug supply, the window between an overdose and death is short, and a kit in the home is the most direct way to widen it.
What It Costs, and What It Saves
Cost: naloxone nasal spray kits at the hospital's contracted price of about $45 each; an estimated 600 kits in 12 months, covering overdose discharges and patients with opioid use disorder seen for other reasons, for $27,000. Nurse education: one 30-minute session for 85 emergency department nurses, about $4,000 in staff time. Printed education cards and storage: $1,500. Data collection and evaluation: $8,500 for a part-time analyst. Total: $41,000. The current situation also has costs, which the hospital already pays: readmissions for repeat overdose, intensive care admissions for anoxic injury, and the moral cost to staff who treat the same patients again. A single intensive care admission for anoxic brain injury after overdose often costs more than the entire pilot.
Who Objects, and What the Objection Is Worth
Pharmacy may object that dispensing from the emergency department requires a process for labeling and tracking. That objection is legitimate and solvable: pharmacy has agreed to prepare pre-labeled kits stocked in the department's dispensing cabinet. Some staff may object that naloxone encourages drug use; the evidence does not support this, and the objection is best met by education rather than debate. Finance may object that kits are not reimbursed; the pilot will track whether Medicaid reimbursement for dispensed kits is available in our state, which could reduce the net cost.
How We Will Know It Worked
Measures: proportion of eligible patients discharged with a kit, target 90% by month three; nurse completion of education, target 95%; and 30-day return visits and deaths for overdose among eligible patients, compared with last year. Results will be reported to you at six and twelve months, with a recommendation to continue, expand, or stop.
References
Spencer, M. R., Garnett, M. F., & Minino, A. M. (2023). Drug overdose deaths in the United States, 2002-2022 (NCHS Data Brief No. 491). National Center for Health Statistics. https://doi.org/10.15620/cdc:135849
Walley, A. Y., Xuan, Z., Hackman, H. H., Quinn, E., Doe-Simkins, M., Sorensen-Alawad, A., Ruiz, S., & Ozonoff, A. (2013). Opioid overdose rates and implementation of overdose education and nasal naloxone distribution in Massachusetts: Interrupted time series analysis. BMJ, 346, Article f174. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f174
Weiner, S. G., Baker, O., Bernson, D., & Schuur, J. D. (2020). One-year mortality of patients after emergency department treatment for nonfatal opioid overdose. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 75(1), 13-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annemergmed.2019.04.020
The Herzing NU 726 Unit 5 instructions
The Unit 5 assignment asks you to advocate for a change in policy or practice by writing to a specific decision maker, such as an administrator, legislator or board. Expect to identify the issue, state a clear request, support it with evidence, address costs and objections, and propose how success will be measured. Many versions ask you to explain the advanced practice nurse's role as advocate. The format is usually a brief or memo rather than an essay, so check whether your section sets a page limit or template. Choose an issue where the decision maker actually has authority to act. Data from your organization or community strengthens the case, but published evidence should carry the main argument. Write for a busy reader who decides from the first page.
How this NU 726 Unit 5 example is built
The brief opens with the request, the amount and the recipient, so the decision is clear before any background. The problem section moves from national data to county data in two short paragraphs. A brief patient account follows, kept factual, which gives the numbers a face without turning sentimental. The evidence section relies on two published studies and states their findings plainly. A section answers the question a reader is likely to ask, why fund kits when naloxone is sold over the counter, with cost and access reasons. Costs and offsets are itemized. The objections section takes pharmacy's concern seriously and shows it has already been resolved. Measures and targets close the brief, giving the chief nursing officer a way to judge the result in three months.
Where the points sit in the NU 726 Unit 5 rubric
Herzing rubrics for an advocacy brief typically score the issue and its significance, the clarity of the request, the evidence, consideration of costs and stakeholders, the evaluation plan, and professional communication. Significance points require current data from credible sources. The request criterion rewards a specific ask that the audience can grant. Evidence earns full credit when it comes from peer-reviewed research or government data and directly supports the requested action. Stakeholder points go to briefs that anticipate objections and respond to them. The evaluation criterion looks for measurable targets. Professional communication covers format, concision and tone suitable for an executive, along with APA 7 citations. Some rubrics include a criterion for the advanced practice nurse's advocacy role, which the memo's authorship addresses directly.
NU 726 Unit 5 help: mistakes that cost points
The most frequent problem with a Unit 5 brief is holding the request until the last page, behind long background. Another is addressing it to someone who cannot grant it, such as asking a unit manager to change state law. Students also rely on emotional stories without enough evidence, or on evidence without any local connection. Cost is often left out, which makes the request hard to approve. Objections are frequently ignored, yet answering them is where advocacy is most persuasive. Writing the brief as an academic essay, with long paragraphs and no headings, reduces professional communication points. Finally, set measures with targets and a timeline, because a brief that cannot be evaluated gives the decision maker no reason to say yes.
Get a NU 726 Unit 5 example written to your instructions
Send the Unit 5 instructions and the rubric from your NU 726 classroom, along with the issue and the decision maker your brief has to address. We write a custom example with one ask, paired evidence and the opposition answered, formatted as a document rather than a paper, returned in 24 to 48 hours. The first custom sample is free.
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NU 726 Unit 5 questions, answered
What issue should an advocacy brief take on?
One where you can name a decision maker and a decision. Full practice authority in your state, reimbursement for a service your population needs, staffing standards, or a rule inside your own organization all qualify because someone specific can say yes. Broad causes make weak briefs, since there is no reader who could act and no request to evaluate.
Does the brief need a formal citation style?
In most sections yes, even though the document is written for a decision maker rather than a scholar. Keep APA citations for the figures and the studies, place them where they support a claim, and let the reference list sit at the end. Look at your rubric, since a few sections accept a lighter citation form inside a professional document.
How is this different from a paper about a policy problem?
A paper explains and analyzes; a brief asks. The evidence overlaps almost entirely, but the shape does not: the request comes first, the reader is named, the cost is admitted and the objection is answered. If your draft could be retitled as an analysis without changing anything, it has not yet become advocacy.
Where can I find a free NU 726 Unit 5 sample paper?
The complete NU 726 Unit 5 naloxone brief is on this page free to read, from the ask and evidence to costs, objections and measures. For a brief on another issue or to another decision maker, ask for a custom memo built on your topic.
How do I write an advocacy brief for a nursing leader?
Put the request and its cost in the opening lines, then give the problem, the evidence, the costs and offsets, likely objections with answers, and how you will measure success. Use headings and short paragraphs, as this naloxone memo does.