STUDENT HANDBOOK 2011-12 - William Jewell College

4. Participate in or lead the service activity after receiving notification of approval from the
Service Coordinator.
5. Provide an Agency Evaluation form to the agency the day of service. Submit the Service
Completion form by placing them in the Service Completion DROP BOX on Moodle
within one week of completing the service activity. The Agency Evaluation form should
come directly to the Department of Nursing from the service agency via mail.
INDEPENDENT STUDY GUIDELINES
The Department of Nursing supports independent study for credit that promotes in-depth exploration
of and knowledge enhancement according to the student’s interest. Students may take no more than
six (6) credit hours of independent study toward the Bachelor of Science degree in nursing.
Students are responsible for development of the project. The student is also responsible for obtaining
a faculty advisor and completing the required college forms for independent study. Sophomores
should enroll in NUR 260, juniors in NUR 360, and seniors in NUR 460.
A one (1) credit hour non-clinical course generally requires approximately fifteen (15) direct/contact
hours with faculty/designee or a ten (10)-page paper. If the independent study has a clinical focus,
hours are calculated on a one (1) to three (3) ratio. Thus, a one (1) credit hour clinical course
generally requires approximately forty-five (45) clinical hours. A combination of options may be
developed. The Independent Study Form and guidelines are available on the NUR_Student Essential
Moodle site.
WRITING STYLE GUIDELINES
The Department of Nursing requires all papers follow the guidelines in the most current edition of the
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA). A standard format for papers
is required to assure proper citations of references and clarity of content. The APA is a common
format for professional writing for graduate programs in nursing and nursing journals. Additionally,
over half of Department of Nursing alumni continue their formal education in graduate programs; and
many author formal papers and journal articles. Therefore, it is vital for student nurses to learn APA
format. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6 th Edition Third Printing:
December 2009), is available in the Campus Bookstore and on reserve in the Curry Library.
SCHOLARLY SOURCES
Evidence-based care is an important concept within nursing. When writing papers or referencing
care, it is essential that nursing students utilize scholarly literature and resources. In general, online
resources ending in .gov, .org, and .net tend to be more scholarly based. Turnitin.com is utilized
within the Department of Nursing to verify originality of scholarly papers.
PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism is the presentation of work by another as one's own and is theft of intellectual property.
Furthermore, presentation of one's own previous work as new is academic cheating. Plagiarism and
cheating are serious offenses that may result in disciplinary action including dismissal from the
nursing program. Therefore, proper credit to others and self for previous work is mandatory within the
paper through three mechanisms: (a) paraphrase of a passage with proper citation, (b) quotation
marks around exact words with proper citation, and (c) reference list according to Publication Manual
of the American Psychological Association, 6 th edition.
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