| Course | NSG 521 Fundamental Concepts and Health Assessment |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 2 |
| Paper type | Normal findings baseline |
| Length | About 940 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Herzing University |
| Program | MSN |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NSG 521 Unit 2
Normal Findings Baseline for a Healthy 34-Year-Old Adult, Written in Described Words Rather Than Checkmarks
Student Name
Department of Nursing, Herzing University
NSG 521: Fundamental Concepts and Health Assessment
Instructor Name
January 29, 2026
Normal Findings Baseline for a Healthy 34-Year-Old Adult, Written in Described Words Rather Than Checkmarks
The Person and the Conditions
The person examined is a composite healthy 34-year-old woman, a volunteer from the skills lab, with no known medical conditions, taking no regular medications, and reporting no current symptoms. The examination took place at 10 a.m. in a warm, quiet lab room, with her seated and then lying on the exam table. She had eaten breakfast two hours earlier and had walked from the parking lot about 15 minutes before. Findings are recorded in the order taught in the course, in words describing what was seen, heard, felt, and measured, without diagnostic labels (Bickley et al., 2021).
Overall Appearance and Measurements
Overall impression: an alert woman, appears her stated age, sitting upright without support, speaking in full sentences, dressed in clean clothes suited to the weather, making eye contact, and moving easily.
Vital signs, seated after five minutes of rest: blood pressure 116/74 mm Hg in the right arm with an adult cuff sized to her arm, repeated after one minute as 114/72; heart rate 68 beats per minute, regular, counted for a full minute; respiratory rate 14 breaths per minute, even and unlabored, counted without her awareness; oral temperature 36.6 degrees Celsius; oxygen saturation 99% on room air. Her blood pressure falls in the normal category of current adult guidance, below 120 systolic and 80 diastolic (Whelton et al., 2018). Her temperature is typical of healthy adults in recent measurements, which have found average body temperature in the United States to be lower than the traditional figure of 37.0 degrees Celsius (Protsiv et al., 2020).
Integument
Skin warm and dry to touch on the forearms and lower legs, color even, no areas of redness, pallor, or bruising seen. Skin returns immediately when pinched over the collarbone. A flat, round brown mole about 4 mm across on the left upper back, with even color and a smooth border, which she says has been unchanged for years. Hair evenly distributed on the scalp, of normal texture. Nails pink, smooth, and firmly attached, with the angle between nail and skin fold about 160 degrees; nail beds refill in under two seconds after pressure.
Head and Neck Structures
Head: symmetrical, no tenderness or masses on palpation of the scalp. Eyes: eyelids close fully; the whites of the eyes are white, without redness; pupils 4 mm, round, equal, and constricting briskly to light in each eye, directly and consensually, and with focusing on a near object; eye movements full in all six directions without jerking. Ears: outer ears without lesions; with the otoscope, each eardrum looks pearly gray, and a bright triangle of reflected light sits in its lower front part. Nose: nasal passages open on both sides, lining pink and moist. Mouth: lips pink and moist, 28 teeth in good repair, gums pink without swelling, tongue midline when protruded, uvula rising in the midline when she says "ah." Neck: trachea midline; thyroid not enlarged and moves up with swallowing; no lymph nodes felt in the neck or above the collarbones.
Respiration and the Heart
Chest wall rises equally on both sides, with no use of neck or shoulder muscles for breathing. On auscultation, soft, low-pitched breath sounds are heard throughout, and no added sounds of any kind, anteriorly and posteriorly. Heart: the apical impulse is felt about 2 cm across, just inside the line dropped from the middle of the left collarbone, in the fifth space between the ribs. Heart sounds regular; the first sound loudest at the apex, the second loudest at the base; the second sound splits slightly on inspiration and merges on expiration; no murmurs, extra sounds, or rubs heard with the diaphragm or bell.
Abdomen and Circulation to the Limbs
Abdomen flat and symmetrical, moving with breathing. Gurgling bowel sounds, roughly eight to ten a minute, present over each quadrant. Soft to the touch; she reports no discomfort when pressed lightly or deeply; no masses felt; liver edge not felt below the rib margin. Peripheral pulses: the radial, femoral, pedal, and posterior ankle pulses are all present and equally strong on both sides, rated 2 on a 0 to 4 scale. No swelling of the ankles or feet; legs warm to the toes.
Movement, Strength, and the Nervous System
Full range of motion in neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles, without pain. Muscle strength 5 of 5, equal on both sides, in the arms and legs. Gait smooth and even, arms swinging with each step; able to walk heel to toe in a straight line. Neurological: oriented to person, place, date, and situation; speech clear; recalls three words after five minutes. Light touch felt equally on both sides of the face, arms, and legs. Reflexes at biceps, triceps, knees, and ankles 2 on a 0 to 4 scale and equal on both sides; toes curl downward when the sole is stroked.
Why the Baseline Is Written This Way
Each system is described, not certified as normal, so that any later finding can be compared with a specific description rather than a checkmark. If this woman were admitted in five years with a new heart murmur, a record saying "heart WNL" would not say whether the second heart sound split normally or whether a faint murmur had been missed. A record that describes what was heard can be compared. The same principle applies to the mole on her back, described by size, color, and border, so that any change can be recognized. This follows standard guidance on documenting physical findings in descriptive terms (Jarvis, 2020).
