| Course | PA 520 Comprehensive Clinical Module Pulmonology |
|---|---|
| Week | 6 |
| Paper type | Dyspnea scale documentation |
| Length | About 690 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 520 Week 6
Dyspnea Scale Documentation: An mMRC Grade of 2 of a Possible 4 and a Borg CR10 Rating of 6 After the Calf Hutch Climb, With L.B.'s Own Words About a Breath That Will Not Fill
Student Name
Chamberlain University
PA 520: Comprehensive Clinical Module Pulmonology
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Dyspnea Scale Documentation: An mMRC Grade of 2 of a Possible 4 and a Borg CR10 Rating of 6 After the Calf Hutch Climb, With L.B.'s Own Words About a Breath That Will Not Fill
The Chart Entry
Instrument 1: modified Medical Research Council dyspnea scale, the five-grade version scored 0 to 4, administered by reading the grade descriptions aloud and asking L.B. to choose the one that fit best over the past month.
Rating: grade 2 of 4. L.B. chose the description of walking slower than others of the same age on level ground because of breathlessness, or having to stop for breath when walking at one's own pace.
Instrument 2: Borg category-ratio scale, 0 to 10, with the clinic's printed card showing the verbal anchors, administered after a defined task.
Rating: 6 of 10, between severe and very severe on the card. The category-ratio format, with words fixed to numbers, was designed so that ratings track intensity in a roughly proportional way (Borg, 1982).
Activity for the Borg rating: carrying two empty buckets 60 yards up the clinic's outside ramp and stairs, to copy the calf hutch climb.
State and time: the rating was taken immediately on stopping at the top, at 09:40, after 15 minutes seated beforehand; the mMRC grade was taken at 09:20 while seated.
The Rating and Its Range Travel Together
A 2 means one thing on the mMRC scale and another on the Borg card. On the five-grade mMRC scale, 2 sits in the middle and describes how breathlessness limits ordinary walking. On the Borg card, a 2 would mean slight breathlessness. Writing the range beside each number prevents someone from reading L.B.'s mMRC grade of 2 as mild by borrowing the Borg meaning.
The Quotation the Score Cannot Hold
L.B. said: "It's not that I'm puffing. It's that the breath won't fill up. I get to the top and I can't get a full one in." That description of being unable to take a full breath, sometimes called unsatisfied inspiration, is one of several distinct qualities of breathlessness that patients describe, and it differs from a sense of work or effort (Parshall et al., 2012). Neither scale captures it. It is worth recording because it fits a stiff lung more than a narrowed airway, and because it is the feature L.B. finds most frightening.
What the Two Ratings Do
The mMRC grade describes L.B.'s usual disability over a month, in the patient's own judgment, and is used for staging and follow-up of chronic lung disease. The Borg rating describes the intensity of breathlessness at one moment after a defined task, and can be repeated before and after a walk test or treatment. Together they say that L.B. is limited in daily walking and that a short climb produces severe breathlessness. The American Thoracic Society statement on dyspnea recommends that measurement distinguish the sensory experience, its intensity, and its impact on daily life, rather than treating all scales as interchangeable (Parshall et al., 2012).
Comparability, Stated
These ratings can be compared with future ratings only if the same instruments are used in the same way. The mMRC grade should again be asked as a choice among read-aloud descriptions, over the past month. The Borg rating should again follow the same ramp and stair climb with buckets, taken at the top, after the same seated rest. A Borg rating taken after the 6-minute walk will not be directly comparable with this one, because the task is different, and the record should say so if both are entered.
What the Entry Does Not Say
The entry does not say why L.B. is breathless. It records how much and in what situations, in a way that can be repeated. The explanation belongs to the lung function, imaging and exposure history, which are documented separately.
