Eight cardiac concept maps nursing assignment guide
An assignment producing eight concept maps on symptomatic sinus bradycardia, symptomatic sinus tachycardia, new onset atrial fibrillation, unstable atrial fibrillation, hypertension, hypertensive crisis, atherosclerosis and stable angina, each following the required six-part format from medical diagnosis through assessment, nursing diagnosis, expected outcome, interventions and evaluation.
Editorial process
Last reviewed · August 13, 2026
What the six-part concept map format is enforcing
The brief prescribes a six-part format and says to follow it exactly, so the first thing to notice is that the format is the nursing process with a medical diagnosis attached to the front. That structure encodes a specific logic: the medical diagnosis names the pathology, the assessment gathers what this patient presents with, the nursing diagnosis names the human response to that pathology, the expected outcome states what should change, the interventions are what the nurse does, and the evaluation asks whether the outcome was met. Each row has to follow from the one above it. Maps that break are almost always broken at the same joint — the nursing diagnosis does not follow from the assessment data, so the interventions end up treating the medical diagnosis instead. Reading the format as the nursing process also tells you where to spend effort: the middle four rows carry the reasoning.
The chosen conditions are not eight unrelated topics; they are four pairs, and recognising the pairing halves the work while improving the maps. Sinus bradycardia and sinus tachycardia are rate disturbances in opposite directions with a shared assessment logic. New onset and unstable atrial fibrillation are the same rhythm at two levels of urgency. Hypertension and hypertensive crisis are the same pathophysiology at two points on a severity continuum. Atherosclerosis and stable angina are a disease process and its characteristic symptom. Build each pair together and then articulate what changes between them, because what changes is exactly what a marker is checking. Building in pairs also produces better maps than building in the order the brief lists them, because the second map in each pair only has to record what differs from the first. State the shared logic once and the pair takes half the time.
The nursing diagnosis is where most submissions lose marks and the brief tells you the required format explicitly: the problem, related to the cause, as evidenced by the findings. That three-part structure is a discipline, not a convention. The related-to clause must name something nursing can act on — decreased cardiac output related to reduced ventricular filling time is workable, while related to atrial fibrillation is naming the medical diagnosis and leaves nothing to do. The as-evidenced-by clause must quote your own assessment section. If a piece of evidence appears in the diagnosis but not in the assessment above it, the map is internally inconsistent and that is visible at a glance. Checking each map against its own assessment section takes about a minute and it is the fastest quality check available on a set of eight. Do it once at the end for all of them.
The brief asks for many nursing diagnoses per condition, and quantity here is a trap unless you organise them. The useful approach is to cover the same domains across every map: haemodynamic consequence, activity and oxygenation, safety including falls and bleeding risk where anticoagulation applies, anxiety, and knowledge deficit relating to self-management. That gives each map four or five diagnoses that are genuinely different from each other rather than four restatements of a perfusion problem. It also makes the eight maps comparable, which is what turns a set of maps into a study resource you will actually use before an examination. Fixing the domains in advance also stops the eighth map being visibly thinner than the first, which is what happens when each one is invented from scratch late at night. Five domains across eight maps is forty diagnoses, which is what the brief means by many.
Expected outcomes have to be measurable and time-bound or the evaluation row has nothing to evaluate. Patient will maintain adequate cardiac output is not an outcome; patient will maintain heart rate between 60 and 100 with systolic blood pressure above 90 and no dizziness during ambulation by the end of the shift is. Write the outcome so that the evaluation row can be answered with met, partially met, or not met plus a reason. This is the single easiest place to gain marks across eight maps because it is mechanical, and it is also the place students most often revert to textbook phrasing. Numbers also make the maps usable later, since a set written in textbook phrasing is unreadable as revision material and a set written in parameters is not. Write the evaluation row as met, partially met or not met with a reason. Textbook phrasing is the default your tired self will reach for.
Two things about the interventions. First, keep them nursing interventions: monitoring with a stated frequency and parameter, positioning, oxygen within the prescribed range, fluid and activity management, education, and escalation criteria. Where a medical intervention is central, record the nursing responsibility around it — the monitoring before and after, the parameters that would prompt a call, the education about the drug. Second, the difference between the stable and unstable member of each pair should show up most sharply here: continuous monitoring, prepared equipment, and specific escalation thresholds are what distinguish an unstable presentation, and stating those thresholds numerically is what makes the map clinically usable rather than decorative. Escalation thresholds also demonstrate the clinical judgement the assignment is really testing, since knowing when to call is a different skill from knowing what the condition is. Say what you would monitor, how often, and what number would prompt a call.
Likely learning objectives
Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.
- 01Recognise the six-part format as the nursing process and keep each row consequent on the last.
- 02Organise the eight conditions as four pairs and articulate what changes within each pair.
- 03Write nursing diagnoses whose related-to clause names something nursing can act on.
