Inspection, palpation, percussion and auscultation of one composite chest, every finding placed by landmark and no cause named: an NU333 Unit 5 respiratory assessment note. Searches like "nu 333 unit 5 assignment example", "nu333 unit 5 sample" and "nu333 unit 5 example" land here.
Respiratory Assessment Note: Right Lower Lobe Findings Recorded One Technique at a Time
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
NU333: Health Assessment for the Nursing Professional
Unit 5 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Composite patient written as a model document. Findings are composite.
Reason for the Assessment
A composite 61-year-old retired machinist came to the clinic with three days of cough, fever to 38.6 °C at home, and a sharp right-sided pain with each deep breath. His smoking history is 40 pack-years. The assessment was done sitting upright, with the gown lowered to expose the whole chest, in a quiet room so that faint sounds could be heard.
Inspection
Respirations 24 a minute, regular, with slight use of the neck accessory muscles. Chest shape: anteroposterior to lateral diameter about 1 to 2. Productive cough with small amounts of rust-colored sputum. Lips and nail beds pink. He speaks in full sentences but pauses to cough after each one.
Palpation
Chest expansion symmetric anteriorly; reduced on the right posteriorly at the level of the eighth rib. Tactile fremitus increased over the right lower posterior chest, from the eighth to the tenth intercostal spaces along the right scapular line; normal elsewhere.
Percussion
Resonant throughout both lung fields, except dull from the eighth to the tenth intercostal spaces below the right scapula.
Auscultation
Vesicular breath sounds over the left lung and the right upper and middle fields. Over the right lower posterior field, from the eighth to the tenth intercostal spaces along the scapular line: bronchial breath sounds, fine late inspiratory crackles, egophony ("ee" heard as "ay") and whispered pectoriloquy.
Terms follow current usage: fine and coarse crackles rather than older terms such as rales. Textbooks still differ over "rhonchi," so this note uses "wheeze" for continuous high-pitched sounds and "coarse crackles" for low-pitched discontinuous ones (Bohadana et al., 2014).
Oxygen Saturation
91 percent on room air at rest; 94 percent on 2 liters by nasal cannula after 10 minutes. Oxygen was started under the clinic's standing order, and the provider was told at once.
The Pattern
Dullness, increased fremitus, bronchial breath sounds and egophony in the same area together form a pattern consistent with consolidation of the right lower lobe. The note records that pattern and leaves its cause to the provider (Bickley et al., 2021).
SBAR Handoff
Situation: 61-year-old man breathing harder than usual, saturating 91 percent without oxygen.
Background: three days of productive cough with rust-colored sputum.
Assessment: findings consistent with right lower lobe consolidation, from the eighth to the tenth intercostal spaces posteriorly; saturation 94 percent on 2 liters.
Recommendation: request provider evaluation today, and orders for a chest radiograph and sputum culture.
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.
Bohadana, A., Izbicki, G., & Kraman, S. S. (2014). Fundamentals of lung auscultation. New England Journal of Medicine, 370(8), 744-751. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMra1302901
How this NU333 Unit 5 example is structured
The note is organized by technique rather than by region, so each finding can be traced to the method that produced it. Every abnormal finding carries a landmark: side, anterior or posterior, the vertical line such as scapular or midaxillary, and the intercostal space. That precision is the unit's main teaching point, since a finding without a location cannot be rechecked. Terms follow current usage, fine and coarse crackles rather than rales, and the note defines its adventitious sound terms once in a footnote because textbooks still differ over rhonchi. Normal areas are documented too, for contrast. The findings form a pattern of consolidation, and the note says so in one careful sentence while leaving cause to the provider. An SBAR paragraph closes it, showing how the same findings would be handed off by phone.
Get an NU333 Unit 5 example written to your instructions
Narrative, template or SBAR: respiratory notes take whichever shape the course sets, and the sample follows it. Along with the Unit 5 prompt and rubric, mention the required format; the note is organized by technique, with every abnormal finding placed by landmark. What a student hears on a real chest belongs in their own note. First sample free, 24-48h. 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.
NU333 Unit 5 questions, answered
What is egophony, and how is it documented?
A change in voice transmission heard with the stethoscope while the patient says ee. Over normal lung it sounds like ee; over consolidated lung it sounds like ay. Document where it was tested and whether it was present, using landmarks. It is usually recorded alongside whispered pectoriloquy and tactile fremitus, since the three together are more convincing than one alone.
Should I write rales or crackles?
Crackles is the current preferred term, described as fine or coarse and by timing in the breath. Rales is older usage, and some instructors mark it down. Rhonchi is still common but definitions vary, so some courses prefer low-pitched wheezes. Whatever your course uses, apply the terms consistently and describe location and timing every time.
How do I describe the location of a lung finding?
Name the side, the surface, anterior, lateral or posterior, the nearest vertical reference line, such as midclavicular, midaxillary or scapular, and the intercostal space or rib level. For posterior findings, the scapula and vertebral landmarks help. A location written this way lets another clinician return to the same spot and compare what they hear.