Liver, gut, brain and kidney on one page, with every treatment's cost drawn as its own line: this concept map answers NU144 Unit 3 using a composite patient with cirrhosis. Searches like "nu 144 unit 3 assignment example", "nu144 unit 3 sample" and "nu144 unit 3 example" land here.
What a finished NU144 Unit 3 concept map looks like
Five problem nodes surround a small case panel. Rebleeding risk from the banded varices sits at top left, linked to a platelet count of 62 and an INR of 1.9. Confusion, graded as early encephalopathy with a flapping tremor, sits beside it, joined by an arrow labeled blood digested in the gut. Kidney injury, creatinine 0.9 to 1.8 in 36 hours, occupies the lower center, and tense ascites with shortness of breath sits at the right. Infection risk has its own node, tied to the prophylactic antibiotic started on admission. The map's distinctive feature is its second line style: dashed red arrows, each labeled with a cost, running from a treatment to the problem it can worsen, such as lactulose to stool losses to the kidney.
How a NU144 Unit 3 example is structured
The map works in two layers. The first is the familiar one: problems as boxes, causes as solid arrows, each box holding its data, a goal and two or three nursing actions. The second layer is what the unit is testing. Every treatment appears once, in a slim box of its own, and dashed arrows run from it to any problem it can worsen: transfusion toward rebleeding because volume raises portal pressure, lactulose toward the kidney through fluid lost in stool, sedation toward the confusion. Each dashed arrow carries a note on how the cost is watched, such as stool count and creatinine. Trend values sit inside the boxes as before-and-after pairs. A legend separates the two line styles, and a closing narrative of roughly 250 words names the trade-off the plan accepts and why.
Costs drawn as lines
A dashed arrow from a treatment to a problem says what the plan is paying. Lactulose lowers the ammonia but can drain enough fluid to push creatinine higher, and the map shows that line with its label rather than leaving the tension implied.
Bleeding as the trigger for confusion
Blood in the gut is digested as protein, and the ammonia it releases reaches a brain the liver no longer protects. The arrow from the bleed to the confusion explains why a mental status change two days after banding was expected rather than mysterious.
A transfusion kept restrictive
Giving blood freely can raise pressure in the portal system and restart the bleeding. The transfusion box carries the threshold the order sets, left as the provider's number, and a dashed arrow back to rebleeding explains why more is not better here.
The kidney watched hour by hour
Creatinine doubling in 36 hours puts the kidney in danger, and cirrhosis narrows what can safely be given for it. The node lists the nursing watch: urine output against a stated minimum, no anti-inflammatory drugs, and albumin given as ordered.
Sedation drawn as a hazard
An agitated, confused patient invites a sedative, and a liver that clears drugs slowly turns that dose into deeper encephalopathy. The map draws the line in advance and pairs it with safety measures that ask nothing of the liver.
Where marks go in NU144 Unit 3
A map made of boxes joined only by cause arrows scores in the middle here, because it shows the illness and hides the treatment's cost, which is what Unit 3 examines. Losing the link between the bleed and the confusion comes next, since a map that calls the confusion unexplained has missed the mechanism. Lactulose drawn with no watch on stool count, or transfusion listed with no threshold, draws accuracy comments. Nodes carrying a single value, creatinine 1.8 with no earlier figure, cannot show change and lose the trend marks. Sedatives placed among the interventions without comment read as a safety error. Unlabeled arrows, a missing legend for the two line styles and a narrative that describes the boxes without naming the accepted trade-off account for the remaining deductions.
Get a NU144 Unit 3 example written to your instructions
Whether the Unit 3 case involves a failing liver, a heart and kidney pulling apart or several systems after surgery, it travels best with the map template and grading rubric attached. Nodes, cause arrows and cost arrows then come from that data, and where the template forbids a second line style the costs move into labeled notes. First custom sample free, 24-48h.
NU144 Unit 3 questions, answered
What is a cost arrow, and will my instructor expect one?
It is a line showing that a treatment for one problem can worsen another. Few templates name it, but most Unit 3 rubrics for multi-system patients ask how the problems interact, and interventions are part of that interaction. Where the template allows one line style only, the same point can sit in a short note beside the intervention, labeled as a cost.
Should lab values appear on the map itself?
The ones that carry the story should, as pairs showing change: creatinine then and now, platelets beside the INR under the bleeding node. A single value tells a grader little at this acuity. Keep the full panel off the boxes; the case summary panel can hold it, while each box carries only the numbers its own problem needs.
Why is the confusion not simply called delirium?
Because the case gives a cause the map can name. A flapping tremor, a recent bleed and a liver that no longer clears ammonia point to hepatic encephalopathy, and naming it changes the plan: lactulose, stool counts and caution with sedatives. Delirium can coexist, and the narrative can say so, but the map is expected to show the mechanism the case supplies.