| Course | HS315 Practices in Public Health |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 8 |
| Paper type | Preparedness memo |
| Length | About 800 words, 5 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Health Science |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for HS315 Unit 8
Three Triggers Before the Next Cluster: A Unit 8 Preparedness Memo on Invasive Group A Strep in Drayton County Shelters and Camps
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
HS315: Practices in Public Health
Unit 8 Preparedness Memo
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The county, its shelters, stock levels and staff are composite; the outbreak report, the surveillance study and the treatment guideline cited are real.
Memo Header
To: Health Officer, Drayton County Health Department From: Communicable Disease Program Lead Date: [date] Re: Approval of trigger levels for invasive group A strep clusters in shelters and encampments
Decision requested: approve the three trigger levels and actions below, and authorize the program to share the clinician alert when level 2 is reached.
Background
Over the last three calendar years the county logged [19] invasive infections with this organism; [13] involved residents who were unhoused or injecting drugs, and [4] patients died. In February 2025, two men who slept in the same dormitory at the Fifth Street Shelter became ill nineteen days apart. The response worked because one nurse stayed late and the shelter's records agreement was already in place. Neither of those is a plan.
Outbreaks in this population can grow quickly. In Anchorage, a single strain spread among homeless adults over many months before control measures took hold (Mosites et al., 2018). Nationally, these groups now account for a growing share of invasive cases (Valenciano et al., 2021). Our shelters are full from November to March, when crowding is highest.
The purpose of trigger levels is to decide in advance what the department will do at each stage, so that the response to the third case is the same whichever nurse is working that week.
Trigger Levels and Actions
Level 1: one invasive case in a person who stayed at a shelter, the day center or an encampment in the fourteen days before illness.
Actions: the nurse notifies the site manager within one working day; the Street Wound Care nurse adds an extra visit to that site within seventy-two hours to offer wound checks; the site receives extra gloves, dressing supplies and laundry vouchers; the case is recorded in the cluster log.
Level 2: two invasive cases linked to the same site within four weeks.
Actions: everything in level 1, plus a site investigation within two working days. The nurse requests sign-in records under the existing agreement, asks the hospital laboratory to forward both specimens for typing at the state laboratory, and runs wound checks at the site on two evenings in the same week. The program lead notifies the state epidemiologist and sends the clinician alert. The day center adds shower mornings for the following month.
Level 3: three or more linked cases, a death in a linked case, or typing that confirms a single strain in two or more cases.
Actions: everything in level 2, plus a request to the state for epidemiology support and a daily briefing for the health officer. The health officer convenes the shelter managers, the syringe services program and the hospital. Whether to offer antibiotics to residents who are not sick is decided with the state epidemiologist and treating clinicians, not by this memo. The department will fund temporary extra nurse hours from its emergency line.
Draft Clinician Alert
Subject: Linked invasive group A strep cases, Drayton County
Two cases of invasive group A strep have been reported in adults who stayed at the same county shelter within four weeks. Please consider group A strep in unhoused patients and in patients who inject drugs who present with fever and a skin or soft tissue infection, particularly with rapidly spreading redness, severe pain or signs of systemic illness. Obtain cultures before antibiotics where possible, manage skin and soft tissue infections according to current guidance (Stevens et al., 2014), and report suspected invasive cases to the health department within one working day. Ask where the patient has been staying.
What This Memo Leaves to Clinical Judgment
The memo does not set treatment choices for individual patients, decide when a wound needs surgery, or decide whether antibiotics should be offered to contacts. It sets the department's actions only. It also does not change shelter admission rules: no one will be turned away from a shelter because of a wound, since that would push people outside and make the problem worse.
Resources Needed
Level 1 and 2 actions use existing staff, the Street Wound Care nurse and supplies already budgeted. Level 3 requires up to [120] hours of extra nurse time over a month, estimated at [$6,000], and up to [$3,000] in extra laundry and shower costs.
Recommendation
Approve the three levels and their actions. Once approved, the program will brief shelter managers within two weeks and test the plan with a tabletop exercise before November.
