COMPLEX DISCHARGE PAPER
Reference recent articles from a professional nursing or case management journal no more than five years old.
Articles from Blogs, WEB MD, Mayo Clinic Patient Education, medical journals such as JAMA, articles from the Center for Disease Control, or general public magazines like US News, World Report or Time are not appropriate for this paper.
Use 8” x 11” plain paper, type in 12 point Times New Roman font with double spacing throughout your paper. Indent the first line of every paragraph one inch, then align the text to the left hand margin leaving a “ragged” right margin. Paper should be approximately 2 pages in length.

Grading Criteria for Written Paper
?Possible points
Earned points
(OBJECTIVES BY COURSE)
?
70
?
Select a patient with a complex discharge and describe discharge needs.
20
?
Utilize two (2) evidence based articles related to the role of the medical or social discharge needs of your patient.
20
Discuss pertinent assessment data related to current condition.
?
10
?
Discuss the interdisciplinary team’s notes related to caring for this patient. (SW, OT, PT, etc.)
20
CITATIONS AND REFERENCES
?
15
Title page
?
2
Running Head/page numbers
2
?
Correct format for citations in text
5
?
?
Reference format:
? author, page, issue, doi or URL for electronic documents
5
?
Page format:
? spacing, indentation
1
SPELLING, GRAMMAR, SENTENCE STRUCTURE, READABILITY
15
?
?
? 0 to 3 errors
15
?
? 4 to 10 errors
7
? more than 10 errors
0
?
FINAL GRADE TOTAL POSSIBLE POINTS
100

The paper has to discuss a discharge of a patient I cared for during my clinical rotation. My patient was a 27 year old woman with 4 children at home that suffered from Lupus. She was admitted to the hospital after complaints of Shortness of breath, later found to be Left lower lobe necrotic abcess. Dr. attempted a thorocentesis, with no results. Her albumin level was 0.9. RBC 263, Hgb 7.1, hct 21.5. She was given 1 unit of blood, in plans for emergency surgery. That day, she was seen by another doctor that disagreed with the plan of care. He did not see a need for the surgery. He instead had a drain tube placed in the left lung. She planned to discharge home, but throughout her stay at the hospital each nurse reported to the next that she was non-compliant with self health care. She needed to see a rheumatologist but did not go. The patient told me that her medicaid did not cover the specialist and she could not afford to go. Also there is only one rheumatologist in the area. This would make it difficult for this young woman to get the proper care she needs after she leaves the hospital.
Some other information to know, She had fluid overload, severe edema +2 generalized, +3 in lower extremities. Weaping of the right abdomen. High blood pressure.