| Course | NSG 120 Nursing Pathophysiology |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 6 |
| Paper type | Condition study set |
| Length | About 950 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Herzing University |
| Program | BSN |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NSG 120 Unit 6
Four Nervous System Conditions in Parallel: Where Each Acts, and Whether It Changes Consciousness, Function, or Both
Student Name
Department of Nursing, Herzing University
NSG 120: Nursing Pathophysiology
Instructor Name
February 20, 2026
Four Nervous System Conditions in Parallel: Where Each Acts, and Whether It Changes Consciousness, Function, or Both
How the Entries Are Built
Each entry has the same five parts in the same order: what the process is, where in the nervous system it acts, what it does to the tissue there, what changes in the person, and the finding a nurse would document, worded as it would appear in a record. Consciousness, meaning how awake and aware the person is, and function, meaning movement, sensation, and speech, are recorded separately in every entry. They do not always move together, and the set is arranged to show that: the first two entries change consciousness, the third changes both, and the fourth changes function while leaving consciousness untouched. All four patients are composites.
Entry 1: Low Blood Glucose
Process: a 67-year-old man with type 2 diabetes takes his evening insulin but eats little dinner. Overnight his blood glucose falls to 44 mg/dL, well below 54 mg/dL, the level the American Diabetes Association classifies as clinically significant, level 2 hypoglycemia (American Diabetes Association Professional Practice Committee [ADA], 2025).
Where it acts: the whole brain, especially the cerebral cortex. Brain cells depend on a steady supply of glucose from the blood and store very little.
What it does to the tissue: without glucose, neurons cannot make enough energy to maintain their electrical activity. Separately, the body's alarm response releases adrenaline.
Consciousness: reduced; he is confused and hard to wake. Function: no one-sided weakness; hands tremble and he is sweating from the adrenaline, not from brain injury.
Documented finding: "0310: difficult to rouse, confused to time and place, diaphoretic, bilateral hand tremor, moves all limbs equally. Capillary glucose 44 mg/dL."
Entry 2: Chronic Subdural Hematoma
Process: a 79-year-old woman taking an anticoagulant for atrial fibrillation bumped her head on a cupboard three weeks ago. A small vein between the brain and its outer covering tore and has been slowly leaking blood since.
Where it acts: the space between the dura and the brain's surface, over one side of the brain. With age the brain shrinks, stretching these bridging veins and leaving room for blood to collect before symptoms appear (Feghali et al., 2020).
What it does to the tissue: the collection enlarges slowly and presses on the brain beneath it, so symptoms build over days to weeks rather than minutes.
Consciousness: gradually reduced; her daughter says she has become sleepy and "not herself" over a week. Function: mild weakness of the arm on the side opposite the collection.
Documented finding: "Drowsy but rousable to voice, oriented to person only. Right hand grip weaker than left. Daughter reports gradual change over 7 days, fall 3 weeks ago."
Entry 3: After a Seizure
Process: a 34-year-old woman with a known seizure disorder has a generalized tonic-clonic seizure lasting about two minutes after missing her medication for two days.
Where it acts: large networks of neurons across both hemispheres fire together in an abnormal, synchronized way during the seizure, and are then exhausted afterward.
What it does to the tissue: after the seizure the involved neurons are temporarily depleted and inhibited. If the seizure started in one area, that area may be weaker for a period afterward.
Consciousness: reduced during the recovery period after the seizure, the postictal state; she is drowsy and confused for about 30 minutes, then improves. Function: temporary weakness of one arm that resolves within hours, which can occur when the seizure starts in one area of the brain (Rogers, 2023).
Documented finding: "1420: witnessed generalized seizure, 2 min. 1425: responds to voice, confused, left arm weaker than right. 1500: oriented, left arm strength improving."
Entry 4: Guillain-Barré Syndrome
Process: a 45-year-old man developed tingling in his feet ten days after a bout of diarrhea, followed by weakness spreading up his legs. In this condition the immune system, responding to an infection, attacks the body's own peripheral nerves (Leonhard et al., 2019).
Where it acts: the peripheral nerves and nerve roots, outside the brain and spinal cord.
What it does to the tissue: the immune attack damages the myelin coating of the nerves, or the nerve fibers themselves, so signals travel slowly or not at all.
Consciousness: normal throughout; he is alert and fully aware of what is happening. Function: weakness in both legs, rising over days, with reduced or absent reflexes. The weakness can reach the breathing muscles.
Documented finding: "Alert and oriented x4. Bilateral leg weakness, can stand only with assistance. Knee and ankle reflexes absent. Reports tingling in both hands since this morning. Speaking in full sentences."
Reading the Entries Against Each Other
Entries 1 and 2 both present as confusion or drowsiness in an older adult, and on a night shift they could look alike. What still separates them is the time course and the glucose: low blood glucose develops over hours and corrects within minutes of treatment, while a subdural hematoma develops over days and may come with one-sided weakness and a history of a fall. Entries 2 and 3 both combine reduced consciousness with one-sided weakness; what separates them is that the postictal changes improve steadily within hours, while the subdural changes do not. Entry 4 is the reminder that a patient can be losing function quickly while remaining fully awake, so a normal level of consciousness does not mean the nervous system is stable. In that entry the finding most worth recording repeatedly is breathing, since the weakness can spread to the muscles used for breathing.
