How to write a Nursing Case Study Analysis Paper

Written by Brandon L.
May 18, 202210 min read

Writing a nursing case study is not something most nursing students look forward to. This is because it is a somewhat difficult process that is often overwhelming for nursing students. Nevertheless, by reading this guide prepared by our best nursing students, you should be able to easily and quickly write a nursing case study that can get you an excellent grade.

How different is this guide from similar guides all over the internet? Very different!

This guide provides all the pieces of information that one would need to write an A-grade nursing case study. These include the format for a nursing case study, a step-by-step guide on how to write a nursing case study, and all the important tips to follow when writing a nursing case study.

This comprehensive guide was developed by the top nursing essay writers at NurseMyGrade, so you can trust that the information herein is a gem that will catapult your grades to the next level. Expect updates as we unravel further information about writing a nursing case study.

Now that you know you’ve discovered a gold mine, let’s get right into it.

What Is a Nursing Case Study?

A nursing case study is a real or imagined patient scenario designed to test the knowledge and skills of student nurses. Nursing case study assignments usually focus on testing knowledge and skills in areas of nursing study related to daily nursing practice.

As a nursing student, you must expect a nursing case study assignment at some point in college. The fact that you are reading this post means that point is now.

While there is no standard structure for writing a nursing case study assignment, there are some things or elements that must be present in your nursing assignment for your professor to consider it complete.

In the next section, you will discover these things that your instructor n expects in your nursing case study analysis.

The Nursing Case Study Template

The Structure of a Nursing Case Study Analysis

You now know what nursing professors expect in a nursing case study analysis. In this section, we will explain what exactly to include in each section of your nursing case study analysis to make it an excellent one.

1. Title page

The title page is important in all types of academic writing. You must include it when writing your nursing case study analysis or any other type of essay or paper. And you must include it in the format recommended by your college.

If your college has no specific title page format, use the title page format of the style requested in the assignment prompt. In nursing college, virtually all assignments are supposed to be written either in Harvard or APA format.

So, check your assignment prompt and create your title page correctly. The typical title page should include the topic of your paper, your name, the name of your professor, the course name, the date you are submitting the paper, and the name of your college.

2. Abstract

Most nursing professors require you to include an abstract in your nursing case study analysis. And even when you are not specifically required to write one, it is good to do so. Of course, you should consult with your professor before doing so.

When writing an abstract for your paper, make sure it is about 200 words long. The abstract should include a brief summary of the case study including all the important information in the patient presentation such as the history, the age, and the current diagnosis.

The summary should also include the nursing assessment, the current interventions, and recommendations.

3. Introduction

After writing the title page and the abstract, start writing the introduction. The introduction of a nursing case study analysis must briefly include the patient presentation, the patient’s current diagnosis and medication, and the recommendations. It must also include a strong thesis statement that shows what the paper is all about.

You shouldn’t just write an introduction for the sake of it. If you do so, your introduction will be bland. You need to put in good effort when writing your introduction. The best way to do this is to use your introduction to show you understand the case study perfectly and that you are going to analyze it right.

You can always write your introduction last. Many students do this because they believe writing an introduction last makes it more precise and accurate.

4. Case presentation

After introducing your nursing case study analysis, you should present the case. It is usually very easy to present a case. You simply need to paraphrase the patient scenario. When doing this, do not forget to include all the important details in the patient scenario including the description of the patient, patient history, complaints, medical history, family history, and so on.

In short, everything important in the patient scenario should be in your case presentation. The only thing you need to avoid when writing your case presentation is copying the patient scenario or case study word-for-word.

5. Diagnosis

After case presentation, you should explain the diagnosis. In other words, you should explain the condition, disease, or medical situation highlighted in the case presentation. For example, if the patient is a heavy smoker and he has COPD, it is at this point that you explain how COPD is linked to heavy smoking.

And when explaining the condition, go deep into the pathophysiology. Focus specifically on the patient’s risk factors. Make sure you get your explanation from recent nursing literature. And do not forget to cite all the literature you get your facts from.

