| Course | PA 650 Capstone Project |
|---|---|
| Week | 8 |
| Paper type | Poster draft |
| Length | About 520 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 650 Week 8
Clinical Poster Draft: "Adding a Muscle Relaxant to Naproxen Did Not Improve One-Week Function in Acute Back Pain," Laid Out in Blocks for Reading Distance, Three Rows of Evidence and a Harms Block That Stays
Student Name
Chamberlain University
PA 650: Capstone Project
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Clinical Poster Draft: "Adding a Muscle Relaxant to Naproxen Did Not Improve One-Week Function in Acute Back Pain," Laid Out in Blocks for Reading Distance, Three Rows of Evidence and a Harms Block That Stays
Title Block
"Adding a Muscle Relaxant to Naproxen Did Not Improve One-Week Function in Acute Low Back Pain"
Author line: PA student, capstone project, with faculty mentor. Program and date.
Block 1: The Question, in One Sentence
Should a muscle relaxant be added to naproxen when an adult under 65 leaves urgent care or the emergency department with new back pain that does not travel down the leg?
Block 2: Why It Mattered on Rotation
Three clinicians, three prescriptions for the same patients: naproxen alone, naproxen with cyclobenzaprine, naproxen with methocarbamol.
This block is the hook: most passers have seen the same variation and will stop for it. It names no clinician and no site.
Block 3: Three Rows, Not the Table
Cyclobenzaprine plus naproxen: no better than naproxen plus placebo at 1 week (Friedman et al., 2015).
Orphenadrine or methocarbamol plus naproxen: no better than naproxen plus placebo (Friedman et al., 2018).
Muscle relaxants overall: small, very low certainty drop in pain at two weeks; more side effects (Cashin et al., 2021).
Each row carries one result in plain words and its source. The full table, with the guideline and the diazepam trial, is on the handout for anyone who wants it.
Block 4: Harms Keep Their Block
More side effects, mostly drowsiness and dizziness. Sedation matters for drivers and night-shift workers. Not recommended routinely for adults 65 and older.
Block 5: The Recommendation
Prescribe naproxen, advise staying active, do not routinely add a muscle relaxant. One exception: a short bedtime course for sleep-limiting pain in patients who will not drive the next day.
The recommendation is written in the same words as the bedside statement from week 7 so that the poster and the project report never disagree.
Built for Reading Distance
Text blocks are no more than 40 words each. The title is readable from three meters; block headings from two. There is more empty space than text. The full evidence table is printed on a handout, not on the board.
Every block was tested by reading it aloud in under fifteen seconds. Anything that took longer was cut or moved to the handout. The evidence rows use the trial drug names only once each and avoid abbreviations a passer from another specialty might not know.
Something Left for the Conversation
The poster does not explain why some clinicians prescribe muscle relaxants for sleep or how often that works. That is the question I expect people to ask, and I have one sentence ready: "The trials did not measure sleep; that would be the next study."
References
Cashin, A. G., Folly, T., Bagg, M. K., Wewege, M. A., Jones, M. D., Ferraro, M. C., Leake, H. B., Rizzo, R. R. N., Schabrun, S. M., Gustin, S. M., Day, R., Williams, C. M., & McAuley, J. H. (2021). Efficacy, acceptability, and safety of muscle relaxants for adults with non-specific low back pain: Systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ, 374, Article n1446. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n1446
Friedman, B. W., Cisewski, D., Irizarry, E., Davitt, M., Solorzano, C., Nassery, A., Pearlman, S., White, D., & Gallagher, E. J. (2018). A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of naproxen with or without orphenadrine or methocarbamol for acute low back pain. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 71(3), 348-356. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annemergmed.2017.09.031
Friedman, B. W., Dym, A. A., Davitt, M., Holden, L., Solorzano, C., Esses, D., Bijur, P. E., & Gallagher, E. J. (2015). Naproxen with cyclobenzaprine, oxycodone/acetaminophen, or placebo for treating acute low back pain: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA, 314(15), 1572-1580. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2015.13043
Reading the PA 650 Week 8 instructions
The final week asks for a poster draft for the capstone. The title should state what the project found as a sentence, since the title is the only part a passer reads in full. Lay the board out in blocks with more empty space than most drafts allow, and keep each block short enough to read at a distance. Show the evidence in a few rows rather than the whole table; the full table can go on a handout. Give harms their own block rather than a footnote. Include the recommendation. Leave something deliberately for conversation at the board, a question you expect and have an answer ready for. The instructions accept a talk alongside the board where the section requires one. Cite the sources shown on the poster.
