| Course | PA 534 Pediatrics |
|---|---|
| Week | 2 |
| Paper type | Reference table with narrative |
| Length | About 710 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 534 Week 2
Age-Specific Norms Table for Pulse, Breathing Rate and Blood Pressure From Birth to 18 Years: Bands With Hard Edges, a Source on Every Row and the Places Where Fleming and the Bedside Charts Disagree
Student Name
Chamberlain University
PA 534: Pediatrics
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Age-Specific Norms Table for Pulse, Breathing Rate and Blood Pressure From Birth to 18 Years: Bands With Hard Edges, a Source on Every Row and the Places Where Fleming and the Bedside Charts Disagree
The Table
Table 1
Heart and Respiratory Rate Ranges by Age Band
| Age band | Heart rate, beats per minute, awake (1st to 99th centile) | Respiratory rate, breaths per minute (1st to 99th centile) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Birth to 3 months | 107 to 181 | 25 to 66 | Fleming et al. (2011) |
| 3 to 6 months | 104 to 175 | 24 to 64 | Fleming et al. (2011) |
| 6 to 12 months | 98 to 168 | 23 to 57 | Fleming et al. (2011) |
| 12 to 18 months | 93 to 161 | 21 to 50 | Fleming et al. (2011) |
| 18 to 24 months | 88 to 156 | 19 to 46 | Fleming et al. (2011) |
| 2 to 3 years | 82 to 149 | 18 to 38 | Fleming et al. (2011) |
| 3 to 4 years | 76 to 142 | 17 to 35 | Fleming et al. (2011) |
| 4 to 6 years | 70 to 136 | 17 to 31 | Fleming et al. (2011) |
| 6 to 8 years | 65 to 131 | 16 to 28 | Fleming et al. (2011) |
| 8 to 12 years | 59 to 123 | 14 to 26 | Fleming et al. (2011) |
| 12 to 15 years | 53 to 115 | 12 to 23 | Fleming et al. (2011) |
| 15 to 18 years | 50 to 111 | 11 to 22 | Fleming et al. (2011) |
Note. Note. Values rounded to the nearest whole number from the centile charts in the source. Ranges describe children awake and at rest without fever.
Bands With Hard Edges
Each band gives its edges in months up to two years and in years after that. A child of exactly 24 months falls in the 2 to 3 year band, not the 18 to 24 month band; the table's edges are written so that every age fits one row.
The Conditions a Figure Assumes
The ranges assume a child who is awake, calm and afebrile. Fever raises heart rate by roughly 10 beats per minute for each degree Celsius, and crying can push both rates far above the 99th centile in a healthy child. A rate taken in a screaming toddler cannot be compared with this table; the table note says so, and the user should repeat the count when the child is settled or asleep.
Where Two References Disagree
Fleming and colleagues built their centiles from a systematic review of observational studies in healthy children and found that several widely used bedside ranges, including those in resuscitation courses, did not match the data: some upper limits were too low for infants and some too high for older children (Fleming et al., 2011). A course chart might list a normal heart rate of 100 to 160 for a toddler, while the centiles above allow 88 to 156 at 18 to 24 months. Neither is wrong for its purpose: resuscitation charts are meant to flag a child needing urgent attention, while centiles describe where healthy children sit. The table states which kind it is.
Blood Pressure Is a Different Kind of Norm
Blood pressure in children depends on sex, age and height percentile, so a single banded range would mislead. The 2017 AAP guideline provides tables by age, sex and height and simplified screening tables for identifying values that need further evaluation (Flynn et al., 2017). This table refers the user to those tables instead of printing a range.
What the Table Leaves Out
It leaves out sleeping rates, which run lower; oxygen saturation, which has its own references and altitude effects; and temperature. It also leaves out children with heart disease or chronic lung disease, whose own baselines matter more than population ranges.
Applied to E.
At the visit for crying spells, E., 24 months, afebrile and calm on the parent's lap, had a heart rate of 118 and a respiratory rate of 28, both within the 2 to 3 year band.
