In order to write a case study paper, you must carefully address a number of sections in a specific order with specific information contained in each. The guideline below outlines each of those sections.
Section
Information to Include
Introduction (patient and problem)
- Explain who the patient is (Age, gender, etc.)
- Explain what the problem is (What were they diagnosed with, or what happened?)
- Introduce your main argument (What should you as a nurse focus on or do?)
Pathophysiology
- Explain the disease (What are the symptoms? What causes it?)
History
- Explain what health problems the patient has (Have they been diagnosed with other diseases?)
- Detail any and all previous treatments (Have they had any prior surgeries or are they on medication?)
Nursing Physical Assessment
- List all the patient’s health stats in sentences with specific numbers/levels (Blood pressure, bowel sounds, ambulation, etc.)
Related Treatments
- Explain what treatments the patient is receiving because of their disease
Nursing Diagnosis & Patient Goal
- Explain what your nursing diagnosis is (What is the main problem for this patient? What need to be addressed?)
- Explain what your goal is for helping the patient recover (What do you want to change for the patient?)
Nursing Interventions
- Explain how you will accomplish your nursing goals, and support this with citations (Reference the literature)
Evaluation
- Explain how effective the nursing intervention was (What happened after your nursing intervention? Did the patient get better?)
Recommendations
- Explain what the patient or nurse should do in the future to continue recovery/improvement
Your paper should be 3-4 pages in length and will be graded on how well you complete each of the above sections. You will also be graded on your use of APA Style and on your application of nursing journals into the treatments and interventions. For integrating nursing journals, remember the following:
- Make sure to integrate citations into all of your paper
- Support all claims of what the disease is, why it occurs and how to treat it with references to the literature on this disease
- Always use citations for information that you learned from a book or article; if you do not cite it, you are telling your reader that YOU discovered that information (how to treat the disease, etc.)
Review the rubric for further information on how your assignment will be graded.