A one-page action sheet on hepatic encephalopathy, written near grade five for a wife who screened positive on a single-item literacy question, anchors this NU475 Unit 9 sample. Searches like "nu 475 unit 9 assignment example", "nu475 unit 9 sample" and "nu475 unit 9 example" land here.
"Going Foggy": A Health Literacy Teaching Sheet on Hepatic Encephalopathy for the Refrigerator Door
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
NU475: Providing Transition Care - Chronic Disease and Palliative/Hospice Spheres
Unit 9 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Composite family written as a model document. Scores are illustrative and bracketed; the sheet is a teaching example, not clinical advice.
The Sheet
For [his name]: what to watch for so going foggy is caught early.
Every day
Count his soft stools. Aim for 2 or 3.
Weigh him before breakfast. Write it down.
Give his [lactulose] and his [rifaximin].
Have him write his name on the log.
Call the liver clinic today: [phone number]
Fewer than 2 soft stools in a day.
His name looks messier than yesterday.
He sleeps all day and is awake at night.
He gained 3 pounds or more since yesterday.
His hands flap when he holds them out in front of him.
Call 911 now
He throws up blood.
His stool is black and sticky.
You cannot wake him up.
Design Notes
Literacy screen. His wife was asked how often she needs someone to help her read instructions or other written material from the clinic or pharmacy, a single question shown to help identify patients with limited health literacy (Chew et al., 2004). She answered "sometimes." The sheet is written for that answer rather than for an average reader.
Word replacements, each with its reason:
Hepatic encephalopathy becomes going foggy, her own phrase from the hospital stay, so the sheet uses a word she already owns.
Ascites becomes belly fluid, though the sheet uses weight gain as the measure she can act on.
Asterixis becomes hands that flap when held out, since she needs to recognize it, not name it.
Constipation becomes fewer than 2 soft stools, a count rather than a judgment.
Numbers stay only where someone must act on them: the stool count and the pounds gained.
Order. Each line starts with a verb or with the sign to notice. The 911 box sits last, following the order in which the household meets these signs: daily routines first, early warnings next, emergencies least often.
Scores
SMOG grade: [5.4], calculated from the count of words with three or more syllables (McLaughlin, 1969). CDC Clear Communication Index: [94] of 100, above the passing score of 90 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.).
Teach-Back
His wife and son each explained the sheet in their own words. Teach-back is linked to better outcomes in patients with limited literacy; in one study of patients with diabetes, clinicians who checked recall had patients with better glucose control (Schillinger et al., 2003). His son explained the handwriting check: "If his name gets sloppy, we call." His wife misread "belly fluid" as a separate warning sign, so that line was removed and replaced by the weight line alone.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). The CDC Clear Communication Index. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Chew, L. D., Bradley, K. A., & Boyko, E. J. (2004). Brief questions to identify patients with inadequate health literacy. Family Medicine, 36(8), 588-594.
McLaughlin, G. H. (1969). SMOG grading: A new readability formula. Journal of Reading, 12(8), 639-646.
Schillinger, D., Piette, J., Grumbach, K., Wang, F., Wilson, C., Daher, C., Leong-Grotz, K., Castro, C., & Bindman, A. B. (2003). Closing the loop: Physician communication with diabetic patients who have low health literacy. Archives of Internal Medicine, 163(1), 83-90. https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.163.1.83
How this NU475 Unit 9 example is structured
Decisions about wording are the argument. The design notes open with the literacy screen: asked how often she needs help reading material from the clinic, his wife answered sometimes, and the sheet is written for that answer rather than for an average reader. Each clinical term then appears beside its replacement and the reason for it, encephalopathy becoming going foggy, ascites becoming belly fluid, asterixis replaced by a description of hands that flap when held out. Numbers are kept only where someone must act on them, stool counts and pounds gained. The notes explain why each box starts with a verb and why the 911 box sits last, following the order in which the household meets these signs. Teach-back ends the notes: his son explained the handwriting check in his own words, and one line was rewritten afterward.
Get an NU475 Unit 9 example written to your instructions
Tell the desk who will actually hold the page, a spouse, an adult child, the patient, and what illness it covers; composite details are welcome. With the rubric and any required readability tool, the sheet and its design notes come back within 24-48h, readability scores included, and the first is free. 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.
NU475 Unit 9 questions, answered
Which readability measure should I report?
SMOG and Flesch-Kincaid are the most familiar, and many instructors accept either. A formula only counts syllables and sentence length, though, so pairing it with a broader tool, such as the CDC Clear Communication Index or PEMAT, shows you checked meaning and actions too. The sample reports one formula and one broader index side by side.
Is a health literacy screen required?
Not always, but it strengthens the sheet because it replaces an assumption with a finding. Short options include the single-item screener about needing help with written material, the Newest Vital Sign and the BRIEF questions. For a composite case, report the screen and an illustrative answer, as the sample does, then write for that answer.
How long should the teaching sheet be?
One page is typical for warning signs, because a family will actually keep and reread it. If your prompt wants broader teaching, a second page can cover medicines or diet, but the action page should stand alone. The sample keeps the urgent material on a single side and moves every explanation into separate design notes for the instructor.