References
Bickley, L. S., Szilagyi, P. G., Hoffman, R. M., & Soriano, R. P. (2021). Bates' guide to physical examination and history taking (13th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
Jarvis, C. (2020). Physical examination & health assessment (8th ed.). Elsevier.
Protsiv, M., Ley, C., Lankester, J., Hastie, T., & Parsonnet, J. (2020). Decreasing human body temperature in the United States since the industrial revolution. eLife, 9, Article e49555. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.49555
Whelton, P. K., Carey, R. M., Aronow, W. S., Casey, D. E., Jr., Collins, K. J., Dennison Himmelfarb, C., DePalma, S. M., Gidding, S., Jamerson, K. A., Jones, D. W., MacLaughlin, E. J., Muntner, P., Ovbiagele, B., Smith, S. C., Jr., Spencer, C. C., Stafford, R. S., Taler, S. J., Thomas, R. J., Williams, K. A., Sr., ... Wright, J. T., Jr. (2018). 2017 ACC/AHA/AAPA/ABC/ACPM/AGS/APhA/ASH/ASPC/NMA/PCNA guideline for the prevention, detection, evaluation, and management of high blood pressure in adults. Hypertension, 71(6), e13-e115. https://doi.org/10.1161/HYP.0000000000000065
NSG 521 Unit 2 instructions, in plain terms
Unit 2 asks you to record a full set of normal findings in descriptive language. Expect to describe the person and conditions, examine each system and write what you observed in words, then explain why descriptive baselines matter. Students often ask whether within normal limits is acceptable and how detailed each system should be. Write out what you saw, heard and felt rather than using within normal limits or checkmarks. Include measurements with units. Describe normal variation, such as a physiologic split second heart sound if present. Conditions such as room temperature and time affect findings, so record them. A descriptive baseline makes later changes visible. Note the equipment used, such as cuff size and thermometer type, since it affects the values.
Inside the NSG 521 Unit 2 example
The baseline opens with the person and conditions, including room temperature, time of day and position. Each system section describes findings in plain clinical language, with measurements where relevant. The integument section describes temperature, color, moisture and turgor. The heart section describes rate, rhythm and sounds at the named listening sites. The abdomen section describes contour, bowel sounds in each quadrant and palpation without tenderness. The neurological section describes strength graded on a five-point scale, reflexes and sensation. The final section explains the value of description for later comparison. The writing stays consistent from system to system, so the baseline can serve as a reference when the same person is examined again. Equipment, such as cuff size and thermometer type, is listed beside the measurements.
Reading the NSG 521 Unit 2 rubric
Herzing's rubric for a normal findings baseline typically covers conditions, completeness of systems, descriptive language, accuracy, measurements and explanation. Descriptive language carries the most weight, because the unit replaces checkmarks with words a later examiner can compare. Conditions points reward room, time and position recorded at the start. Completeness criteria look for every system the course covers. Accuracy earns credit when normal findings are described correctly, including expected variation such as a physiologic split second sound. Measurement points go to values with units and the device used. The explanation section is often credited for showing why the method matters. Consistent system order helps. Bickley's Bates' Guide and Jarvis support the descriptions.
NSG 521 Unit 2 help before you submit
A Unit 2 normal baseline often falls short by writing within normal limits or using checkmarks. Another frequent problem is skipping systems the writer assumes are fine. Students often describe findings vaguely, such as heart sounds normal, without naming the sites listened at. Measurements lack units or the device used. Conditions are not recorded, though a cold room changes skin and pulses. Normal variations are labeled abnormal. The explanation is missing. Strength is described without a scale. Reflexes are listed without grades. Finally, describe what you actually observed, because graders reward a baseline that a later examiner could compare word for word.
Get a NSG 521 Unit 2 example written to your instructions
Send us the Unit 2 instructions and the rubric from your NSG 521 classroom, and say which system order the course uses. The custom example follows that order exactly, describes before it labels, names the technique beside every finding, and keeps the uncertain ones in their own closing list. First custom sample free, returned in 24 to 48 hours.
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NSG 521 Unit 2 questions, answered
Is within normal limits ever acceptable?
Where your instructions allow it, use it after the description that earns it and never in place of one. A first assessment unit is generally testing whether a learner can say what normal looked like on this particular person, and the abbreviation records only that a system was reached. Many sections accept it as a summary line and mark it down when it stands alone.
Does the baseline need a real person?
No, and it is better without one. Assemble the person out of patterns that show up across many patients rather than from anybody examined during a shift or a skills pairing, and label the file as composite with no real identifiers in it. Whatever is gathered in a clinical setting stays in that setting's own record, under agreements no coursework shares.
Where should reference ranges come from?
Whatever source the course names, cited each time rather than recalled. Ranges differ between texts, between laboratories and across patient populations, so a value carried from memory can be defensible in one classroom and wrong in the next. Naming the source also shows an instructor that the range was checked, which is usually worth more than the number itself.
Where can I find a free NSG 521 Unit 2 sample paper?
Read the complete NSG 521 Unit 2 normal findings baseline here at no charge, every system described in words. Ask for a custom baseline from your own skills lab examination.
Why describe normal findings instead of writing WNL?
Within normal limits does not show what was examined or allow comparison later. Describing findings, such as gurgling bowel sounds in all four quadrants, makes any future change visible, as this sample shows.