References
Fleming, S., Thompson, M., Stevens, R., Heneghan, C., Pluddemann, A., Maconochie, I., Tarassenko, L., & Mant, D. (2011). Normal ranges of heart rate and respiratory rate in children from birth to 18 years of age: A systematic review of observational studies. The Lancet, 377(9770), 1011-1018. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(10)62226-X
Flynn, J. T., Kaelber, D. C., Baker-Smith, C. M., Blowey, D., Carroll, A. E., Daniels, S. R., de Ferranti, S. D., Dionne, J. M., Falkner, B., Flinn, S. K., Gidding, S. S., Goodwin, C., Leu, M. G., Powers, M. E., Rea, C., Samuels, J., Simasek, M., Thaker, V. V., & Urbina, E. M. (2017). Clinical practice guideline for screening and management of high blood pressure in children and adolescents. Pediatrics, 140(3), Article e20171904. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2017-1904
The Chamberlain PA 534 Week 2 instructions
Week two asks for a table of normal pediatric values that a clinician could actually use, with a short narrative around it. Each row needs a clearly bounded age band, so that any age falls in exactly one row, and every range needs units and a source. The prompt expects you to say what conditions the numbers assume, such as a calm, afebrile, awake child, because a count taken in a crying toddler means something else. Where two respected references give different ranges, the assignment wants that disagreement named and explained rather than averaged. Blood pressure is a special case because pediatric norms depend on sex and height, and the instructions reward a table that handles it honestly. A section on limits, and a short application to the course patient, complete the deliverable. Expect the table to be checked row by row against its sources.
How this PA 534 Week 2 example is built
The table sets out twelve age bands, from birth to 3 months up to 15 to 18 years, with awake heart rate and breathing rate ranges at the 1st and 99th centiles and Fleming et al. (2011) beside every row. A note under the table says the values are rounded from the source's charts. The band-edge section explains that a child of exactly 24 months belongs in the 2 to 3 year row. Assumptions follow: fever adds about 10 beats per minute per degree Celsius, and crying can push a healthy child above the top centile. The disagreement section contrasts the centiles with the narrower ranges printed on resuscitation course charts and explains that the two serve different jobs. Blood pressure is deferred to the 2017 AAP clinical practice guideline (Flynn et al., 2017) with its tables by age, sex and height. A limits section and a check of E.'s numbers against the 2 to 3 year row close the paper.
Reading the PA 534 Week 2 grading rubric
In this table exercise the points concentrate on whether the rows can be trusted. Missing or unnamed sources cost the most, since a reader cannot verify a range that has no reference. Overlapping or gapped age bands are the next most common deduction, because they leave some ages in two rows or none. Graders then look for the assumptions behind the numbers; a table that never mentions fever, crying or sleep is marked as incomplete. Naming a real disagreement between references, and explaining it, earns credit that a single-source table cannot reach. Handling blood pressure with the sex and height tables, rather than one generic range, is rewarded. The limits section and the application to the course child carry smaller shares. Tidy APA table formatting, with a number, title and note, takes the final portion.
PA 534 Week 2 help: mistakes that cost points
Copying a textbook's single list of ranges, with no source on each line and no word about the conditions behind them, is what usually sends this assignment back. Another slip is age bands that share an edge, such as 1 to 2 years and 2 to 3 years, without saying where a two-year-old sits. If your course names a different reference set, for example the PALS ranges or a specific pediatric handbook, send that along with your section's directions; a custom table would use your required source on each row, mark any place where it parts company with a second reference and handle blood pressure through the sex and height tables. The narrative would be sized to your word limit. If your assignment covers temperature or oxygen saturation, say so, since those rows need their own references and notes.
Get a PA-534 Week 2 example written to your instructions
Send the Week 2 instructions with the measurements your classroom wants covered and the reference it marks against, and a custom table comes back inside 24-48h, the first one free. Say which reference your section marks against, since the whole table is built on one and swapping it changes rows.
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PA 534 Week 2 questions, answered
Can I just copy the ranges out of the assigned textbook?
Copying with attribution is usually acceptable and often expected, since inventing reference values would be worse. What is being marked is the assembly: which bands you chose, whether the conditions traveled with each figure, and what you did where the textbook and a national source disagree. A table that reproduces one page and adds nothing scores as transcription.
How many age bands should the table have?
Follow the number your instructions set. Where none is set, let the measurement decide: a value that changes quickly in the first year needs narrow early rows and can widen later, while one that barely moves until school age needs fewer. Uniform bands chosen for tidiness are the commonest sign that the ranges were not examined.
Does the table need a narrative section as well?
Many sections attach one, and it is short. Its job is to record the decisions the grid cannot show: why these bands, which reference won where two conflicted, and what was excluded. Where no narrative is required, those decisions move into footnotes rather than disappearing, because an unexplained choice reads as an accident.
Where can I find a free PA 534 Week 2 sample paper?
The PA 534 Week 2 norms table for pediatric heart and breathing rates, with a source on each age band and a note on blood pressure tables, can be read here.
Why does the PA 534 Week 2 sample leave blood pressure out of the banded table?
Pediatric blood pressure norms depend on age, sex and height percentile, so the sample sends readers to the 2017 AAP guideline tables instead of printing one range.