| Course | PA 601 PA Prof Prac Seminar III |
|---|---|
| Week | 5 |
| Paper type | Interruption log with analysis |
| Length | About 650 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 601 Week 5
Interruption Log for One Morning at Bluestem: Fourteen Interruptions Logged by Channel, What Each Stopped and How Long the Stopped Work Took to Restart, With Rules Written Before Counting
Student Name
Chamberlain University
PA 601: PA Prof Prac Seminar III
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Interruption Log for One Morning at Bluestem: Fourteen Interruptions Logged by Channel, What Each Stopped and How Long the Stopped Work Took to Restart, With Rules Written Before Counting
Write the Rules Before You Count
Before the morning started I set three rules. An interruption is anything that stopped a task I had begun, from a person, a phone, a message or an alert. Re-entry time runs from the end of the interruption until I was working on the original task at the same point again. A planned check-in with my preceptor is not an interruption.
The Log
Table 1
Interruptions Logged on One Morning
| Time | What came in | Channel | What it stopped | Minutes taken | Minutes to restart |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8:22 | Question about a lab order | Knock at exam room door | Diabetes history | 1 | 2 |
| 8:51 | Pharmacy asking about a dose | Phone handed to me | Charting R.A.'s plan | 3 | 4 |
| 9:03 | Refill request | EHR message pop-up | Ear examination note | 1 | 1 |
| 9:30 | Medical assistant: patient asking for a work note | In person, hallway | B.L.'s falls questions | 2 | 3 |
| 9:44 | Critical lab call: potassium 6.1 for another patient | Phone, lab | B.L.'s ECG review | 4 | 2 |
| 10:05 | Overhead page for supply room key | Overhead page | Transfer paperwork | 0.5 | 2 |
| 10:12 | Message: schedule question | EHR message | Transfer paperwork | 1 | 3 |
| 10:40 | Knock: toenail tray ready | Knock | Knee history | 0.5 | 1 |
| 10:58 | Prior authorization question | Phone | Depression visit note | 4 | 5 |
| 11:20 | Results alert: normal CBC | EHR alert | Prenatal history | 0.5 | 2 |
| 11:26 | Medical assistant asking about vaccine timing | In person | Prenatal examination | 1 | 1 |
| 11:41 | Message: patient portal question | EHR message pop-up | Prenatal plan | 1 | 2 |
| 11:52 | Refill request | EHR message pop-up | Prenatal note | 1 | 2 |
| 12:05 | Knock: lunch order | Knock | Inbox | 0.5 | 1 |
Note. Note. Times estimated to the nearest half minute.
The Cost Is the Re-Entry
The fourteen interruptions took about 21 minutes in themselves. Getting back to what they stopped took another 31 minutes. More than half the cost, then, was not the interruption but the restart. In emergency physicians, observational work has linked interruptions and multitasking with more task errors, especially with fatigue and lower working memory capacity (Westbrook et al., 2018), so the re-entry minutes may carry a safety cost as well as a time cost.
Channels, Not Incidents
Table 2
Interruptions Grouped by Channel
| Channel | Count | Minutes taken plus restart |
|---|---|---|
| EHR pop-ups and messages | 5 | 15 |
| Phone | 3 | 22 |
| In person or knock | 5 | 13 |
| Overhead page | 1 | 2.5 |
Note. Note. Totals rounded to the nearest half minute.
The phone was the most expensive channel by far, mostly because a phone call cannot be deferred once answered. EHR pop-ups were frequent but cheap each time; together they still added up.
Some Interruptions Are the Job
The critical potassium call at 9:44 should interrupt me. It is the system working. The same is true of the nurse confirming the procedure tray. These stay as interruptions by design.
Route to the Lowest Level That Works
Refill pop-ups can be batched and handled by the nurse under the refill protocol. The prior authorization question can go to the referral coordinator. Schedule questions can wait in a message queue I check between patients. Pop-up alerts for normal results can be turned into a list rather than a window.
Before changing anything, I will repeat the log on two more mornings with the same rules, since one morning can mislead. If the phone remains the costliest channel, the first change will be a rule that calls from pharmacies go to the nurse unless they concern a patient I am seeing that day.