In short, this section should explain the patient’s condition or suffering.

6. Intervention

After the diagnosis section, your nursing case study analysis should have an intervention section. This section is also known as the nursing care plan section. What you are supposed to do in this section is to present a nursing care plan for the patient presented in the patient scenario.

A good nursing care plan is one that details the patient’s chief complaints or critical problems. It then describes the causes for these problems using evidence from recent medical or nursing literature. It then details the potential intervention for each problem. Lastly, it includes goals and evaluation strategies for the measures.

Some nursing professors regard the intervention section (or nursing care plan section) as the most important part of a nursing case study. This is because this part details exactly how the student nurse will react to the patient scenario (which is exactly what the nursing professors want to know). So make sure you put in good effort when developing this section to get an excellent grade in this section.

7. Discussion and recommendations

The intervention section in a nursing case study is followed by a discussion and recommendations section. In this section, you are supposed to expound on the patient scenario, the diagnosis, and the nursing care plan. You are also supposed to expound on the potential outcomes if the care plan is followed properly. The rationale for the care plan or its important bits should also be explained in the discussion.

The discussion should be followed by recommendations. Recommendations usually everything important that can be done or changed to manage patient condition or prevent its reoccurrence. Basically, anything that enhances the patient’s well-being can be a recommendation. Just make sure your key recommendations are supported by evidence.

8. Conclusion

This is the second last section of a typical nursing case study. What you need here is to summarize the entire case study. Make sure your summary has at least the case presentation, the nursing assessment/diagnosis, the intervention, and the key recommendations.

At the very end of your conclusion, add a closing statement. The statement should wrap up the whole thing nicely. Try to make it as impressive as possible.

9. References

This is the last section of a nursing case study. No nursing case study is complete without a references section. You should make sure your case study has both in-text citations and a references page.

And you should make sure both are written as recommended in the assignment. The style section is usually Harvard or APA. Follow the recommended style to get a good grade in your essay.

Step-By-Step Guide to Writing a Nursing Case Study

You now know all the key sections you need to include in a nursing case study. You also know what exactly you need to do in each section. It is now time to know how exactly to write a nursing case study. The process detailed below should be easy to follow because you now know the typical structure of nursing case studies.

  1. Read
  2. When given a nursing case study assignment, the first thing you need to do is to read. You need to read two pieces of information slowly and carefully.

    First, you need to read the prompt itself slowly and carefully. This is important because the prompt will have important bits of information that you need to know, including the style, the format, the word count, and the number of references needed. All these bits of information are important to know to ensure what you are writing is the right thing.

    Second, you need to read the patient scenario slowly and carefully. You should do this to understand it clearly so that you do not make any mistakes in your analysis.

  3. Create a rough outline
  4. Failure to plan is a plan to fail. So do not fail to plan. In other words, do not fail to create an outline for your case study analysis. Use the template provided in this essay to create a rough outline for your nursing case study analysis.

    Make sure your outline is as detailed as it can be at this stage. You can do light research to achieve this aim. However, this is not exactly necessary because this is just a rough outline.

  5. Conduct thorough research
  6. After creating a rough outline, you should conduct thorough research. Your research should especially focus on providing a credible and evidence-based nursing assessment on the patient problem(s). The evidence you should use should only be from recent nursing or medical literature.

    You will also need to conduct thorough research to come up with an effective intervention or nursing care plan. So when researching the patient’s problem and its diagnosis, you should also research the most suitable intervention or you should do it right after.

    When conducting research, you should always note down your sources. So for every piece of information you find and what to use, you should have its reference.

    After conducting thorough research, you should enhance your rough outline using the new pieces of information you have discovered. Make sure it is as comprehensive as possible.

  7. Write your nursing case study
  8. At this stage, you simply need to follow your comprehensive outline to write your case study analysis. If you created a good outline, you should find it very easy to write your nursing case study analysis.

