WRITING – CASE NOTES

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WRITING - CASE NOTES
OCCUPATIONAL ENGLISH TEST
WRITING SUB-TEST: Nursing
TIME ALLOWED: READING TIME: 5 MINUTES | WRITING TIME: 40 MINUTES
Read the case notes below and complete the writing task which follows.
NOTES:
You are a nurse with the Blue Skies Home Nursing Centre. You visited this
patient at home today for the first time following a referral from the Mater Public
Hospital. He was discharged from hospital on 17.3.08.
• Name: Henry O’Keefe
• 12 Donaldson Street, Green Slopes, 4121; Phone: (07) 3941 2267
• Date of Birth: 2 February 1925
• Admitted: 14.3.08
• Diagnosis: Malignant Melanoma Left Shoulder
Family History
• Married aged pensioner.
• Lives in housing commission home with wife Dorothy (also an aged
pensioner).
• No children
Medical History
• Large lesion successfully removed 14.3.08.
• Discharged 17.3.08
• Needs assistance with showering and to dress-wound prior to removal of
sutures at Mater Public Hospital on 24.3.08
18.3.08. 1st Home visit
• Showered patient.
• Wound dressed – healing satisfactory
• No sign of infection
• Balance a little shaky - complaining of increased arthritic pains in hands
and legs.
• Taking Glucosamine & Chondroitin Supplement recommended by GP.
• Pain relieved with 2 Panadol 3 times daily.
• Confused about why he had operation.
• Dorothy concerned about future.
• Tells you she will be 83 in August. Says Henry has not been himself since
the surgery. Keeps forgetting things. She finds it difficult to manage the
house and garden. Neighbours are helping with shopping. Kitchen and
bathroom disordered – trouble finding clean towels – dishes piled in sink,
bed unmade.
19.3.08
• Henry showered and wound dressed.
• Still a little unbalanced.
• Rests most of the day.
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 • Does not remember being showered yesterday.
• House still disorganised, washing piled up in bathroom.
• Dorothy says she would be lost without help from neighbours who also
appear to be cooking meals for the couple.
Concerns:
• Provided there are not complications with the wound healing, your role in
providing nursing care ends when sutures are removed on 24 March.
• You consider that Jim and Dorothy need to be assessed for further on-
going assistance in managing the house and garden and with shopping and
the preparation of cooking.
Plan:
• Request a home visit by the Aged Care Assessment Team as soon as
possible to fully assess their needs and to arrange for appropriate further
assistance to be provided.
WRITING TASK
Using the information in the case notes, write a letter to The Director, Aged Care
Assessment Team, Brisbane South Region, 78 Masterson St. Acacia Ridge,
Brisbane 4110. Explain why you are writing and what types of assistance may be
required.
In your answer:
• Expand the relevant notes into complete sentences
• Do not use note form
• Use letter format
The body of the letter should be approximately 180–200 words.

PROCEED TO WRITING THE LETTER AFTER PPRRRAADDDWK.

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Before you start writing the letter:
We have a few steps to complete before we start writing the letter:

• Read the case notes for its vital information abbreviated as

PPRRRAADDDWK
• You will have to write down the PPRRRAADDDWK on the next page.
• Then you complete the opening elements (DADS)
• The 3rd step is the first paragraph of the letter. We call it PRPDD
• Finally, you start with Diving & Rising (Paragraph 2, 3, 4, 5, end).

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STEP 1 – WRITE DOWN PPRRRAADDDWK
PPRRRAADDDWK (Write down this on your notebook)
• P1 Name + Age of the Patient
• P2 Main Purpose of writing this letter
• R1 The Recipient’s Name / Role
• R2 What are the Requests to the Recipient
• R3 Including only Relevant information
• A1 Admission (presenting) Condition
• A2 Admission (presenting) Date / Time
• D1 Discharge / Transfer Condition
• D2 Discharge / Transfer Date / Time
• D3 If the patient’s condition Diagnosed (D3+) or Not (D3-)
• W Writer (Your role)
• K Check if the patient is Known or not Known to the recipient

P1 __________________________________________________________________________
P2 __________________________________________________________________________
R1 __________________________________________________________________________
R2 __________________________________________________________________________
R3 __________________________________________________________________________
A1 __________________________________________________________________________
A2 __________________________________________________________________________
D3 __________________________________________________________________________
D1 __________________________________________________________________________
D2 __________________________________________________________________________
W __________________________________________________________________________
K __________________________________________________________________________

NB: For examination, you have to mark all the PPRRRAADDDWK on the case notes:

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STEP 2 – DADS
DADS stand for Date, Address, Dear and Subject. Now, go back to the
PPRRRAADDDWK page and complete the DADS. It is very easy.
Date of Writing (DoW)
• Date is written in the expanded format (12th December, 2022 / 12
December 2022)
• Do not write 12/12/2022. (No abbreviations in a formal letter!)
• Usually, it is the date of discharge.
• Sometimes, the date of writing may not be given, so, you have to calculate.
Address of the recipient
• If the letter is sent inland (to a place in the same country), do not mention
the country name.
• Minimum 3 to maximum 5 lines is best for address.
Beware! Sometimes, there may be no more than just “Community Nurse” for
address. Here, look for the patient’s home address. If the patient lives at “Green
Valley, Saint Louse Square, Melbourne,” the recipient’s address will have “Saint
Louise Square, Melbourne.”
Addressing People
• The Re: line should have the full name of the patient and his / her age.
• If the patient is a baby, prefix Baby (Baby Ishan, Baby Mario)
• If the patient is male, 17 or below, prefix Master (Master Ryan Hunt)
• If the patient is male, 18 or above, prefix Mr (Mr Parker Hunt)
• If the patient is female, 17 or below, prefix Miss (Miss Janette Hunt)
• If the patient is female, 18 or above, prefix Ms (Ms Reeta Hunt)
NB: It is your personal choice to prefix Mrs + husband’s surname before the name
of a married / divorced woman (Mrs Hunt). Internationally, Mrs is disappearing
from English!

Date
___________________________________________________________________________
Address
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Dear
______________________________________________________________________________
Re:
______________________________________________________________________________

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STEP 3 – “PRPDD”
PRPDD is the easiest way to draft the first paragraph of an OET letter. The most
spectacular benefit of PRPDD method is, you don’t miss any of the most essential
elements to be added to this paragraph which is also known as the ‘purpose’
paragraph.
PRPDD
• P1 Patient’s name Ms Reeta
• R “requires” requires
• P2 Purpose urgent admission
• D1 Discharge / Transfer Condition recovering after surgery
• D2 Discharge / Transfer Date / Time being discharged today
Example (PRPDD Marked)
Mr Christopher Fort (P1) requires (R) home visits to ensure medication
compliance and dietary restrictions (P). He is recuperating after angioplasty (D1)
and is being discharged today (D2).
Example (PRPDD not Marked)
Mr Christopher Fort requires home visits to ensure medication compliance and
dietary restrictions. He is recuperating after angioplasty and is being discharged
today.

STEP 4 - DIVING & RISING

Let’s start with the second paragraph. From here, you are going to dive and rise,
which means, from now, the first sentences are in past tenses first and then, in
“has” tenses and, finally, in “is” sentences and “will / would” sentences:
Instructions
• You are about to write the second paragraph now.
• Start with the patient’s admission date, admission condition, etc.

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