How this PA 650 Week 8 example is built
The title block states the finding and an author line. Block 1 gives the question in one sentence. Block 2 recalls three clinicians giving three prescriptions to the same patients. Block 3 gives three rows: cyclobenzaprine with naproxen no better than placebo (Friedman et al., 2015), orphenadrine or methocarbamol no better (Friedman et al., 2018) and a small, very low certainty pain drop with more side effects (Cashin et al., 2021). Block 4 keeps harms: drowsiness, dizziness, sedation for drivers and night workers and caution for adults 65 and older. Block 5 gives the recommendation and its single sleep exception. A layout section sets 40-word blocks, a title readable from three meters, generous white space and a handout for the full table. The last section leaves sleep as the question for the conversation, with a prepared answer.
Reading the PA 650 Week 8 grading rubric
The poster loses the most when its title names a topic rather than stating a finding, since most viewers read only the title. Next comes a board crowded with text or the full evidence table, which nobody can read at a distance. Graders deduct heavily when harms are reduced to a footnote. Faculty reward short blocks, white space and a three-row evidence summary. The recommendation must appear on the board. Leaving a question for the conversation, with an answer ready, earns a defined share. Accurate figures and APA citation of the sources shown complete the rubric, along with a handout plan for the detail left off the board.
PA 650 Week 8 help: mistakes that cost points
Poster drafts most often fall short by shrinking the paper onto a board, with paragraphs of introduction and methods in small type. Another frequent problem is a title such as "Muscle Relaxants for Low Back Pain," which tells a passer nothing. Some drafts also leave harms off to keep the message simple. If your capstone found something different, send the question, the key rows and the recommendation; a draft built for you would title the poster with the finding, lay it out in short blocks for reading distance, show three rows of evidence, keep a harms block, include the recommendation and leave one question for the conversation. If your section also wants a spoken summary, a script timed to two minutes would be added.
Get a PA-650 Week 8 example written to your instructions
Send the Week 8 instructions, the poster template if your classroom supplies one, and whatever the project already says, and a custom clinical poster draft written to your rubric arrives inside 24-48h, the first one free. Say the board dimensions if you know them, since block sizes change everything about what fits.
More PA 650 papers and MPAS samples
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- PA 650 Week 3: Patient Population Definition
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- PA 650 Week 5: Strength of Evidence Table
- PA 650 Week 6: Harm and Benefit Balance
- PA 650 Week 7: Bedside Recommendation Statement
- PA 501 Week 8: Professional Commitment Memo
- PA 648 Week 8: Remediation Sign-Off Narrative
- PA 502 Week 8: Journal Club Brief
- PA 503 Week 8: Diagnostic Error Analysis
PA 650 Week 8 questions, answered
My section wants a talk as well as a board.
Send both sets of instructions. The board and the talk cut different material, and which one carries the reasoning depends on how your section weighs them. A spoken version can explain what the board only asserts, while the board holds the title claim, the surviving rows and the recommendation where an audience can see them while you speak. Say whether the talk is timed, because a hard limit decides what leaves the script.
How much text is too much?
Count blocks rather than words. A board a reader can take in by moving along it once is working; one that has to be read like a page is not, whatever the word count says. Where a template fixes the boxes, the test is whether any box would still make sense with a third of its sentences gone, and on most first drafts several would.
Does the poster need a graphic?
Check the wording your classroom publishes, since a few insist on one and the rest say nothing at all. Left open, a picture earns its place only when it carries a number faster than a line of text would, and a shaded grid or a simple bar of two options usually does. A diagram of the condition rarely does, because nobody at a poster is there to learn anatomy.
Where can I find a free PA 650 Week 8 sample paper?
This page holds the full PA 650 Week 8 clinical poster draft, titled with its finding and laid out in short blocks with a harms block.
What question does the PA 650 Week 8 sample leave for conversation?
Whether muscle relaxants help sleep, which the trials did not measure, with a prepared answer that this would be the next study.