| Course | NR 574 Acute Care Practicum I |
|---|---|
| Week | 6 |
| Paper type | Exposure gap memo |
| Length | About 620 words, 4 pages |
| Format | Memo with APA 7 citations |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | MSN, Adult-Gerontology Acute Care NP (AGACNP) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NR 574 Week 6
Memorandum
To: Clinical placement coordinator and practicum preceptor
From: Acute care nurse practitioner student
Date: Week 6, Monday
Re: Request to spend two Thursdays with the rapid response nurse practitioner to meet a noninvasive ventilation aim
What I Have Seen in Volume
In five weeks on the medical intermediate care unit I have written nine admission notes, presented seven times on rounds, followed about 40 patients through at least one day and been involved in the care of 14 patients on noninvasive ventilation. The unit has given me more experience than I expected with heart failure, COPD, insulin and heparin infusions, and patients stepping down from intensive care. This memo is not about a lack of patients.
What Has Not Appeared
One thing has not appeared at all: the decision to start noninvasive ventilation. All 14 patients started it in the emergency department or in the intensive care unit before arriving. My week 2 aim 2 asked for initiation or weaning decisions for three patients; I have one weaning decision and no initiation. The unit's admission pattern means that will not change by itself in the three weeks that remain.
The Request
I ask to spend Thursday of week 7 and Thursday of week 8 with the rapid response acute care nurse practitioner, who responds to deteriorating patients on the general wards and is often the person who starts noninvasive ventilation before a transfer to intermediate or intensive care. Each day would be 07:00 to 19:00, under that nurse practitioner's supervision, with the same limits on my scope as on the unit. The rapid response nurse practitioner has said informally that they would be willing, and that they start noninvasive ventilation on the wards about two to four times a week. Approval is needed from the coordinator, because the change moves my practicum hours to a different preceptor for two days.
What I Would Drop to Make Room
On Thursdays I currently work with the second unit nurse practitioner and take afternoon admissions. I would give up two Thursdays of admissions; I have already met my admission-note aim with nine notes against a target of eight. My hours for the term would not change.
The Arithmetic
Three weeks remain. The unit has supplied no initiation decisions in five weeks, so the expected number from the unit alone is close to zero. Two days with the rapid response service, at two to four starts a week, gives a reasonable chance of one or two. The noninvasive ventilation guideline treats starting the machine as a time-sensitive decision centered on acidemia (Rochwerg et al., 2017), which is why it usually happens before a patient is transferred. Deliberate practice depends on repeated, targeted exposure to the specific task one is trying to learn, not on general time in a setting (Ericsson, 2004), and this request is targeted at one task.
If the Request Cannot Be Met
If the coordinator or my preceptor cannot approve the change, I will ask to revise aim 2 to "make the weaning decisions for noninvasive ventilation for three patients," which the unit can supply, and to record the initiation aim as not reachable at this placement in my end-of-term summary. I would also ask for a simulation session in the lab on noninvasive ventilation initiation, if the course offers one. Either outcome is acceptable; I am writing now so the decision can be made with three weeks still left to use. Precepting arrangements work best when expectations and changes are made explicit to everyone involved (Logan et al., 2015).
Supporting Documents
My week 2 objective set, my week 5 midpoint appraisal initialed by my preceptor, and the orientation write-up describing the unit's admission pattern are attached.
References
Ericsson, K. A. (2004). Deliberate practice and the acquisition and maintenance of expert performance in medicine and related domains. Academic Medicine, 79(10 Suppl.), S70-S81. https://doi.org/10.1097/00001888-200410001-00022
Logan, B. L., Kovacs, K. A., & Barry, T. L. (2015). Precepting nurse practitioner students: One medical center's efforts to improve the precepting process. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 27(12), 676-682. https://doi.org/10.1002/2327-6924.12265
Rochwerg, B., Brochard, L., Elliott, M. W., Hess, D., Hill, N. S., Nava, S., Navalesi, P., Antonelli, M., Brozek, J., Conti, G., Ferrer, M., Guntupalli, K., Jaber, S., Keenan, S., Mancebo, J., Mehta, S., & Raoof, S. (2017). Official ERS/ATS clinical practice guidelines: Noninvasive ventilation for acute respiratory failure. European Respiratory Journal, 50(2), Article 1602426. https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.02426-2016
What the NR 574 Week 6 assignment asks for
The Week 6 assignment asks for a one-page memo to someone who can change your schedule. Open on what you have seen in volume, so the reader knows the memo is not a complaint about being idle. Then list the absences plainly, tied to the week 2 aims they threaten. The request carries most of the marks: a specific change, such as a named block of time or a named area, the weeks it would need and what you would drop to make room. Include the arithmetic of how many weeks remain. Close on what will happen if the request cannot be met, so the memo is useful whatever the answer.
