D155 opens the specialty sequence of WGU's MSN Leadership and Management program. Before students lead a healthcare improvement project, they examine how they lead themselves.
WGU's program guide describes the course as preparing the advanced professional nurse to demonstrate self-awareness, self-management, executive function and social awareness while leading in diverse healthcare settings. Students apply these skills to building relationships and teams, and create a vision for success that includes better work-life balance.
Many nurses find D155 harder than it looks. Writing honestly about your own strengths and weaknesses, and backing that reflection with leadership evidence, is a different skill from clinical documentation.
Course at a Glance
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| University | Western Governors University (WGU) |
| Course code | D155 |
| Program | MSN Leadership and Management (also RN to MSN and post-master's certificate versions) |
| Competency units | 2 (per the BSN to MSN program guide) |
| Subject area | Nurse leadership, emotional and social intelligence |
| Typical work | A scholarly, evidence-based written assessment with personal leadership planning |
What D155 Covers
| Competency (summarized) | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Design pathways to personal mastery | A development plan for leading individuals and teams |
| Develop a leadership vision | Self-awareness, self-management, communication, executive function and social awareness |
| Communicate and build consensus | Working with internal and external stakeholders |
| Write scholarly, evidence-based papers | Clear, concise writing that contributes to nursing knowledge |
Key Concepts Explained
Personal Mastery
The term comes from systems thinking (Peter Senge's work on learning organizations). It means continually clarifying what matters to you and seeing current reality honestly. The gap between the two creates the energy for growth.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is commonly described in four domains: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management. D155's competencies map closely onto these, with executive function (planning, prioritizing, controlling impulses) added.
Example: A charge nurse notices she becomes curt when staffing is short (self-awareness). She agrees with herself to pause before reassigning patients (self-management), checks how the team is coping (social awareness) and holds a short huddle to share the plan (relationship management).
Consensus Building
Consensus does not mean everyone gets what they want. It means stakeholders understand the decision, have been heard and can support it. Techniques include stakeholder mapping, structured meetings and clear follow-up.
Typical Assignments and How to Approach Them
| Task type | What it tests | How to approach it |
|---|---|---|
| Self-assessment analysis | Self-awareness | Use a validated tool your course provides and interpret results with examples |
| Leadership vision statement | Direction and values | Keep it short, specific and linked to your setting |
| Development plan | Pathway to mastery | Set SMART goals with actions, resources and timelines |
| Stakeholder communication | Consensus building | Describe a real or planned conversation and the strategy behind it |
Scholarly Writing in a Reflective Course
One D155 competency is about scholarly writing itself. Reflection and scholarship can feel like opposites, but evaluators expect both: your experience, interpreted through evidence.
A reliable pattern for each section is to describe the situation briefly, link it to a leadership concept with a citation, and state what you will do differently. Write in first person where the task invites reflection, and in formal third person for the literature. Keep APA 7 formatting consistent throughout.
Building a Personal Development Plan
A development plan turns reflection into action. A simple structure works well: the strength or gap you identified, the evidence for it, a SMART goal, the actions you will take, the support you need and how you will know it worked.
Keep the plan short enough to use. Two or three goals followed through are worth more than a long list. Where the task asks about work-life balance, include one realistic goal for it, such as protecting time after shifts, alongside your leadership goals.
Where Students Get Stuck
- Vague goals. "Improve communication" is not measurable; "lead a weekly ten-minute huddle for three months" is.
- Reflection without evidence. Every claim about leadership needs a scholarly source.
- Listing strengths only. Honest weaknesses, and a plan for them, are what show self-awareness.
- Ignoring work-life balance. The course explicitly links personal mastery to balance; address it.
Study Tips for D155
- Keep a short leadership journal during the course; it supplies real examples.
- Choose two or three leadership theories and use them consistently rather than mentioning many.
- Read the rubric before writing and mirror its aspects in your headings.
- Think ahead: the relationships and vision you describe here will support your healthcare improvement project in later courses.
How We Help with D155
Send the task instructions, rubric, any self-assessment results you are allowed to share and evaluator feedback. A writer with nursing leadership experience prepares a custom paper, helps you plan SMART goals, or edits your draft for evidence, structure and APA style. Our nursing leadership paper guide covers related assignments.
GradeEssays is independent of Western Governors University. Our work is a reference to help you understand the approach; reflective content about your own leadership must be yours, written and submitted under WGU's academic integrity rules.
Turn Self-Reflection into a Strong D155 Paper
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Frequently Asked Questions
In the BSN to MSN program guide, it is the first course after the MSN Core and advanced practice foundations, followed by D156 Business Case Analysis.
Formal leadership roles help but are not required. Charge nurse duties, precepting or committee work all provide usable examples.
Emotional intelligence, personal mastery from systems thinking, and transformational leadership are common choices; use what your course resources emphasize.
Personal enough to show honest self-awareness, but always supported by scholarly evidence and written professionally.
Yes. Share your self-assessment themes and we help you turn them into specific, measurable goals with clear actions.
Yes. Later courses build a healthcare improvement project with stakeholders, so the communication and consensus skills from D155 are used throughout.