| Course | PA 514 Comprehensive Clinical Module Infectious Disease |
|---|---|
| Week | 2 |
| Paper type | Exposure history timeline |
| Length | About 640 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | Master of Physician Assistant Studies (MPAS) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for PA 514 Week 2
Exposure History Timeline: R.A.'s Chicks, Cabin Well, Deli Turkey and Easter Supper Placed Before an Anchor of Tuesday Evening, April 7, With a Source for Every Date
Student Name
Chamberlain University
PA 514: Comprehensive Clinical Module Infectious Disease
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Exposure History Timeline: R.A.'s Chicks, Cabin Well, Deli Turkey and Easter Supper Placed Before an Anchor of Tuesday Evening, April 7, With a Source for Every Date
The Anchor Row
Day 0 is Tuesday, April 7, about 8 p.m., when R.A. first had chills and cramps, followed within the hour by watery diarrhea. The anchor was chosen as the first symptom, not the day of admission or the day of diagnosis, because incubation periods are measured from exposure to the first symptom.
The Timeline
Table 1
Exposure Timeline in Calendar Order With the Source of Each Date
| Date and time | Days from anchor | Place | What happened | Source of the date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sat, Mar 28, morning | minus 10 | Farm store, then home | Six chicks bought; kept in a plastic tote in the laundry room | Receipt photographed by R.A.'s spouse |
| Mar 28 to Apr 9 | minus 10 to plus 2 | Home | Chicks handled daily; water and feed changed by R.A. | R.A.'s account |
| Wed, Apr 1 | minus 6 | Grocery deli | Sliced turkey bought | Receipt in kitchen drawer |
| Apr 2 to Apr 4, lunch | minus 5 to minus 3 | Home | Turkey sandwiches eaten each day | R.A.'s account; package date matches |
| Fri, Apr 3, to Sat, Apr 4 | minus 4 to minus 3 | Lake cabin | Drank tap water from a private well, untreated | R.A.'s account; cabin booking confirmed by spouse |
| Sun, Apr 5, about 1 p.m. | minus 2 | Church hall | Easter dinner: ham, deviled eggs, potato salad | Church bulletin date; R.A.'s account of foods |
| Mon, Apr 6, afternoon | minus 1 | Home | Tote emptied and scrubbed by hand in the laundry sink | R.A.'s account, "the day before I got sick" |
| Tue, Apr 7, about 8 p.m. | 0 | Home | Chills, cramps, then watery diarrhea | R.A.'s account; spouse confirms evening |
| Thu, Apr 9, 10:40 p.m. | plus 2 | Emergency department | Arrival; temperature 39.4 C | Hospital record |
Note. Note. Rows run in calendar order, not in the order R.A. mentioned them.
Spans Instead of Guesses
Some exposures happened over a span rather than at a moment, and they are entered as spans. The chicks were handled every day for twelve days, so no single date can be given for that exposure, and the row says so rather than choosing one. The well water was drunk over two days. Writing "recently" or "a few days before" in place of a span would make the next step impossible.
The Arithmetic, Written Out
From the deli turkey to the anchor: first sandwich April 2 at lunch to April 7 at 8 p.m. is about 5.3 days; last sandwich April 4 at lunch to the anchor is about 3.3 days. From the cabin water: first drink April 3 to the anchor is about 4 days; last drink April 4 is about 3 days. From Easter dinner: 1 p.m. April 5 to 8 p.m. April 7 is 55 hours. From cleaning the tote: about 30 hours, if the cleaning was at 2 p.m. as R.A. thinks.
What Is Still Undated
Two things are undated. R.A. could not say when the chicks first had loose droppings, which might matter for when shedding was heaviest. And R.A. was unsure whether a raw cookie dough was tasted while baking for Easter; that is recorded as an open question rather than a row, because an exposure that may not have happened should not be placed on the line as if it did. Behravesh et al. (2014) note that many people who become ill after contact with live poultry report holding or cuddling the birds, which is why the daily handling is entered as its own row.
References
Behravesh, C. B., Brinson, D., Hopkins, B. A., & Gomez, T. M. (2014). Backyard poultry flocks and salmonellosis: A recurring, yet preventable public health challenge. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 58(10), 1432-1438. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciu067
PA 514 Week 2 instructions, in plain terms
The second week asks for the exposure history rebuilt as a timeline. Start by choosing an anchor and defend it, usually the first symptom rather than the day of admission, because incubation periods count from exposure to onset. Put every exposure, symptom and contact with care into a table in calendar order, with a column showing days before or after the anchor. Give each row a source for its date, such as a receipt, a booking, a record or the patient's own account, so a reader can see which dates are firm. Exposures that ran over several days are entered as spans. Show the arithmetic from each exposure to the anchor in hours or days. Keep anything that may not have happened off the table and list it as unresolved. One supporting citation is enough.