Sources: general mechanisms follow the course text (Rogers, 2023); the glucose threshold follows the ADA (2025); subdural hematoma follows Feghali et al. (2020); Guillain-Barré syndrome follows Leonhard et al. (2019).
References
American Diabetes Association Professional Practice Committee. (2025). 6. Glycemic goals and hypoglycemia: Standards of care in diabetes, 2025. Diabetes Care, 48(Suppl. 1), S128-S145. https://doi.org/10.2337/dc25-S006
Feghali, J., Yang, W., & Huang, J. (2020). Updates in chronic subdural hematoma: Epidemiology, etiology, pathogenesis, treatment, and outcome. World Neurosurgery, 141, 339-345. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2020.06.140
Leonhard, S. E., Mandarakas, M. R., Gondim, F. A. A., Bateman, K., Ferreira, M. L. B., Cornblath, D. R., van Doorn, P. A., Dourado, M. E., Hughes, R. A. C., Islam, B., Kusunoki, S., Pardo, C. A., Reisin, R., Sejvar, J. J., Shahrizaila, N., Soares, C., Umapathi, T., Wang, Y., Yiu, E. M., ... Jacobs, B. C. (2019). Diagnosis and management of Guillain-Barré syndrome in ten steps. Nature Reviews Neurology, 15(11), 671-683. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41582-019-0250-9
Rogers, J. L. (Ed.). (2023). McCance & Huether's pathophysiology: The biologic basis for disease in adults and children (9th ed.). Elsevier.
Reading the NSG 120 Unit 6 instructions
Unit 6 asks you to build a set of condition summaries in one body system using a consistent structure. Expect to explain how entries are built, write each with the same parts and compare entries at the end. Many versions ask how many conditions to include, whether two entries can share a finding and whether each needs its own source. Check whether your section names the conditions. A consistent structure, such as process, location, effect, findings and recording, makes comparison possible. Shared findings are valuable because they show where conditions are confused. Cite a source for each condition. Choose conditions that differ in location and timing so the set teaches contrast.
How this NSG 120 Unit 6 example is built
The set opens with how entries are built, naming the five parts. Each entry follows the same order, which lets the reader compare across them. The low glucose entry explains why the brain depends on glucose and how confusion appears. The subdural entry explains slow bleeding and gradual change. The post-seizure entry explains temporary changes after a seizure. The Guillain-Barré entry explains peripheral nerve damage with preserved consciousness. The final section reads entries against each other, pointing out that the first two can look alike and that the last affects function without consciousness. Each entry cites a source, and the parallel format makes the set useful for study.
Where the points sit in the NSG 120 Unit 6 rubric
Herzing's rubric for a condition set typically covers the consistency of structure, accuracy of each entry, location and effect analysis, key findings, recording and comparison. Accuracy is checked entry by entry, especially where each condition acts in the nervous system. Structure points reward the same parts in the same order. Effect criteria look for clear statements about consciousness and function. Finding points go to specific signs. Comparison often earns the top marks because it shows synthesis. Sources should support each entry. Entries of similar length and depth are often credited, since an uneven set makes comparison harder. Clear patient sketches at the start of each entry also help the reader picture the process. Feghali's review and the ADA hypoglycemia standards belong in the APA 7 list.
NSG 120 Unit 6 help before you submit
Condition sets in Unit 6 commonly lose points by using a different structure for each entry. Another frequent problem is describing conditions without saying where in the nervous system they act. Students often skip the comparison section. Shared findings are not noted. Recording is generic. Sources are missing for some entries. Entries vary widely in length. Patients are not described enough to anchor the processes. Finally, read the entries against each other, because graders reward a set that shows which conditions are confused at the bedside and how to tell them apart. Another weak spot is forgetting that some conditions change over hours, such as a subdural, while others change over days, such as Guillain-Barré, which affects how often a nurse reassesses. Recording should name the scale used for consciousness, such as the Glasgow Coma Scale.
Get a NSG 120 Unit 6 example written to your instructions
Send the Unit 6 instructions and the rubric from your NSG 120 classroom, and tell us which conditions the set has to cover. We write a custom example with every entry built to one shape, consciousness and function reported separately, each entry carried to an observation, and a comparison passage at the end. First custom sample free, back in 24 to 48 hours.
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NSG 120 Unit 6 questions, answered
How many conditions should the set include?
Follow the count in your instructions, and where none is given, treat depth as the constraint. Four entries that each run properly from process to observation read better than eight that trail off into definitions. If you have to cut, keep the conditions that differ most from one another, since the comparison passage at the end needs contrast to work with.
Can two entries share the same finding?
Often they should, because overlapping presentations are real and the set is a good place to show you know it. Write the shared finding in both entries, then use the comparison passage to say what would still separate the two. A set in which every condition looks unique tends to read as tidied rather than as accurate.
Does each entry need its own sources?
Yes, and it saves trouble later. Attribution per entry lets an instructor check a claim without hunting through a single list at the end, and it shows which readings you actually used for which condition. Where two sources describe the same change differently, note the difference inside the entry rather than choosing one silently.
Where can I find a free NSG 120 Unit 6 sample paper?
This page carries the complete NSG 120 Unit 6 nervous system set at no cost, four entries in parallel and the comparison. A set for another body system can be prepared on request.
Can low blood sugar look like a stroke or bleed in older adults?
Yes. Hypoglycemia can cause confusion and drowsiness that resemble a subdural hematoma or stroke. This sample compares the two and notes that checking glucose is the fast first step.