References
Westbrook, J. I., Raban, M. Z., Walter, S. R., & Douglas, H. (2018). Task errors by emergency physicians are associated with interruptions, multitasking, fatigue and working memory capacity: A prospective, direct observation study. BMJ Quality & Safety, 27(8), 655-663. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2017-007333
PA 601 Week 5 instructions, in plain terms
The fifth week asks for a log of interruptions during real clinical work, with a short analysis. Set your counting rules before you start: what counts as an interruption and how you will measure the time to get back to the work it stopped. Each row should record what came in, the channel, what it stopped, roughly how long it took and how long the interrupted task needed before it was moving again. That re-entry column carries the argument and is the one students most often leave out. Group the entries by channel in a second table, since the channel is where fixes apply. Recognize that some interruptions are the job and should stay. End with recommendations that send each kind of interruption to the lowest level of the team that can deal with it.
How the PA 601 Week 5 example is put together
A rules section defines an interruption, defines re-entry time and excludes planned check-ins. The main table lists fourteen entries from 8:22 to 12:05, including a pharmacy dose question, refill pop-ups, a critical potassium call at 9:44, an overhead page, a prior authorization call and a lunch order knock, each with channel, the task it stopped, minutes taken and minutes to restart. A cost section totals 21 minutes of interruption and 31 of re-entry and cites Westbrook et al. (2018) on interruptions and errors. A second table groups by channel: five EHR messages, three phone calls, five in-person and one overhead page, with phone calls costing 22 minutes. A section keeps the critical lab call and the tray notice. The routing section sends refills to the nurse protocol, prior authorizations to the referral coordinator and normal results to a list, and plans two more logged mornings.
PA 601 Week 5 rubric: what full points look like
Points fall away first from a log that counts events and stops, producing a tally with no cost and therefore no argument. Behind it comes the missing re-entry column, which is the one measure that turns annoyances into analysis. A further deduction falls on entries with no channel recorded, since the channel is where the fix lands. Faculty reward counting rules written before the data, because they protect the log from bias. Grouping by channel in a second table earns its own share. Recognizing that some interruptions are the job shows judgment and avoids a plan that would silence safety calls. Recommendations score when each kind of interruption is routed to a specific person or system. A cited study on interruptions, in APA form, supports the analysis.
Common PA 601 Week 5 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Logs usually come back because they are lists of complaints with times but no restart cost, so they cannot show why the interruptions mattered. Another common error is a recommendation to "reduce interruptions" that would also stop the critical lab call. Some logs also mix channels so no fix can be targeted. If you need to log your own session, send your rough notes from a morning or afternoon; a log built from them would set rules first, record channel and re-entry for each entry, group by channel, keep interruptions that are part of the job and route the rest. If your course lets you use a sample session instead of a real one, the log would say so in its first line.
Get a PA-601 Week 5 example written to your instructions
Send the assignment, the rubric and whatever log template your classroom issued, and a custom PA-601 interruption log comes back filled and analyzed inside 24-48h, the first one free. If your instructions set a specific observation window, the example is built to that window rather than to a generic session.
More PA 601 papers and MPAS samples
- PA 601 Week 1: Clinical Habit Cost Post
- PA 601 Week 2: Clinic Day Plan
- PA 601 Week 3: Triage Ordering Exercise
- PA 601 Week 4: Schedule Overrun Analysis
- PA 601 Week 6: Note Backlog Memo
- PA 601 Week 7: Deferred Item List
- PA 601 Week 8: Continuity Plan
- PA 541 Week 5: Textbook Mismatch Analysis
- PA 536 Week 5: Metabolic Monitoring Schedule
- PA 534 Week 5: Milestone Screening Write-Up
- PA 533 Week 5: Maternal-Fetal Risk Brief
PA 601 Week 5 questions, answered
Do I have to log a real clinic session?
Only if your instructions say so. Many sections supply a scenario or a transcript to work from, and a log built on supplied material is marked the same way. Where the week does use your own working time, the entries stay general: a channel and a category rather than a person's name or anything identifying about a visit.
How precise do the times need to be?
Rounded to the nearest half minute is plenty, and consistency matters more than accuracy. What a grader checks is whether the same estimation rule was applied throughout, not whether the figures are exact. An entry recorded as about a minute sits fine beside another recorded the same way; a mixture of stopwatch values and guesses does not.
What belongs in the recommendation?
One change, with its consequence named. Moving a whole class of messages to a set hour is a real proposal, and it has a real cost: somebody waits longer for an answer and that somebody should appear in the sentence. Recommendations that only ask for fewer interruptions describe a wish rather than a decision.
Where can I find a free PA 601 Week 5 sample paper?
The full PA 601 Week 5 interruption log, with fourteen entries, re-entry times and a table by channel, is on this page.
What did re-entry cost in the PA 601 Week 5 sample?
Getting back to stopped work took 31 minutes, more than the 21 minutes the fourteen interruptions took themselves.