Select a CHRONIC OR LIFE THREATENING disease of the respiratory, urinary,
acid/base balance, digestive, or reproductive system.
When writing a clinical case study, the goal is to do the research as if to present all the
clinical areas associated with the disease. To be complete every case study should
address the following areas:
Epidemiology:
• Is the disease metabolic, environmental, communicable, genetic, etc.?
• How does the disease spread from person to person?
• What parts of the US or World is the disease more common and why?
• How does it specifically effect the body?
• How has the disease affected humans historically (throughout time)
• How does the disease affect the body at the chemical, cellular, and gross
anatomy levels?
Signs and Symptoms:
• What are the initial signs and symptoms of then disease?
• How do they change as the disease progresses?
Diagnosis:
• How does the doctor determine if someone has the disease or not?
• What specific tests are done and how are they used to diagnose the disease?
Treatment:
• What specific medications are used to treat the disease?
• Is there a cure for the disease?
• What things help prevent a person from getting the disease?
• What kinds of rehabilitation are available for someone who is recuperating
from the disease?
Prognosis:
• If a patient is diagnosed with this disease, what does the future hold for them?
• What symptoms will they develop as the disease gets worse?
• What kinds of additional support will they need as the disease progresses
Statistics:
• What is the occurrence of this disease (include the number of occurrences,
the geographical area that the occurrences occurred, and the time table for
the statistics)? For instance, 2,000 people died of this disease in South Africa
in 2010.
• You should also include the statistics on how many new cases occur annually
(or over the XX number of years), and how many patients die annually (or
over the XX number of years) from the disease.
Paper Requirements
• You must ensure that you have covered all the areas identified above
• Your paper should be at least 4 pages long (double spaced, 12 point font, 1”
borders) at a minimum but you MUST cover all of the content requested.
o Papers that do not cover all of the content will have points deducted
o Papers less than 4 full pages will have 10 points deducted for each page
that is not complete. Even if the paper is short by 1 line, the overall points
will be reduced by 10 points.
o DO NOT double space between paragraphs to extend the length of your
paper.
o Check under PAGE LAYOUT, PARAGRAPH: the “before” and “after”
areas should be set to 0 (MS Word defaults to 8) I will automatically reset
this to 0 and if the result is that the paper is less than the 4 page minimum,
you will lose 10 points
o Your identification section (your name, class name, etc) should be
SINGLE SPACED and ONLY located on the first page.
o Title pages and reference pages DO NOT COUNT as part of the 4 page
minimum requirement.
o Quotes do not count as part of the 4 page requirement. You can use them
but you need to extend the paper so that you have 4 pages of your original
narrative
• Spelling and grammar will be assessed and points deducted for major spelling
errors
• Paper organization and formatting will be assessed and points deducted for the
following:
o Paragraphs should be no less than 3 sentences in length
o There should be no additional spacing between paragraphs
o Only Times Roman 12 or Arial 12 fonts are acceptable for the paper
• All Case Study submissions are evaluated with a plagiarism checker. Papers
found to be “cut and pasted” from another article will receive a zero. If you
choose to use occasional quotes from a source, be sure the clearly identify that
you have done so by putting the quote in italics or quotations. Excessive quotes
used to extend the length of the paper will result in loss of points for the case
study.
• You must have at least three references listed (your textbook may be one of
them). References do not count in the length of your paper.
o References need to be in formal format (APA or MLA)
o If you use a web-based resource, the full EXACT URL must be listed so
the reader can click on the link and go directly to the resource. General
URL addresses are not acceptable ( for instance medicare.gov is not
acceptable)
o References such as “my doctor” or “my mother” are not acceptable.
o Wikipedia is not a valid medical reference