    If you did not, you will find it difficult to write your nursing case study. Whenever you are stuck when writing your case study analysis paper, you should re-read the part of this article where we explain what to include in every section of your analysis. Doing so will help you know what exactly to write to continue with your essay. Writing a nursing case study analysis usually takes only a few hours.

  9. Reference your case study
  10. After writing your case study, make sure you add all in-text citations if you had not added them already. And when adding them, you should make sure you follow the style/format recommended in the assignment prompt (usually APA or Harvard style).

    After adding in-text citations exactly where they need to be and in the right format, add all the references you have used in a references page. And you should add them correctly as per the rules of the style you were asked to use.

    Do not forget to organize your references alphabetically after you are done creating your references page.

  11. Thoroughly edit your case study
  12. After STEP 5 above, you need to edit your case study. You should edit it slowly and carefully. Do this by proofreading it twice. Proofread it slowly each time to discover all the grammar, style, and punctuation errors. Remove all the errors you find.

    After proofreading your essay twice, check it one more time to make sure every sentence is very easy to understand. This is what will transform your ordinary case study into an A-grade case study. Of course, it must also have all the standard sections expected in a case study.

    Just to make sure your case study is absolutely perfect, check it one more time using a grammarly.com or a similar computer grammar checker. Doing this will help you catch and eliminate all the remaining errors in your work.

  13. Submit your case study analysis
  14. After you are done proofreading and editing your case study analysis, it will be 100% ready for submission. Just convert it into the format it is required in and submit it.

Nursing Case Study Tips and Tricks

The guide above and other pieces of information in this article should help you to develop a good nursing case study analysis. The tips and tricks in this section should help you to ensure that your nursing case study analysis you create is an excellent one.

  1. Begin early
  2. The moment you see a nursing case study assignment prompt, identify a date to start writing it and create your own deadline to beat before the deadline stated in the prompt.

    If you do this and then start writing your case study analysis early before your deadline, you will have plenty of time to do excellent research, to develop an excellent paper, and to edit your final paper as thoroughly as you want to.

    Most student nurses combine work and study. So if you decide to leave a nursing case study assignment until late to complete it, something could come up and you could end up failing to submit it or submitting a rushed case study analysis.

  3. Use the right terminology
  4. When writing an essay or any other academic paper, you are always encouraged to use the simplest language possible to make your work easy to understand. However, this is not the case when writing a nursing case study analysis. While your work should certainly be easy to understand, you are required to use the right nursing terminology at every point where it is necessary. Failure to do this could water down your work or make it look less professional or convincing.

  5. Avoid copying and pasting
  6. If you are a serious nursing student, you obviously know that copying and pasting is not allowed or tolerated in assignments. However, sometimes copying and pasting can seem okay in nursing case study. For example, it can seem okay to copy-paste the patient presentation. However, this is not okay. You are supposed to paraphrase the verbatim when presenting the patient presentation in your essay. You should also avoid copy pasting information or texts directly. Every fact or evidence you research and find should be paraphrased to appear in your work. And it should be cited correctly.

  7. Always ask for help if stuck
  8. This is very important. Students are usually overwhelmed with academic work, especially a month or two to the end of the semester. If you are overwhelmed and you think you will not have the time to complete your nursing case study analysis or to submit a quality one, ask for help. Ask for help from an assignment help business like ours and you will soon have a paper ready that you can use as you please. If you choose to get help from us, you will get a well-researched, well-planned, well-developed, and fully edited nursing case study.

  9. Format your paper correctly
  10. Many students forget to do proper formatting after they are done writing their nursing case study analyses. Before you submit your paper, make sure you format it correctly. If you do not format your paper correctly, you will lose marks because of poor formatting. If you feel you are not very confident with your APA or Harvard formatting skills, send your paper to us to get it correctly formatted and ready for submission.

Last words - where to get help if overwhelmed

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We’ve got dozens of nursing experts available every day of the week to provide nursing assignment help. They can easily research and write virtually any type of nursing assignment, including a nursing case study. So, if the information provided in this article isn’t making you feel any optimistic about writing an excellent nursing case study, get help from us.

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