References
Mosites, E., Frick, A., Gounder, P., Castrodale, L., Li, Y., Rudolph, K., Hurlburt, D., Lecy, K. D., Zulz, T., Adebanjo, T., Onukwube, J., Beall, B., Van Beneden, C. A., Hennessy, T., McLaughlin, J., & Bruce, M. G. (2018). Outbreak of invasive infections from subtype emm26.3 group A Streptococcus among homeless adults, Anchorage, Alaska, 2016-2017. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 66(7), 1068-1074. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/cix921
Stevens, D. L., Bisno, A. L., Chambers, H. F., Dellinger, E. P., Goldstein, E. J. C., Gorbach, S. L., Hirschmann, J. V., Kaplan, S. L., Montoya, J. G., & Wade, J. C. (2014). Practice guidelines for the diagnosis and management of skin and soft tissue infections: 2014 update by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 59(2), e10-e52. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciu296
Valenciano, S. J., Onukwube, J., Spiller, M. W., Thomas, A., Como-Sabetti, K., Schaffner, W., Farley, M., Petit, S., Watt, J. P., Spina, N., Harrison, L. H., Alden, N. B., Torres, S., Arvay, M. L., Beall, B., & Van Beneden, C. A. (2021). Invasive group A streptococcal infections among people who inject drugs and people experiencing homelessness in the United States, 2010-2017. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 73(11), e3718-e3726. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa787
What the HS315 Unit 8 assignment asks for
In the eighth unit, students typically write to an official who can approve action on one named threat, in a memo, with a clear request, background, a plan of action and resource needs. Memos commonly run two to three pages in standard memo format. Instructors look for a decision stated on the first page, background limited to what the reader needs, actions tied to defined triggers or phases, and a realistic view of what the department can and cannot decide. Many sections reward a ready-to-use communication, such as an alert or a press statement. Cite sources for the threat and for any clinical guidance you reference. Keep paragraphs short and headings plain, since a health officer reads memos quickly.
How this HS315 Unit 8 example is built
A To, From, Date and Re block sits at the top, followed by a single-line decision request. Background gives the county's case count, the February cluster and why its success was luck, then cites the Anchorage outbreak and national surveillance; the highlighted sentence states the purpose of trigger levels. Three levels follow, each with a definition and a list of actions, building on the level before. A drafted clinician alert asks providers to consider group A strep in unhoused patients and those who inject drugs, cites skin infection guidance and asks where patients have been staying. A section names what the memo leaves to clinicians and the state, including antibiotics for contacts. Resource needs and a recommendation with a tabletop exercise close the memo.
HS315 Unit 8 rubric: what earns full points
Graders of a preparedness memo tend to weigh five things: how plainly it asks, how sound the plan is, whether it is affordable, what evidence backs it and whether it looks like a real memo. The plan itself usually carries the most points, especially when actions are tied to clear triggers and scale up in a logical order. Clarity is rewarded when the decision appears on page one in a single sentence. Feasibility credit goes to actions the department can actually take with named staff and costs. Evidence points come from sources on the threat and any clinical content. Format covers the memo header, short sections and a tone suited to a senior official. Memos that state their own limits, such as decisions left to clinicians, tend to earn more trust from graders.
HS315 Unit 8 help from the desk
Where these memos most often go wrong is in reading like an essay, with the request buried on the last page. Another lists sensible actions without saying what event sets each one in motion. Some students overreach, setting treatment rules for individual patients in a document meant for department actions. Others leave out costs, which makes the request impossible to approve. A background section that recounts the disease's history at length crowds out the plan. If your section names a different threat, perhaps a heat wave, a drug shortage or a water main break, pass along the scenario and we will help you set triggers and actions a health officer could sign.
Get an HS315 Unit 8 example written to your instructions
Storm, outbreak, supply shortage or a hazard your section assigns: say which one your HS315 Unit 8 memo addresses and who is meant to read it, then upload the prompt and rubric. The free first custom sample returns within 24-48h in memo format, with triggers the reader can act on and a decision stated on page one. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
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HS315 Unit 8 questions, answered
Who should the memo be addressed to?
Whoever can approve what it asks for. In a county, that is usually the health officer or director, sometimes the board of health where a decision binds the whole agency. The example addresses the health officer because trigger levels and allocation orders fall within agency authority. Memos addressed to the public, or to everyone at once, tend to lose the decision focus that preparedness rubrics reward.
Where can I find a free HS315 Unit 8 sample paper?
This page carries the complete Unit 8 preparedness memo, with three trigger levels for invasive strep clusters in shelters and camps.
What is a trigger level in a preparedness plan?
A defined point, such as a number of linked cases, at which specific actions begin. Agreeing on triggers in advance means the response does not depend on who is on duty.
Should the memo decide whether contacts get antibiotics?
No. That is a clinical and state epidemiology decision. The memo says who decides and sets the department's own actions around it.
Why include a draft clinician alert?
Because sending an alert quickly is one of the most useful steps at level two, and writing it in advance removes delay when cases appear.