| Course | NURS 440 Post-licensure Strategies for Community Health Care (NURS440) |
|---|---|
| Module/Week | 8 |
| Assignment | Patient Education Assessment |
| Paper type | SMOG readability analysis narrative |
| Length | about 526 words, 2 double-spaced pages plus title page and references. Course guide: a narrative of at least 500 words in current APA format analyzing a piece of patient education literature with the SMOG method, discussing the method, local health literacy and vital statistics and whether the literature is appropriate, with at least 2 citations |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| Points | 60 |
| School | Liberty University Online |
| Program | BSN |
| Where it sits | Module/Week 8 in Liberty's published NURS 440 course guide; current sections can differ |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NURS 440 Week 8
Patient Education Assessment: A SMOG Analysis of a Diabetes Handout for a Lynchburg Food Pantry Audience
[Student Name]
School of Nursing, Liberty University
NURS 440: Post-licensure Strategies for Community Health Care
Patient Education Assessment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The handout analyzed is a composite of typical diabetes education sheets, and its sentence counts are illustrative; the CDC data set, the national literacy report and the studies cited are real.
Patient Education Assessment: A SMOG Analysis of a Diabetes Handout for a Lynchburg Food Pantry Audience
The Handout and Its Audience
The handout analyzed is a two-page sheet titled "Managing Your Diabetes," of a type commonly given at clinics and community programs and similar to one distributed at the church food pantry where I presented my health education program. Its readers are adults with diabetes, many of them food insecure. Lynchburg's adult population carries an estimated food insecurity rate near one in six and a diabetes rate near one in nine (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2025). Nationally, the most recent federal assessment of health literacy found that 36% of adults had basic or below-basic health literacy, with lower levels among adults living in poverty and older adults (Kutner et al., 2006). The audience for this handout is likely to include many readers who struggle with complex written health information.
The SMOG Method
Maurer and Smith (2013) present readability assessment as a basic step before using printed materials with a community. The SMOG method estimates the grade level a reader needs to fully understand a text. The steps are: choose 30 sentences, ten from the beginning, ten from the middle and ten from the end; count every word with three or more syllables, including repeated words; take the square root of that count; and add 3. A more precise version multiplies the square root by 1.043 and adds 3.1291. SMOG is designed to predict complete comprehension, so it often scores a grade or two higher than other formulas.
Results
In the 30 sampled sentences, I counted 58 words of three or more syllables. Examples included "medication," "carbohydrates," "hemoglobin," "monitoring," "complications" and "hypoglycemia." The square root of 58 is about 7.6. Using the simple method, the nearest perfect square is 64, whose root is 8; adding 3 gives a grade of 11. Using the formula, 1.043 multiplied by 7.62 equals 7.95, plus 3.13 gives 11.08. Both methods place the handout at about the 11th-grade level.
Is the Handout Appropriate?
The handout is not appropriate as written. Professional recommendations call for patient materials at or below about a sixth-grade level (Ulanovsky et al., 2026), and the NIH recommends below the seventh grade (Pawlowski et al., 2026). This handout is five grades higher. Its result is typical: Pawlowski et al. (2026) found an average SMOG score of 11.27 across 40 NIH mental health education materials, and Ulanovsky et al. (2026) evaluated obstetric discharge materials embedded in a widely used electronic health record. Long sentences and medical terms are the main problems in this handout. For readers with limited health literacy, the most important instructions, such as what to do for low blood sugar, are buried in the hardest sentences.
Plain-Language Rewrites
Original: "Hypoglycemia may occur if carbohydrate intake is insufficient relative to medication dosage." Rewrite: "Your blood sugar can drop too low if you take your medicine but do not eat enough."
Original: "Regular monitoring of blood glucose facilitates identification of patterns." Rewrite: "Check your blood sugar often. Write the numbers down so you can see changes."
Original: "Consult your health care provider regarding complications." Rewrite: "Call your doctor or nurse if you have sores on your feet that do not heal." A handout that its readers cannot understand teaches only the people who did not need it.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2025). PLACES: Local data for better health, county data 2025 release [Data set]. https://data.cdc.gov/d/swc5-untb
Kutner, M., Greenberg, E., Jin, Y., & Paulsen, C. (2006). The health literacy of America's adults: Results from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NCES 2006-483). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics.
Maurer, F. A., & Smith, C. M. (2013). Community/public health nursing practice: Health for families and populations (5th ed.). Elsevier Saunders.
