One sore throat, four sections: this MN566 Unit 3 note keeps symptoms, findings, assessment and plan apart for a composite young adult, and lets a rapid test settle the leading cause. Searches like "mn 566 unit 3 assignment example", "mn566 unit 3 sample" and "mn566 unit 3 example" land here.
Focused SOAP Note: Two Days of Sore Throat in a 22-Year-Old College Student
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
MN566: NP I - Introduction to Primary Care for the Nurse Practitioner
Unit 3 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Composite patient written as a model document. Orders are bracketed composites; nothing here is a prescribing instruction.
Subjective
Chief complaint: "My throat is killing me and I can barely swallow."
HPI: 22-year-old college student with two days of throat pain, worse on swallowing, with a subjective fever and chills last night. No cough, no runny nose, no hoarseness. No rash. No known sick contacts, though she lives in a residence hall. Able to drink fluids and swallow saliva. Her voice sounds normal to her, she is not drooling, and she can open her jaw fully.
Background: no chronic conditions. Medications: oral contraceptive. Allergies: none known. Not sexually active in the past three months. No previous tonsillar abscess.
Objective
Vital signs: temperature 38.4 °C, heart rate 96, blood pressure 118/72, respiratory rate 16, oxygen saturation 99 percent on room air.
Pharynx: both tonsils enlarged with white exudate; uvula midline; no asymmetric swelling of the soft palate; no trismus. Neck: tender anterior cervical lymph nodes on both sides; no posterior cervical nodes palpable. Ears: tympanic membranes normal. Lungs: clear. Abdomen: no splenomegaly palpable. Skin: no rash.
Point-of-care test: rapid strep antigen swab, negative.
Centor tally: tonsillar exudate, 1; tender anterior cervical nodes, 1; history of fever, 1; absence of cough, 1. Total 4 of 4 (Centor et al., 1981). Two of the four items, fever history and absence of cough, came from Subjective; the tally sits here because it is scored at the point of examination. A score of 4 raises the probability of streptococcal pharyngitis enough to justify testing, but it does not diagnose it, which is why the rapid test decides.
Assessment
Acute exudative pharyngitis, most likely viral given a negative rapid antigen test in an adult. The IDSA guideline advises that a negative rapid test in an adult does not need to be backed up by a throat culture, because streptococcal pharyngitis is less common in adults and its complications are rare in them (Shulman et al., 2012).
Second: infectious mononucleosis, supported by her age, fever, exudate and cervical nodes, and pending a heterophile antibody result; posterior nodes and splenomegaly are absent, which lowers but does not remove it.
Considered and excluded on exam: peritonsillar abscess, since the uvula is midline, the palate is symmetric and she has no trismus or muffled voice.
Plan
Diagnostics: [heterophile antibody test], results by phone within 48 hours.
Treatment: no antibiotic, because the rapid test is negative (Shulman et al., 2012). Symptomatic care: [an analgesic and antipyretic at a composite label dose], warm fluids or cold foods, rest, salt-water gargles.
Education: symptoms of viral pharyngitis usually ease within a week. If the mononucleosis test is positive, she will be advised to avoid contact sports for several weeks because of the risk to the spleen. The history features that pointed toward strep were reviewed with her so she understands why no antibiotic was given (Ebell et al., 2000).
Follow-up: return in five to seven days if not improving, or sooner if a rash appears after any antibiotic prescribed elsewhere, since that can occur with mononucleosis. If the heterophile test is negative and symptoms persist beyond a week, the differential will be reopened, including acute HIV infection, which can present with fever and pharyngitis and would be asked about again at that visit. Same-day visit or emergency care for drooling, a muffled voice, or inability to swallow fluids.
References
Centor, R. M., Witherspoon, J. M., Dalton, H. P., Brody, C. E., & Link, K. (1981). The diagnosis of strep throat in adults in the emergency room. Medical Decision Making, 1(3), 239-246. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272989X8100100304
Ebell, M. H., Smith, M. A., Barry, H. C., Ives, K., & Carey, M. (2000). Does this patient have strep throat? JAMA, 284(22), 2912-2918. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.284.22.2912
Shulman, S. T., Bisno, A. L., Clegg, H. W., Gerber, M. A., Kaplan, E. L., Lee, G., Martin, J. M., & Van Beneden, C. (2012). Clinical practice guideline for the diagnosis and management of group A streptococcal pharyngitis: 2012 update by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 55(10), e86-e102. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/cis629
How this MN566 Unit 3 example is structured
Subjective opens with the chief complaint quoted directly, then an HPI limited to the features that separate the causes of sore throat, then only the background that bears on them. Objective begins with vital signs, moves through a focused exam of the pharynx, neck nodes, ears and lungs, and ends with point-of-care results. The Centor tally sits at the foot of Objective with a note on which of its items came from the history. Assessment opens with a single diagnosis line and a sentence of justification, followed by the ranked alternatives and the one dangerous condition explicitly excluded. Plan is split into diagnostics, treatment, education and follow-up, with any order written as a composite in brackets. The note ends on the return interval and the three symptoms that call for a same-day visit.
Get an MN566 Unit 3 example written to your instructions
Send the Unit 3 case and the SOAP template or rubric your section uses; formats differ between instructors, and the sample follows yours line for line. A first note is free and arrives within 24-48h, with every value bracketed and every order written as a composite rather than as treatment advice for a real patient. 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.
MN566 Unit 3 questions, answered
Where do pertinent negatives go in a SOAP note?
Reported negatives, such as no cough or no runny nose, belong in Subjective because the patient told you. Examined negatives, such as no uvular deviation, belong in Objective. The distinction matters because graders check it, and because a colleague reading the note needs to know which negatives were observed and which were only reported.
Should the assessment list one diagnosis or several?
Lead with one, then list the alternatives you still consider, in order, each with a reason. A list with no leader reads as indecision, and a single diagnosis with no alternatives reads as overconfidence. In a sore throat note, naming the dangerous alternative you excluded, and how, is often worth as much as the leading diagnosis.
How specific should return precautions be?
Specific enough that the patient could act on them without interpretation. Drooling, a muffled voice, inability to swallow liquids or difficulty breathing each point to something that cannot wait for a scheduled visit. Writing the actual symptoms, and what to do if they appear, shows the grader you have thought about what could go wrong after the patient leaves.