Inside the PA 514 Week 2 example
The paper starts with the anchor row, 8 p.m. on April 7, and says why the emergency arrival two days later would distort every interval. Table 1 runs from the March 28 farm store receipt for six chicks through the deli purchase, the sandwiches, the cabin weekend, Easter dinner at a church hall and the tote scrubbing on April 6, ending with the 39.4 C arrival on April 9. A spans section explains why twelve days of handling cannot be squeezed into one date. The arithmetic section works each interval out in writing, from about 5.3 days for the first sandwich to roughly 30 hours for the tote cleaning. The closing section names what stays undated, including the uncertain cookie dough, and cites Behravesh and colleagues on how handling birds is linked to salmonellosis.
Where the points sit in the PA 514 Week 2 rubric
The rubric for a timeline puts the largest share on accuracy and order: rows out of calendar sequence, or intervals that do not match their own dates, lose the most. A strong share goes to the anchor, which must be named and justified, since an unexplained anchor makes every later calculation suspect. Faculty then look for a source attached to each date and for spans entered as spans; vague entries like recently or last week cost points because they cannot be measured. The arithmetic earns credit only when it is shown, not just stated as a result. Deductions also come from placing unconfirmed exposures on the line as if they were facts. Formatting counts lightly, through a numbered and titled APA table, a note beneath it, and references that line up entry for entry with the citations.
Common PA 514 Week 2 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Students often lose marks here by copying the exposures in the order the patient mentioned them, which hides the intervals. If you send the case and your prompt, the custom sample sorts every event into calendar order, chooses and explains an anchor, and adds a source column built from whatever the vignette actually supplies. Where your case gives only vague times, it records them as spans and says how wide they are. The interval arithmetic is written out step by step so your instructor can follow each subtraction. Uncertain events are listed under their own heading rather than slipped into the table. The sample is a model of method; the timeline you hand in should be checked against your own case notes and course template before it is submitted.
Get a PA-514 Week 2 example written to your instructions
Send your Week 2 instructions with the vignette or case your section posted, and a custom example comes back inside 24 to 48 hours, timeline and all, with the date sources filled in. The first one is free. If a template or table was supplied, attach it and the example is built inside it rather than beside it.
More PA 514 papers and MPAS samples
- PA 514 Week 1: Exposure-First Discussion Post
- PA 514 Week 3: Incubation Window Analysis
- PA 514 Week 4: Empiric Coverage Rationale
- PA 514 Week 5: Culture Narrowing Memo
- PA 514 Week 6: Antibiogram Reading Exercise
- PA 514 Week 7: Stop Date Justification
- PA 514 Week 8: Reportable Condition Brief
- PA 512 Week 2: CBC Interpretation Write-Up
- PA 510 Week 2: Lesion Morphology Description
- PA 505 Week 2: MSE Narrative
- PA 504 Week 2: Encounter Opening Script
PA 514 Week 2 questions, answered
Our vignette gives durations, not dates.
That is the usual shape of them. The example fixes one point, normally the day of presentation, and converts every duration into a dated row measured back from it, saying in a line that the frame was constructed. A timeline built that way still supports the incubation arithmetic later, and it shows a reader exactly which numbers came out of the case.
Does it have to be a table?
No, and several sections ask for prose. What matters is that the same four items appear for every entry and that the order on the page is calendar order. Prose versions usually run longer, because each row has to carry its own sentence, so a supplied word ceiling is worth checking before a form is chosen.
How far back should it reach?
Far enough to cover the longest incubation period among the organisms still under consideration, which is why this week is normally set before the incubation assignment rather than after it. Reaching back further than necessary is harmless. Stopping short is not, since an exposure outside the frame never gets weighed at all.
Where can I find a free PA 514 Week 2 sample paper?
The full PA 514 Week 2 exposure timeline is on this page, with nine dated rows, a source for each date and the interval arithmetic from each exposure to the first symptom.
What anchor does the PA 514 Week 2 timeline use?
The first symptom, chills and cramps at about 8 p.m. on April 7, because incubation is counted from exposure to onset, not to the hospital visit.