I will provide a self evaluation and reflective leanings from participating in the debate presentations. The debate statement was, “That employers have the right to enforce mandatory overtime for registered nurses” I was assigned to debate the affirmative or pro side of this debate. As part of this reflective exercise I will discuss the following topics: (a) explore why I choose the direction and arguments for the debate; (b) discuss what I would do differently and (c) discuss my lessons learned from this process. 
      The debate format was very new to most of us in the class. It did take a short time to become comfortable with this style of presentation and learning. I did participate in debate club in my high school for one year so I did have some exposure to debate styles. Personally I am not a black and white kind of person and always like to consider both sides of a situation before making a decision. I enjoyed reading and participating in the discussion of the debates that preceded my debate presentation.
      The debate format is a useful tool to discuss the challenging and often emotional issues in nursing. The variety of the class in terms of years of clinical experience, practice environments and management provided very thought provoking discussions. When I first received the debate topic I was very intrigued and interested to get into the research of this topic. I enjoyed discussing this topic with colleagues in the lunch room and received a variety of input from different backgrounds. The finance manager brought out the costs factor to consider with mandatory overtime and continuity of business. The client services director who is very process orientated and works with home care sites across the province to provide care was very much in favor of mandatory overtime on an as needed basis to ensure client received care required. The director for labor relations was a wealth of knowledge and loved to chat about this topic and his experience of labor relations. The variety of discussions provided a starting point for the focus and style of my debate. 
      It was challenging to find credible support documentation and background information for the pro side of this debate. Learning to use the online library was frustrating but I did make use of the library tutorials provided by the Athabasca library and with each search I learned tricks to fine tune my searches to obtain topics I was interested in. I did anticipate that I would not obtain positive information to support the use of mandatory overtime. Initially this made me evaluate, just how I was going to present the pro side of mandatory overtime? I have worked in nurse management for the last five years, having the experience of labor relations and management experience certainly assisted me in the development of my positive arguments. I decided to frame the debate around management rights and clarified that my position was not to debate whether mandatory overtime was a good or bad but rather that management should have the right to use mandatory overtime in certain situations. I decided to focus on three areas: (a) clients require staff to provide care; (b) nurse managers are responsible to have a safe staff client mix and (c) unions provide language for overtime and process for mandatory overtime. I tried to build my supporting evidence from research on staff mix and client safety and turn it around to support the dilemma of management when put in a situation that may require mandatory overtime. The information from Registered Nurses Association of Ontario on Best Practice Guidelines for developing and sustaining effective staffing and workload practices (RNAO, 2007) was new to me and I have shared this with nurse manager colleagues. I also tried to anticipate the topics that my opponent would use and make a statement of acknowledging the value of the anticipated topics. 
      In evaluating what worked well, presenting the information from Chandra (2007) that indicated a variety of reasons why nurses leave nursing added some strength to my debate rebuttal. I realized presenting my debate in a manner that acknowledged the context of the health care system and competing demands for nursing managers in terms of nurse staffing would put the situation in a more positive light. I wanted to try to convey a conversational approach and I thought the inclusion of positive quotes at the end of the presentations would add uniqueness to my presentation and engage my classmates. 
      What would I do differently?  I would still present the information from the management rights position but I would try to have more supporting research to address the rebuttal of my opponent. I did not feel that my rebuttal was as strong as my opponents due to lack of information to refute the arguments on nurse moral and work life balance. I realized that I was not going to have many cheerleaders or classmates supporting the pro side of this debate. I enjoyed responding to my classmates but did find it challenging to refute the con side. The information my opponent presented on patient safety, recruitment and retention of nurses, nursing moral and work life balance is well documented and researched. I was presently surprised at the positive comments from my classmates and their support to me on presenting the pro side of this emotion filled topic. 
      In summary, having my debate scheduled in the middle of the course provided the opportunity to review previous debate presentation styles and  informed my choice in style and layout of information. The lessons learned from this debate reflect the objectives of the course outline. I have developed increased comfort and knowledge with the following:  (a) using the Athabasca University library; (b) development of logical affirmative debate arguments; (c) increased skill in analyzing the logic of my opponent’s arguments and (d) presenting rebuttal in a positive professional manner.  The debate experience was a positive one for me personally; the debate was my first project for my first course on my journey of studies for my Masters in Nursing. In my career I enjoy reviewing lessons learned from practice and look forward to incorporating my lessons learned from this course and debate exercise for future projects and assignments.