| Course | NURS 3025 Health Assessment |
|---|---|
| Week | Week 6 |
| Paper type | Discussion post with two peer replies |
| Length | About 550 words, 4 pages |
| Format | Discussion post, APA 7 citations |
| School | Walden University |
| Program | Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NURS 3025 Week 6
Week 6 Discussion: Initial Post
Postoperative Day 2: Sorting a Finding Set by Urgency and Making One Call
The finding set, for a composite 68-year-old woman on postoperative day 2 after a bowel resection: heart rate 88, then 104, then 112 over 8 hours; respiratory rate 18, then 22, then 26; temperature 99.5, then 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit; blood pressure 128/74, then 116/70; oxygen saturation 96%, then 94% on room air; urine output 20 mL an hour for the last 4 hours, down from 40; her daughter says, "She's not making sense, she asked me where her car was"; incision edges slightly pink with a small amount of serous drainage; pain 5 out of 10 at rest.
Tier 1, abnormal but expected at this stage: the low-grade temperature, pink incision edges with serous drainage, and moderate pain are all common on day 2 and, alone, would call for continued monitoring.
Tier 2, findings that matter mainly in combination: the rising heart rate, the rising respiratory rate, the fall in urine output, and the slight fall in blood pressure. Any one could have an ordinary explanation, such as pain or dehydration. Together, over 8 hours, they form a trend. Changes in vital signs often precede serious deterioration by hours, and the respiratory rate is among the earliest and most often missed of those signs (Cretikos et al., 2008).
Tier 3, one change that warrants a call now: new confusion reported by her daughter, in combination with the tier 2 trend. A change in mental status is one of the triggers that rapid response systems use to bring help to a deteriorating patient before cardiac arrest (Jones et al., 2011), and it turns a trend I could watch into a situation I should not watch alone. My call, in SBAR form, a structure designed to give the listener the essentials in a predictable order (Haig et al., 2006):
Situation: Mrs. L., bed 14, day 2 after bowel resection, is newly confused per her daughter and has a respiratory rate of 26 and heart rate of 112.
Background: surgery 2 days ago, uncomplicated per the operative note; no history of confusion; on patient-controlled analgesia until this morning.
Assessment: over 8 hours, heart rate and respiratory rate rising, blood pressure falling slightly, urine output 20 mL an hour, temperature 100.4; I am concerned she is developing sepsis or another serious complication.
Recommendation: please see her within 30 minutes; I would like to call the rapid response team if you cannot, and to draw a lactate and blood cultures now.
Reply to Jasmine
Jasmine, you ranked the fall in urine output as your call-now finding rather than the confusion. I can see the argument, since 20 mL an hour for 4 hours is a concrete threshold. But her daughter's report is the only finding that is new in kind rather than in degree. Would you still call first about urine output if she were alert and oriented?
Reply to Brandon
Brandon, you placed the temperature of 100.4 in tier 3. I would test that against the rest of the set: on day 2, a low-grade fever alone is common. What would make it call-worthy is its company, the heart rate and breathing rate. If the fever were the only abnormal finding, would you still call, or would you recheck in an hour?
References
Cretikos, M. A., Bellomo, R., Hillman, K., Chen, J., Finfer, S., & Flabouris, A. (2008). Respiratory rate: The neglected vital sign. Medical Journal of Australia, 188(11), 657-659. https://doi.org/10.5694/j.1326-5377.2008.tb01825.x
Haig, K. M., Sutton, S., & Whittington, J. (2006). SBAR: A shared mental model for improving communication between clinicians. The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, 32(3), 167-175. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1553-7250(06)32022-3
Jones, D. A., DeVita, M. A., & Bellomo, R. (2011). Rapid-response teams. The New England Journal of Medicine, 365(2), 139-146. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMra0910926
The Walden NURS 3025 Week 6 instructions
The sixth NURS 3025 thread usually presents a set of abnormal findings and asks how a nurse should prioritize and act. You group findings by urgency, explain what they suggest together, choose one escalation and justify it. Faculty pay for reasoning, so treating every finding with equal concern scores as description. Cite an early warning tool or sepsis criteria in APA 7. SBAR is a common structure for the escalation and may be required. Replies should test the classmate's priority. The initial post appears midweek. NURS 3025 faculty want the trend shown with times, the findings grouped and one escalation chosen. Write the SBAR in full. Say what you would recheck after the call.
