DNP 603 Module 1 Course Preflection on Social Justice Example

Reviewed by Ingrid Vasterling, MSN, RN Arizona State University Updated October 2026

This DNP 603 Module 1 sample is the preflection that opens Health Equity and Social Justice, a campus course in ASU's Doctor of Nursing Practice. ASU DNP 603 asks students to write three reflections across the term, and the first one asks about values and attitudes toward social justice, views on health equity and the role of the graduate-prepared nurse in addressing injustice. Our composite author, a Phoenix emergency department nurse, begins with a pattern she has seen for years: people treated for overdose days after leaving jail. She looks honestly at how she used to explain it as personal choice, what has changed her mind, what she means by health equity, and what she thinks a nurse with a DNP owes this group.

CourseDNP 603 Health Equity and Social Justice
ModuleModule 1
Paper typeCourse reflection
LengthAbout 505 words, 4 pages
FormatAPA 7 student paper
SchoolArizona State University
ProgramDNP
UpdatedOctober 2026

Free sample paper for DNP 603 Module 1

1

Nine Days Out: A Preflection on Fairness, Responsibility and the Patients Who Come Back From Jail

Student Name

Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation, Arizona State University

DNP 603: Health Equity and Social Justice

Instructor Name

Month Day, Year

What this page is doingThe title starts with the detail that prompted the reflection, the short time between release and return, and names the questions the preflection takes up.
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Nine Days Out: A Preflection on Fairness, Responsibility and the Patients Who Come Back From Jail

Preflection

Last spring I cared for a 34-year-old man brought in after an opioid overdose. When I looked at his record, I saw he had been released from jail nine days earlier. He survived because his sister had naloxone. He told me he had been "clean" for four months inside and "just wanted to feel normal." I had seen this pattern many times, and for most of my career I explained it to myself as a choice he made.

I want to start this course by being honest about that explanation. I grew up believing that people get what they earn, and nursing school taught me to respect autonomy. Together, those ideas made it easy to see overdose after release as a personal failure. What I did not ask was what had happened in those nine days: whether he left with medication for his addiction, a place to sleep, insurance that worked or a clinic appointment. I suspect the answer to each was no.

Research has made the pattern harder to dismiss. Following 30,237 people released from prisons in Washington State, researchers found that the risk of death in the first two weeks was more than twelve times the rate for other people in the state, and the risk of death from overdose was 129 times higher (Binswanger et al., 2007). Numbers like that do not describe individual weakness. They describe a moment that our systems make dangerous: tolerance has fallen, treatment has stopped, and support has not started. Farmer and colleagues would call this structural violence, harm built into social arrangements rather than chosen by the person who suffers it (Farmer et al., 2006).

My current view of social justice is still forming. I believe fairness requires more than treating everyone the same; it requires paying attention to who is carrying the heaviest burdens and why. To me, health equity means a fair and just chance for everyone to be as healthy as they can be, which depends on removing barriers like poverty, discrimination and what follows from them, such as having little power and no route to decent work, housing and health care (Braveman et al., 2017). People leaving jail face almost every one of those obstacles at once.

I am less sure about the role of the graduate-prepared nurse. At the bedside, my role is clear: treat the overdose, give naloxone, offer a referral. As a DNP-prepared nurse, I think my role should extend to the systems that put people in my emergency department in the first place, such as whether jails continue addiction treatment and whether people leave with coverage and a plan. I do not yet know how a nurse influences jails, courts or Medicaid policy, and I hope this course helps me find out.

My goal for the semester is to replace an easy explanation with a more accurate one and to leave with at least one concrete way to act on it.

References

Binswanger, I. A., Stern, M. F., Deyo, R. A., Heagerty, P. J., Cheadle, A., Elmore, J. G., & Koepsell, T. D. (2007). Release from prison: A high risk of death for former inmates. New England Journal of Medicine, 356(2), 157-165. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsa064115

Braveman, P., Arkin, E., Orleans, T., Proctor, D., & Plough, A. (2017). What is health equity? And what difference does a definition make? Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. https://www.rwjf.org/en/insights/our-research/2017/05/what-is-health-equity-.html

Farmer, P. E., Nizeye, B., Stulac, S., & Keshavjee, S. (2006). Structural violence and clinical medicine. PLoS Medicine, 3(10), e449. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030449

Reading the DNP 603 Module 1 assignment instructions

The posted syllabus asks for three course reflections, in Weeks 1, 7 and 16, each taking up three themes: what you value about social justice, how you see health equity, and your view of the role of the graduate-prepared nurse or health care expert in addressing social injustice. Written reflections need at least a single-spaced page, or two pages double-spaced, or 5 minutes if recorded, with no maximum length or further rubric criteria. The Week 1 preflection is graded together with immersion participation. Expect it to be read as a starting point, since later reflections will be compared with it. Many students find it useful to begin with one practice moment that raised questions about fairness.

How this DNP 603 Module 1 example is built

The reflection opens with one composite patient whose story raises the course's questions. The writer then examines the beliefs behind her old explanation, rather than only stating new ones, which is what makes a preflection honest. One strong study reframes the pattern with real numbers. Separate paragraphs address the three required elements: social justice, health equity with a cited definition, and the graduate-prepared nurse's role, where the writer admits what she does not know yet. A closing goal sets up the later reflections. Because later reflections are compared with this one, the writer states her current beliefs plainly, including those she expects to revise, which gives the Week 7 and Week 16 reflections something concrete to measure change against.

DNP 603 Module 1 rubric: what earns full marks

Because the syllabus sets no rubric beyond length and content, reflections are mostly judged on whether they address all three elements, show genuine self-examination, and set a starting point that later reflections can build on. Faculty tend to value honesty about current beliefs, including ones the student expects to change. Connecting reflection to a real practice experience makes it meaningful. Citing a source is not required but can sharpen a point, as the mortality data do here. Reflections that name a specific goal for the course also give faculty a way to see growth by the end of the term, and they make the final reflection easier to write.

DNP 603 Module 1 help from the desk

Students sometimes write what they think the instructor wants to hear rather than what they believe. A preflection is more useful when it is candid. Another common gap is skipping one of the three required elements; check that values, equity and the nurse's role each appear. Keep patient details composite. If you record instead of writing, plan your points so the recording stays focused. If you would like help shaping your first reflection, get in touch with the desk. Write a first draft quickly and honestly, then revise for clarity rather than for impression; the most useful preflections read like the student talking to themselves. Save a copy for the later reflections.

Write yours, or have the desk draft it

This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Arizona State University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.

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DNP 603 Module 1 questions, answered

Where can I find a free DNP 603 Module 1 sample paper?

The preflection is shown above in full: an emergency nurse's reflection on overdose after jail release, her changing view of fairness, a definition of health equity and the DNP nurse's role.

How long is the DNP 603 preflection?

A minimum of one single-spaced page (two double-spaced) or a five-minute recording; there is no upper limit.

What should the DNP 603 reflections include?

Three things: what you believe about social justice, how you understand health equity, and the graduate-prepared nurse's role in addressing injustice.

When are the DNP 603 reflections due?

The syllabus places them in Weeks 1, 7 and 16.

Do DNP 603 reflections need citations?

They are not required, but a well-chosen source can support a point; follow any instructions in Canvas.