- 04Cover consistent diagnostic domains across all eight maps.
- 05Write outcomes measurable and time-bound enough to be evaluated.
Read the full question
Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.
Course-wide instructions that accompany this question
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes. Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages. Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor. Concept maps on Diseases The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument. ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS Discussion Questions (DQ) Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words. Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source. One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words. I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses. Weekly Participation Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately. In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies. Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work). Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week. APA Format and Writing Quality Concept maps on Diseases Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required). Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation. I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition. Use of Direct Quotes I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly. As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content. It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source. LopesWrite Policy For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me. Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes. Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own? Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score. Late Policy The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies. Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances. If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect. I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension. As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading. Communication Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class. Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.
Turn the brief into deliverables
- 01Eight concept maps covering the eight listed conditions.
- 02Each map following the required format exactly.
- 03Medical diagnosis for each condition.
- 04Assessment findings regarding that condition.
- 05Multiple nursing diagnoses in the problem, related to, as evidenced by format.
- 06Expected outcomes.
- 07Interventions.
- 08Evaluations.
Four pairs, five diagnostic domains, measurable outcomes
Set up the template
Build one blank six-section template with the diagnostic domains listed, and reuse it eight times.
The rate pair
Symptomatic bradycardia and tachycardia: shared assessment logic, opposite haemodynamic consequences.
The atrial fibrillation pair
New onset and unstable: same rhythm, different urgency, different monitoring and escalation.
The hypertension pair
Chronic hypertension and hypertensive crisis: same pathophysiology, different time course and target organ risk.
The coronary pair
Atherosclerosis and stable angina: a disease process and its characteristic symptom.
Write the outcomes
Give every outcome a numeric or observable measure and a timeframe.
Interventions and escalation
Monitoring frequencies, parameters, education and the specific findings that would prompt escalation.
Which guidelines to build the maps from
Recommended databases
- Current cardiology clinical practice guidelines
- NHLBI health topics
- Course medical-surgical text
- CINAHL
Search sequence
- 1.Collect current guideline thresholds for rate, blood pressure and crisis definitions before writing any map.
- 2.Check the anticoagulation considerations for the atrial fibrillation maps, since the safety diagnoses depend on them.
- 3.Confirm the current definition of hypertensive crisis and what distinguishes urgency from emergency.
- 4.Look up standard nursing diagnosis phrasing for the cardiac domains, since the format is prescribed.
- 5.Note the reference for every numeric threshold you use, since the maps will be studied from later.
Reference shortlist
These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.
Nothing here is cleared for citation until you have read it.
- 01
2023 ACC/AHA/ACCP/HRS Guideline for the Diagnosis and Management of Atrial Fibrillation
American Heart Association, Circulation · 2023
Current definitions, rate and rhythm targets and anticoagulation considerations for both atrial fibrillation maps.
- 02
Atrial Fibrillation | American Heart Association
American Heart Association · 2025
Patient-facing explanations useful for writing the education interventions and the knowledge deficit diagnoses.
- 03
High Blood Pressure - What Is High Blood Pressure? | NHLBI, NIH
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute · 2025
Definitions, thresholds and target organ effects for the hypertension and hypertensive crisis maps.
- 04
Hypertension
World Health Organization · 2025
Prevalence and complication data supporting the risk-related nursing diagnoses in the hypertension maps.
- 05
Heart Failure - What Is Heart Failure? | NHLBI, NIH
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute · 2025
Background on decreased cardiac output as a consequence, which recurs across the rate and rhythm maps.
Review before submission
Common mistakes
- Writing nursing diagnoses whose related-to clause names the medical diagnosis.
- Including evidence in the diagnosis that does not appear in the assessment above it.
- Producing several nursing diagnoses that are restatements of the same problem.
- Writing outcomes with no measure or timeframe, leaving the evaluation row empty.
- Listing medical interventions without the nursing responsibility around them.
- Making the stable and unstable maps in a pair look identical.
Submission checklist
- All eight conditions have all six sections.
- Each nursing diagnosis has all three parts in the required format.
- Every as-evidenced-by item appears in that map's assessment section.
- Each map covers the same diagnostic domains so the set is comparable.
- Every expected outcome has a measure and a timeframe.
- Interventions specify monitoring frequency and escalation thresholds.
- The difference between the members of each pair is visible in the interventions.
Use this guide to plan and review your own work. Follow your institution's rules and read our academic-integrity policy.
Written by
Aaron Bishop
MA, Education
assignment interpretation and research-methods coaching across disciplines
Aaron leads the EssayCrackers editorial desk. He works on how assignment briefs are read — what a rubric is actually asking for, and where students most often answer a different question than the one set.
Reviewed by
Dr. Nathan Cole
PhD, Rhetoric & Composition
Argumentation and thesis development
Nathan teaches first-year composition and directs a university writing center. He reviews EssayCrackers guides for argumentative soundness and citation accuracy.