| Course | PA 532 Surgical and Clinical Skills |
|---|---|
| Week | 3 |
| Paper type | Preoperative risk summary |
| Length | About 660 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 532 Week 3
Preoperative Risk Summary for R.V.'s Open Hernia Repair in Three Lists: What Can Still Change Before October 28, What Must Be Planned Around and What the Anesthesiologist and Cardiologist Must Decide
Student Name
Chamberlain University
PA 532: Surgical and Clinical Skills
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Preoperative Risk Summary for R.V.'s Open Hernia Repair in Three Lists: What Can Still Change Before October 28, What Must Be Planned Around and What the Anesthesiologist and Cardiologist Must Decide
Risk Belongs to the Pairing
The risk here is not R.V.'s alone or the operation's alone; it is this patient having this operation. An open groin repair under local anesthesia with sedation is a low-risk procedure, and R.V.'s Revised Cardiac Risk Index score is 0: no ischemic heart disease, heart failure, stroke, insulin use or raised creatinine, and the surgery is not intraperitoneal, thoracic or vascular (Lee et al., 1999). The pairing carries low cardiac risk. The specific risks come from the anticoagulant, the lungs and the prostate.
List 1: What Can Still Change Before the Date, and by Whom
Apixaban: hold for two days before surgery, last dose the morning of October 25, no bridging; the PAUSE study found this approach safe for low-to-moderate bleeding-risk procedures in patients with atrial fibrillation (Douketis et al., 2019). Responsible: R.V., with a written calendar from the clinic.
Smoking: R.V. quit 15 years ago. Nothing to change.
COPD: optimize by confirming inhaler technique and use of tiotropium daily. Responsible: clinic nurse at the visit.
Urinary symptoms: continue tamsulosin; check a post-void residual by bladder scan before surgery. Responsible: clinic.
List 2: What Cannot Change and Must Be Planned Around
Atrial fibrillation itself: rate controlled on metoprolol; plan to continue metoprolol on the morning of surgery.
Age 68 and prostate enlargement: raise the risk of urinary retention after groin surgery; plan local anesthesia rather than spinal and limit intravenous fluids.
Mild COPD with FEV1 72 percent of predicted: favors avoiding general anesthesia; the international guidelines support local anesthesia for open repair in suitable patients (HerniaSurge Group, 2018).
List 3: What Somebody Else Must Decide
Anesthesiologist: "Is local anesthesia with monitored sedation appropriate for R.V. given mild COPD and the plan for an open repair, and what sedation limits do you set?"
Cardiologist: "Do you agree with holding apixaban for two days without bridging, and with restarting at 48 to 72 hours after surgery given the moderate bleeding risk of groin dissection?"
What Was Not Ordered
No routine chest radiograph, echocardiogram or stress test was ordered. R.V. has no new symptoms, can climb two flights of stairs carrying wood, and the planned operation is low risk; testing would not change the plan. A basic metabolic panel and blood count were drawn, since R.V. takes an anticoagulant and has not had kidney function checked in eight months, which matters for apixaban clearance.
The Patient's Part
R.V. received a one-page calendar listing the last apixaban dose, the morning medicines to take, the fasting time and the arrival time, and was asked to bring all inhalers and the tamsulosin to the hospital.
What the Score Does Not Know
The cardiac risk index does not measure bleeding risk, the chance of urinary retention or breathing problems after sedation. A score of 0 does not make R.V. low risk for those. That is why the lists, not the score, organize this document.
Every Medication Gets a Verb
Apixaban: hold (two days before), restart at 48 to 72 hours after.
Metoprolol: continue, including the morning of surgery.
Tamsulosin: continue.
Tiotropium: continue.
Albuterol inhaler: continue as needed; bring on the day.
Atorvastatin: continue.
Ibuprofen R.V. takes for shop aches: stop now; it adds bleeding risk with apixaban.
It Ends on the Date
Surgery October 28 at 08:00. Last apixaban October 25 in the morning. Bladder scan at the October 21 visit. Anesthesia and cardiology answers due by October 23. Arrive 06:30, nothing to eat after midnight, clear fluids until 05:30.
