| Course | MSW 529 Medical Social Work II |
|---|---|
| Week | 2 |
| Paper type | Illness trajectory paper |
| Length | About 600 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | Master of Social Work (MSW) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MSW 529 Week 2
Illness Trajectory Paper on L., 49, From Diabetic Kidney Disease to Dialysis on a Three-Morning Schedule: Phases Named for What Changed in the Week, the Disease and the Household Kept on Separate Tracks and the January Problem
Student Name
Chamberlain University
MSW 529: Medical Social Work II
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Illness Trajectory Paper on L., 49, From Diabetic Kidney Disease to Dialysis on a Three-Morning Schedule: Phases Named for What Changed in the Week, the Disease and the Household Kept on Separate Tracks and the January Problem
Framework
The trajectory framework treats chronic illness as a course with phases, shaped by the work patients and families do to manage it, not only by the disease (Corbin & Strauss, 1991). This paper names phases by what changed in L.'s week. The disease track and the household track are kept apart, since they did not change at the same times.
Phase 1: Managed at Home, 2019 to November 2024
Disease: type 2 diabetes with slowly declining kidney function, treated with tablets and two clinic visits a year. Household: L. worked full time as a school bus mechanic; spouse T. worked days at a hospital laundry; two teenagers at home. The illness took only a few hours of each year.
Phase 2: First Hospitalization, December 2024
Disease: fluid overload; emergency dialysis started through a neck catheter. Household: T. took two weeks of unpaid leave. The older teen drove the younger to school. The household's income dropped by about a third for a month.
The household lost more than income. The younger teen missed two weeks of after-school practice because nobody could drive, and T. began sleeping in the hospital chair three nights out of five.
Phase 3: Partial Recovery, January to March 2025
Disease: a fistula was placed in the arm; dialysis continued three times a week. L. returned to work part time, mornings off. Household: the schedule fit, barely, because the dialysis unit offered an afternoon chair after L.'s shift. This was a recovery that never returned to the earlier baseline; L. was well but not as before.
L. later called this period "the good months," though L. was already working fewer hours and earning less than in 2024.
Phase 4: The Schedule Becomes the Job, From April 2025
Disease: stable on dialysis; the transplant center accepted L. for evaluation in 2026. Household: the afternoon chair was reassigned and L. moved to a 6 a.m. shift on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. L. stopped working in May 2025. Paratransit became the route to dialysis, and missed rides became the main risk. T. began regular overtime to cover the lost income.
The January Problem
Each January, the household's coverage resets. The spouse's employer plan deductible starts over, and so does the Medicare Part B deductible. In January 2026, L. paid for three weeks of dialysis-related costs before coverage resumed in full, and the family delayed a car repair. A trajectory that leaves out calendar resets misses why every winter is harder.
Recovery That Does Not Return
None of the recoveries returned L. to the previous phase. Each phase began from a lower baseline of work, income and free time. The household's track shows this more clearly than the disease track, where lab values were stable.
What the Trajectory Points To
A transplant, if it happens, would begin a new phase rather than a return. Guidance on transplant candidacy asks evaluators to assess social support and the ability to manage care after surgery (Chadban et al., 2020); this trajectory shows those supports are already stretched.
References
Chadban, S. J., Ahn, C., Axelrod, D. A., Foster, B. J., Kasiske, B. L., Kher, V., Kumar, D., Oberbauer, R., Pascual, J., Pilmore, H. L., Rodrigue, J. R., Segev, D. L., Sheerin, N. S., Tinckam, K. J., Wong, G., & Knoll, G. A. (2020). KDIGO clinical practice guideline on the evaluation and management of candidates for kidney transplantation. Transplantation, 104(4S1), S11-S103. https://doi.org/10.1097/TP.0000000000003136
Corbin, J. M., & Strauss, A. (1991). A nursing model for chronic illness management based upon the trajectory framework. Scholarly Inquiry for Nursing Practice, 5(3), 155-174.