References
Borg, G. A. V. (1982). Psychophysical bases of perceived exertion. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 14(5), 377-381. https://doi.org/10.1249/00005768-198205000-00012
Parshall, M. B., Schwartzstein, R. M., Adams, L., Banzett, R. B., Manning, H. L., Bourbeau, J., Calverley, P. M., Gift, A. G., Harver, A., Lareau, S. C., Mahler, D. A., Meek, P. M., & O'Donnell, D. E. (2012). An official American Thoracic Society statement: Update on the mechanisms, assessment, and management of dyspnea. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 185(4), 435-452. https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201111-2042ST
The Chamberlain PA 520 Week 6 instructions
Week six asks you to document a dyspnea rating so another clinician could repeat it. Write a chart-style entry that names the instrument and its version, how the item wording was given, the rating with its range beside it, the activity the rating refers to, whether the person was at rest or had just exerted, and the time. Add a short quotation in the patient's own words that captures something the score cannot. Then write a paragraph explaining what each rating measures and what it does not. State the conditions under which the rating can be compared with future ratings, and say which comparisons would be misleading. If more than one instrument was used, explain how they differ. Cite a source on dyspnea measurement. Avoid interpreting the cause of the breathlessness in this entry.
Inside the PA 520 Week 6 example
The chart entry records the five-grade mMRC scale read aloud, with L.B. choosing grade 2 at 09:20 while seated, and the Borg CR10 card used at 09:40 immediately after carrying two buckets 60 yards up the clinic ramp and stairs, rated 6. A section explains why the range must sit beside each number, since a 2 means moderate limitation on one scale and slight breathlessness on the other. The quotation about a breath that will not fill is linked to the descriptor of unsatisfied inspiration in the ATS statement. A section contrasts the month-long mMRC judgment with the moment-specific Borg rating and cites Borg's category-ratio design. The comparability section sets the conditions for repeat ratings, and a short close says the entry records severity, not cause.
Where the points sit in the PA 520 Week 6 rubric
Most of the credit here follows completeness of the entry. A number without its instrument, version or range loses the largest share, because it cannot be interpreted or compared. Faculty then check the context fields: activity, rest or exertion and time must all appear. The quotation earns marks when it adds information the scale cannot carry, and loses them when it repeats the score in other words. A paragraph explaining what each rating measures is graded for accuracy. The comparability statement is where many students lose points by omitting it or by implying ratings from different tasks can be compared. Interpretation of cause slipped into the entry is a deduction. A cited source on dyspnea assessment is expected.
PA 520 Week 6 help from the desk
Students frequently lose marks on this entry by recording a bare number such as dyspnea 6. Tell us the case and which instrument your course uses; the entry drafted for you would build a chart entry that names the scale, its version and range, the activity, the state and the time. It selects a quotation from your case that adds something the score cannot hold. The explanatory paragraph says what your instrument measures, and the comparability section sets out how future ratings should be taken. If your case uses a different scale, such as a visual analog or the Dyspnea-12, the sample adjusts to it. Make sure the item wording you record matches your clinic's form rather than the model's.
Get a PA-520 Week 6 example written to your instructions
Send the assignment, the instrument your section named and any chart template it posted, and a filled example returns inside 24-48h, free the first time round. Where your classroom has published an earlier entry to compare against, send that as well and the comparability paragraph is written against the real one.
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PA 520 Week 6 questions, answered
Do the patient's words have to be quoted exactly?
Where the assignment asks for a quotation, yes, and the quotation marks matter. The reason is practical rather than stylistic: a paraphrase carries the writer's reading of the account, while the entry exists so a later reader can form their own. Keep it short and choose the phrase that the rating leaves out.
Can two different instruments appear in one record?
They can, and the entry says why. A grade describing which activities bring breathlessness on and a rating taken immediately after exertion answer different questions, so a record carrying both is richer than one carrying either. What it must never do is set a figure from one against a figure from the other as though they were the same measure.
The assignment wants a narrative rather than a chart entry. Does the structure change?
The fields stay and only the layout goes. A narrative version carries the same items inside sentences: instrument named, wording given, rating with its range, activity, state and time, then the quotation. Markers are counting items, and a narrative that buries the range or drops the time loses the rows a chart entry would have lost.
Where can I find a free PA 520 Week 6 sample paper?
The complete PA 520 Week 6 dyspnea entry is on this page, with an mMRC grade, a Borg rating after a defined climb and the patient's own words.
Why does the PA 520 Week 6 sample write the range beside each rating?
A 2 on the five-grade mMRC scale describes moderate limitation while a 2 on the Borg card means slight breathlessness, so the range prevents misreading.