Pawlowski, M., Kalabalik-Hoganson, J., Özdener-Poyraz, A. E., & Slugocki, M. (2026). Readability of National Institutes of Health patient education materials focused on mental health. Journal of Pharmacy Technology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/87551225261487336
Ulanovsky, K., Rouffiac, A. E., Roa, J., Cudjoe, E., Sahhar, M., Lewkowitz, A. K., & Thorsen, M. M. (2026). Readability of Epic's obstetric discharge education. Pregnancy, 2(6), e70476. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmf2.70476
What the NURS 440 Week 8 instructions ask
The Patient Education Assessment closes NURS 440 in Module/Week 8, alongside Maurer and Smith's chapters 29 through 31 and the community clinical log. Using the Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG) method, students select and analyze a piece of patient education literature, discuss the SMOG method, research health literacy statistics and other vital statistics for their community and decide whether the literature is appropriate. The narrative runs at least 500 words in current APA format with at least two citations. Choose a handout your community actually receives, so the analysis can be tied to the people who will read it, and keep a copy to attach or describe accurately.
How this NURS 440 Week 8 example is built
The sample begins by describing the handout and why it was chosen: it is given to people with diabetes at a church food pantry studied earlier in the course. It explains the SMOG method step by step and applies it, reporting the sentence sample, the count of words with three or more syllables and the resulting grade level. It then presents national health literacy findings and local statistics to describe the likely readers. The analysis compares the handout's grade level with recommended targets and with recent studies of patient materials. The paper ends with a judgment that the handout is not appropriate as written and shows three sentences rewritten in plain language.
NURS 440 Week 8 grading rubric: where the points go
Patient education assessments are usually graded on accurate explanation and application of the SMOG method, with counts and calculations shown, relevant health literacy and community statistics with sources, a clear judgment about appropriateness supported by the results, at least 500 words and two citations and APA format. Faculty look for students who connect the reading level to the actual audience rather than reporting a number alone, and who offer practical improvements. Showing the arithmetic, and noting the method's limits, demonstrates understanding beyond plugging numbers into a calculator. Rewrites of a few key sentences, or a plan to replace the handout, show the community health perspective the course has built.
NURS 440 Week 8 help: mistakes that cost points
Pick a real handout from a clinic, pharmacy or community program. Follow the SMOG steps exactly: ten sentences from the beginning, middle and end, count every word with three or more syllables and apply the formula or the square root method. Show your counts. Then look up literacy data and local statistics that describe the people likely to read it. Compare the result with recommended reading levels, and support your judgment with a recent study. Close with specific rewrites. Keep the narrative above 500 words and cite at least two sources in APA format, and remember that readability formulas do not measure layout, pictures or cultural fit, which also matter to readers.
Related NURS 440 sample papers
Other NURS 440 weeks
- NURS 440 Week 1: Discussion Board Forum 1
- NURS 440 Week 2: Windshield Survey
- NURS 440 Week 3: Epidemiology Case Study
- NURS 440 Week 4: Community Assessment Part 2
- NURS 440 Week 6: Health Education Program Part 2
- NURS 440 Week 7: Disaster Response PowerPoint
More BSN sample papers
- NURS 215 Week 8: Discussion Board Forum 4
- NURS 220 Week 8: Discussion Board Forum 4
- NURS 225 Week 8: Research Critique Part 2
- NURS 325 Week 8: Nursing Mentor Paper
NURS 440 Week 8 questions, answered
What is the NURS 440 Patient Education Assessment?
The 60-point Module/Week 8 paper in which students analyze a piece of patient education literature with the SMOG method, research community health literacy and decide whether the material is appropriate.
Where can I find a free NURS 440 Week 8 sample paper?
Read a full NURS 440 Week 8 SMOG analysis of a diabetes handout, with counts, calculation and plain-language rewrites, on this page for free.
How do you calculate a SMOG grade?
Count the words of three or more syllables in 30 sentences, ten each from the beginning, middle and end, take the square root of the count and add 3, or use the formula 1.043 times the square root plus 3.1291.
What reading level should patient education materials be?
Professional bodies recommend no higher than about a sixth-grade level for patient materials, and the NIH suggests below the seventh grade, though many materials test far higher.
Why does SMOG often give a higher grade than other formulas?
SMOG is designed to predict full comprehension and relies on counting long words, so it often rates materials a grade or two higher than formulas such as Flesch-Kincaid.
Use it as a model, or ask for your own
This paper is an original model written by our desk for study. It is not a submitted student paper and not an official Liberty University document. Read it for structure and reasoning, then write your own to the instructions in your Canvas course. If you want a version built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
Ask for a custom NURS 440 Week 8 sample · All NURS 440 weeks · All courses