Inside the NURS 3025 Week 6 example
The initial post is the longest piece, with two shorter replies after it. The prompt's finding set is reproduced at the top in a compact list so the argument can refer back to it: a composite patient on the second postoperative day, with a set of vital sign trends, a change in mental status reported by family, and a wound finding. The post groups these into three tiers, findings that are abnormal but expected at this stage, findings that matter mainly in combination, and one change the post argues warrants a call now. It then writes out that call as a four-line SBAR, one line for each letter. Two scholarly sources support the ranking, one on recognizing early deterioration and one on structured handoff communication.
NURS 3025 Week 6 rubric: what earns full marks
This week's rubric generally pays for clinical reasoning shown in writing, and a post that lists every abnormal finding with equal concern tends to score as description rather than judgment. The tiering answers that directly. Commitment is often scored explicitly, and hedged language suggesting the nurse might consider possibly notifying someone reads as avoidance of the decision the prompt asked for. Support is usually required at two or more scholarly sources, and sources that address early recognition or structured communication score better than a general textbook citation. Reply lines reward challenge, so a response agreeing with the ranking and adding nothing earns little. SBAR sections, where required, lose points when the recommendation line is missing or reduced to 'please advise', since that line carries the actual request.
NURS 3025 Week 6 help from the desk
Abnormal findings posts lose credit when they list every finding with equal worry. Group them and show the pattern. Another common gap is noticing the trend but choosing to keep monitoring. Commit to an escalation. Writers also report single values without the trend. Show how each changed over eight hours. Avoid diagnosing; say what the pattern raises concern for. Use SBAR for the call. In replies, question the classmate's first priority. Close with what you would recheck after the call. Writers also forget urine output and the surgical site, both important after bowel surgery. Check them. Another frequent slip is an SBAR with no clear request. End it with what you need from the provider.
Get a NURS 3025 Week 6 example written to your instructions
Include the Week 6 discussion prompt, the finding set or case it gives, and the rubric with its source minimum. The initial post is written to that exact data, tiered and committed to one escalation in SBAR form, with two replies that each contest a specific placement. Free for the first request, returned in 24-48 hours.
More NURS 3025 papers and BSN samples
- NURS 3025 Week 1: Documentation Exercise
- NURS 3025 Week 2: Health History
- NURS 3025 Week 3: Findings Language Post
- NURS 3025 Week 4: Integumentary Write-Up
- NURS 3025 Week 5: Cardiopulmonary Documentation
- NURS 3025 Week 7: Abdominal and MSK Write-Up
- NURS 3025 Week 8: Neurological Assessment Note
- NURS 3025 Week 9: Pediatric Focused Note
- NURS 3025 Week 10: Head-to-Toe Write-Up
- NURS 3025 Week 11: Documentation Reflection
- NURS 3030 Week 6: Equity Barrier Template
- NURS 3021 Week 6: Unit Change Proposal
- NURS 3111 Week 6: Early Warning Alert Appraisal
- NURS 4300 Week 6: Practice Change Proposal
NURS 3025 Week 6 questions, answered
Does the post tell me what to do for my patient?
No. The post argues a position on a composite finding set supplied by a discussion prompt, which is an academic exercise in documented reasoning. It gives no guidance for any real patient, and nothing on this page stands in for facility policy, a rapid response protocol or a provider's orders. Decisions about an actual patient belong to the clinicians responsible for that patient.
Why commit to a single escalation instead of covering every concern?
Because the prompt is testing prioritization, and listing every concern as equally urgent avoids the test. The example still documents the other findings and says why they sit lower, so nothing is ignored. A grader reading for judgment wants to see which finding comes first for the author and why it outranks the rest.
Is SBAR required in this discussion?
Not in every section. Some prompts name it and some simply ask how the concern would be communicated. The example uses SBAR because its four parts make a recommendation explicit, and a post that describes escalation without saying what is being requested leaves its argument unfinished. If the prompt specifies another handoff format, the sample uses that one.
Where can I find a free NURS 3025 Week 6 sample paper?
The postoperative day 2 post is reproduced here with the findings grouped by urgency, the single SBAR escalation and replies to Jasmine and Brandon.
What might the findings point to in NURS 3025 Week 6?
Possible early sepsis or anastomotic leak, prompting one SBAR call to the surgical provider.