MSW 529 Week 2 instructions, in plain terms
The trajectory paper is organized by phase rather than by year, and phases are named for what changed in the person's week: managed at home, first hospitalization, a partial recovery that does not return to baseline and a stretch where treatment itself becomes the schedule. Keep two tracks apart, the disease and the household, since they rarely change at the same time. Show what each phase took from the household in money, work hours and who drives. Include the January problem, when deductibles and benefits reset. Avoid a story of steady decline, which few long courses follow. Use a framework for chronic illness and close with what the trajectory points to.
How the MSW 529 Week 2 example is put together
The framework section cites Corbin and Strauss (1991) and states that disease and household tracks are kept apart. Phase 1 runs from 2019 to November 2024, with full-time work and two clinic visits a year. Phase 2 is the December 2024 admission and emergency dialysis, with unpaid leave and a third of income lost for a month. Phase 3 covers a fistula, part-time work and an afternoon chair. Phase 4 begins with a 6 a.m. chair, the end of work in May 2025, paratransit and overtime. A January section describes two deductibles resetting and a delayed car repair. A section shows each recovery starting from a lower baseline, and the close ties stretched supports to Chadban et al. (2020).
Where the points sit in the MSW 529 Week 2 rubric
The most ground is lost by a paper whose household appears only in the last paragraph, with years of disease described accurately and money, work and transport added at the end. Close behind is a trajectory written as steady decline. Faculty credit phases named for changes in the week, two tracks kept apart, a clear account of what each phase took from the household and attention to calendar resets. Recoveries that do not return to baseline should be shown. Coverage rules, when mentioned, must be accurate. A framework should organize the paper rather than decorate it. Sources need APA entries. Faculty also check that the two tracks stay separate in every phase.
Common MSW 529 Week 2 mistakes, and how to avoid them
The trajectory that loses most is a medical history with a paragraph about family at the end. Another common problem is organizing by year, which hides when the week actually changed. Some papers describe steady decline when the course had plateaus and partial recoveries. Others forget that coverage resets every January. For a different illness, perhaps heart failure, multiple sclerosis or COPD, use the same two tracks and name phases by what changed in the person's week. The stronger paper about your patient shows, in each phase, who gave up hours and money to keep treatment going. Dates for each phase change make the paper checkable against the record.
Get a MSW-529 Week 2 example written to your instructions
Send the Week 2 instructions with the case or condition your classroom assigned, and a custom trajectory paper is written to them and returned inside 24 to 48 hours, the first one free. If you are building it on a patient you actually worked with, strip the identifiers first; the example that comes back will not add facts you did not supply.
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MSW 529 Week 2 questions, answered
How many years does the trajectory have to cover?
Whatever span the assignment names, and where it names none, pick a stretch long enough to contain at least one turn. A condition described across eighteen stable months produces a description rather than a trajectory. Five years is common because it usually holds a diagnosis, a hospitalization and a change in what the person can do, which is the minimum a phase structure needs.
Do I need real coverage rules, or can I describe them generally?
Real ones, and they are findable. Plan documents, state program pages and benefit summaries are public, and a paper naming what a specific program covers for a specific service reads completely differently from one saying coverage was limited. Where you cannot confirm a rule, write what you could not confirm and where you looked. Faculty mark a stated uncertainty far more kindly than a confident error.
Can the paper end with recommendations?
Usually yes, in a short closing section, and the useful ones are anchored to a date inside the paper. A recommendation for earlier involvement means nothing on its own; the same idea attached to the month the equipment order lapsed is checkable. Anything longer than a few lines starts competing with the later assignment that exists to hold the plan.
Where can I find a free MSW 529 Week 2 sample paper?
A full MSW 529 Week 2 illness trajectory paper following kidney disease from home management to dialysis is posted here, annotated where the two tracks diverge.
What is the January problem in the MSW 529 Week 2 sample?
Each January the employer plan and Medicare deductibles reset, so the household pays weeks of costs before full coverage returns, which makes every winter harder.