How the NR 574 Week 6 example is put together
The sample uses a memo header addressed to the placement coordinator and preceptor. It opens with counts of notes, presentations and patients on noninvasive ventilation. The absence is one decision type, starting the machine, which never occurs on the unit because patients start it elsewhere. The request names two Thursdays, the hours, the rapid response nurse practitioner and the coordinator's approval. A section offers to drop Thursday admissions, an aim already met. The arithmetic compares near zero expected starts on the unit with two to four a week on the wards, citing the ventilation guideline and a paper on deliberate practice. A fallback and the attached documents close it.
Reading the NR 574 Week 6 grading rubric
A memo that lists absences and never asks forfeits the largest share, because the assignment's central verb is missing; this memo makes one request in its own section. A request the service cannot grant fails differently, showing the writer never reread the orientation write-up; this one asks for a different service that does the work. Without arithmetic on the weeks remaining, no one can judge whether the ask is reasonable. Absences written as someone's failure lose tone points, while this memo frames the gap as a scheduling fact. Asking for one thing rather than five, and stating the fallback, completes the last two rows of most rubrics.
Common NR 574 Week 6 mistakes, and how to avoid them
The most common NR 574 Week 6 problem is a memo of complaints with no request. Another is asking for experience the unit does not offer, which shows the placement was not understood. Many memos skip what the student would give up, so the request looks like extra demand. Some leave out the number of weeks left. Others ask for several changes at once. Few say what happens if the answer is no. If your gap is different, send your aims, what you have seen so far and the weeks remaining; a memo can be drafted that asks for one change and offers a fallback. Attach the documents that support the request, such as the objective set and the midpoint appraisal.
Get a NR 574 Week 6 example written to your instructions
Useful to send: the assignment file, your week two aims, and a short note on what the rotation has covered so far and what it has not. A custom NR 574 Week 6 memo comes back inside 24-48h, the first one free, built as a request with the fallback written out. Whether the answer is yes is settled on your unit, not here.
More NR 574 papers and AGACNP samples
- NR 574 Week 1: First Practicum Week Discussion Post
- NR 574 Week 2: Practicum Learning Objectives
- NR 574 Week 3: Practicum Orientation Write-Up
- NR 574 Week 4: Weekly Practicum Journal
- NR 574 Week 5: Midpoint Self-Appraisal
- NR 574 Week 7: Rounds Presentation Outline
- NR 574 Week 8: End of Rotation Summary
- NR 573 Week 6: Team Communication Debrief
- NR 567 Week 6: Empiric Antibiotic Rationale
- NR 572 Week 6: Acute Management Case Analysis
- NR 569 Week 6: Clinical Reasoning Journal
NR 574 Week 6 questions, answered
Who is this memo actually addressed to?
Whoever can change the schedule, which is often not faculty. On many rotations that is the person coordinating the placement or the clinician running the service. Sections differ on whether it is submitted only in the classroom or shared on the unit as well, and the assignment usually says. The register stays the same either way: specific, short, asking for one thing.
Nothing is missing. The rotation has covered everything.
That answer is almost never accurate by week six, and writing it produces a thin document. Depth counts as much as breadth here. A category met once is different from one worked through repeatedly, and a category met only with somebody else leading is different again. Those distinctions give an honest memo plenty to work with.
Does asking for more make the writer look weak?
The opposite, in most rubrics. A writer who tracks their own coverage against written aims and acts on the shortfall while there is time is demonstrating what the course exists to teach. The document reading badly is the one filed in the last week, which shows the tracking happened too late to change anything.
Where can I find a free NR 574 Week 6 sample paper?
The full exposure gap memo requesting two Thursdays with the rapid response service is on this page, with its arithmetic and fallback.
What does the NR 574 Week 6 memo offer to drop?
Two Thursdays of afternoon admissions, because the admission-note aim was already met with nine notes against a target of eight.