References
Douketis, J. D., Spyropoulos, A. C., Duncan, J., Carrier, M., Le Gal, G., Tafur, A. J., Vanassche, T., Verhamme, P., Shivakumar, S., Gross, P. L., Lee, A. Y. Y., Yeo, E., Solymoss, S., Kassis, J., Le Templier, G., Kowalski, S., Blostein, M., Shah, V., MacKay, E., . . . Schulman, S. (2019). Perioperative management of patients with atrial fibrillation receiving a direct oral anticoagulant. JAMA Internal Medicine, 179(11), 1469-1478. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2019.2431
HerniaSurge Group. (2018). International guidelines for groin hernia management. Hernia, 22(1), 1-165. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10029-017-1668-x
Lee, T. H., Marcantonio, E. R., Mangione, C. M., Thomas, E. J., Polanczyk, C. A., Cook, E. F., Sugarbaker, D. J., Donaldson, M. C., Poss, R., Ho, K. K. L., Ludwig, L. E., Pedan, A., & Goldman, L. (1999). Derivation and prospective validation of a simple index for prediction of cardiac risk of major noncardiac surgery. Circulation, 100(10), 1043-1049. https://doi.org/10.1161/01.CIR.100.10.1043
Reading the PA 532 Week 3 instructions
For week three you write a preoperative risk summary organized as three lists rather than body-system headings. Start by explaining that risk belongs to the pairing of this patient with this procedure. List one holds what can still be changed before the date, with who is responsible. List two holds what cannot be changed and must be planned around. List three holds what someone else must decide, with the exact question written for them. Explain what any risk score you used does not capture. Give every medication a verb: continue, hold, stop or start, with timing. Note tests deliberately not ordered and why. End with the dates. Cite the scoring tool and any perioperative evidence you use.
How the PA 532 Week 3 example is put together
The summary opens by pairing an open groin repair under local anesthesia with R.V.'s profile and scoring a Revised Cardiac Risk Index of 0, citing Lee and colleagues. List one covers the apixaban hold from October 25 based on the PAUSE study, inhaler technique and a preoperative bladder scan. List two plans around atrial fibrillation, prostate enlargement and mild COPD, citing the HerniaSurge guidelines on local anesthesia. List three gives the anesthesiologist and cardiologist exact questions. A section explains what the cardiac score ignores. Every medicine receives a verb, including stopping ibuprofen. Further sections explain why no chest film, echocardiogram or stress test was ordered, list the patient's calendar and close on the surgery date and deadlines.
PA 532 Week 3 rubric: what full points look like
Grading here rewards a usable document. A summary organized by body systems with no action lists loses the largest share. Faculty next check list three: consultant requests without a specific question are marked down. Credit goes to treating risk as a pairing and to explaining what any score misses. The medication section is weighted heavily, since a drug left without a verb is a real safety risk. Tests not ordered, with reasons, earn marks for judgment. The document must end on dates, including the last anticoagulant dose and deadlines for consultant answers. Perioperative evidence, such as anticoagulant interruption studies, should be cited accurately.
PA 532 Week 3 help from the desk
Preoperative summaries often lose marks as long system reviews with no plan attached. Send your patient's history, medicines and procedure, and the summary built from them would organize everything into three working lists, write exact questions for each consultant and give every medication a verb with timing. What any score misses is explained, tests deliberately skipped are justified and the document closes on dates. If your patient's procedure carries higher risk, list two will grow and more consultants may appear. Check every hold and restart time against current guidance and your patient's actual drugs. A plain list of the apixaban dates handed to the patient often prevents the most common day-of-surgery cancellation.
Get a PA-532 Week 3 example written to your instructions
Send the assignment as your section wrote it, plus any template or worksheet that came attached, and a custom PA-532 risk summary is built to that shape and returned inside 24-48h. The first sample costs nothing. If the instructions are ambiguous about how far the summary should go, the reply says so before anything gets drafted.
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PA 532 Week 3 questions, answered
Do I need to use a named risk calculator?
Use whichever your section assigned, and if none was assigned, say which you used and why. The marks are not in the arithmetic. They are in whether the inputs are stated, whether the output is interpreted for this patient rather than repeated, and whether the summary names the thing about this person that no calculator asked about.
How far can the summary go in changing the plan?
As far as recommending, and no further, which is a distinction worth making explicit on the page. The summary proposes that the date stand, stand with conditions attached, or move, and it names who owns each decision it hands off. Writing as though the author books rooms and cancels lists reads as a role confusion and costs marks.
My patient is healthy. Is there anything to write?
Yes, and these are often marked harder, because there is nothing to hide behind. A summary on a well patient still has to establish what the operation demands, state functional capacity, deal with fasting and medications, and say what would be watched. Concluding that risk is low is a finding, provided the page shows the work that produced it.
Where can I find a free PA 532 Week 3 sample paper?
This page carries the full PA 532 Week 3 preoperative summary, three working lists, a medication verb for every drug and a dated calendar.
How is apixaban handled in the PA 532 Week 3 sample?
It is held for two days with the last dose on the morning of October 25, without bridging, following the PAUSE study for this bleeding-risk level.