NURS-FPX4015 Assessment 1
Volunteer Patient Identification and Waiver Submission

Capella University — BSN FlexPath | Pathophysiology, Pharmacology, and Physical Assessment: A Holistic Approach to Patient-Centered Care | 2025–2026

Assessment Overview

NURS-FPX4015 requires you to perform a comprehensive head-to-toe physical assessment on a volunteer mock patient and document your findings in a formal SOAP note — tasks that appear in Assessments 4 and 5 of this course. Before any of that clinical work can happen, however, Capella University requires you to formally identify a volunteer participant, obtain their informed consent, and submit a completed waiver form that meets specific legal and ethical standards. That is the purpose of Assessment 1.

Assessment 1 is not a written paper or a clinical analysis. It is an administrative compliance and ethics submission that protects you, your volunteer participant, and Capella University. Treating it lightly or rushing through it creates risks that ripple into every subsequent assessment in the course. A waiver that is incomplete, inaccurate, or submitted without proper signatures will be returned for revision, and since Assessments 4 and 5 cannot proceed without an approved volunteer, delays here can significantly affect your course timeline.

Read this brief in full before you begin recruiting a participant. The eligibility requirements, legal clauses, and procedural steps are all part of what is being assessed — not just the final signed document.

Assessment Requirements

To complete NURS-FPX4015 Assessment 1, you must do all of the following:

1. Identify an eligible volunteer participant who meets the criteria listed above and who is willing to be video recorded during a simulated head-to-toe health assessment
2. Explain the purpose and scope of their participation to the volunteer before they sign anything — specifically, that the video will be used solely for academic evaluation, that any health information they provide may be hypothetical or simulated (except vital signs taken in real time), and that they retain the right to withdraw consent
3. Complete the Capella University Waiver and Consent Form provided in your courseroom in full — all fields must be filled in; blank sections will result in a return for resubmission
4. Obtain the volunteer’s signature on the completed waiver form — both the student and the participant must sign and date the document
5. Submit the completed, signed waiver through the Assessment area of your NURS-FPX4015 FlexPath courseroom

You do not need to conduct the physical assessment yet. Assessment 1 is the prerequisite step. The actual video-recorded health assessment and SOAP note are completed later in the course (Assessments 4 and 5).

Capella University Waiver and Consent Form — NURS-FPX4015

The form below is the official Capella University Volunteer Patient Waiver for NURS-FPX4015. Complete all fields in full. Both signatures are required before submission.

HIPAA Compliance and Ethical Practice Guidance

Even though this is a simulated educational exercise involving a non-patient volunteer, HIPAA principles and professional ethical standards still govern how you handle any health-related information that arises during the assessment process. The following points are non-negotiable:

• Do not use real patient identifiers. You may not use data from any actual patient encounter in this or any subsequent NURS-FPX4015 assessment. All patient data must be hypothetical or based on your volunteer in the controlled simulation context only.
• Do not record the assessment in a clinical setting. The video must be made in a private, non-clinical environment. Recording in a hospital, clinic, or any healthcare facility is prohibited under Capella’s policies and creates significant HIPAA exposure.
• Hypothetical data is permitted and expected. Clause 3 of the waiver explicitly states that information beyond age and gender may be hypothetical. You and your volunteer are not required to disclose actual medical histories. Vital signs taken in real time, however, may reflect the participant’s true readings.
• Secure all signed documents. The completed waiver must be handled with the same confidentiality you would apply to any sensitive document. Do not post it publicly, share it electronically outside of your Capella courseroom, or allow third parties to access it.
• Obtain consent freely. If your volunteer shows any hesitation, address their concerns fully before proceeding. A coerced or pressured signature is not valid informed consent and undermines the ethical foundation of the assignment entirely.

Practical Guidance for Recruiting Your Volunteer

Many students find the recruitment process straightforward, but a few practical steps will save time and prevent the most common submission errors.

• Ask early. The waiver needs to be completed, signed, and submitted before you can progress to the clinical assessments. Waiting until the last minute to identify your volunteer is the most common cause of course delays in NURS-FPX4015.
• Choose someone you communicate with comfortably. A physical assessment involves palpation, auscultation, and discussion of health history. Your volunteer needs to feel comfortable enough with you to cooperate naturally for the video.
• Explain the assignment clearly before presenting the waiver. Your volunteer should understand that they are not receiving actual medical care, that their participation is entirely voluntary, and that the recording will only be seen by Capella University faculty. Informed consent means genuinely informed — not just a signature obtained quickly.
• Double-check every field on the form before submission. The most common reason for return-to-learner on Assessment 1 is a blank field, an unsigned line, or a missing date. Review the completed form line by line before uploading.
• Do not use a child, a patient, or a current care recipient as your volunteer under any circumstances. Capella’s courseroom documentation is explicit on this restriction, and any submission involving an ineligible participant will not be approved.

Competencies Assessed

While Assessment 1 is primarily an administrative compliance task, it addresses the following NURS-FPX4015 course competencies at the foundational level:

• Competency 3: Demonstrate ethical and legal nursing practice — addressed through the informed consent process, HIPAA-consistent handling of participant information, and compliance with Capella University’s institutional policies for human subjects in simulated clinical education
• Competency 5: Apply professional, scholarly, evidence-based communication strategies to impact patient, interdisciplinary team, and systems outcomes — addressed through the accurate, professional completion of a legal document that communicates the rights, responsibilities, and expectations of all parties involved in the simulation

Scoring Rubric — NURS-FPX4015 Assessment 1

Assessment 1 is evaluated at the criterion level against Capella’s four-tier performance scale. Because this assessment is a compliance document rather than a written analysis, the rubric focuses on accuracy, completeness, eligibility, and ethical process. A minimum Proficient rating on all criteria is required to advance in the course.

Criterion	Distinguished (100%)	Proficient (85%)	Basic (75%)	Non-Performance (0%)
Volunteer Eligibility: Identification of a volunteer participant who meets all of Capella’s eligibility criteria for the mock patient role	The volunteer is clearly eligible: aged 18 or over, not a current patient of the student, not recruited from an active healthcare setting, and not a minor. Eligibility is evident from the completed waiver without any ambiguity.	The volunteer meets eligibility requirements. All standard criteria appear to be satisfied, though minor contextual detail (e.g., relationship to student) is absent. No disqualifying condition is present.	The volunteer’s eligibility is unclear from the submission — the relationship to the student or the setting in which the volunteer was recruited is not specified, leaving eligibility uncertain.	The volunteer does not meet eligibility requirements — they are a minor, a current patient, or recruited from an active clinical setting. Submission is not approved.
Completeness of Waiver Form: All required fields are completed accurately, including student and participant identifying information, signatures, and dates	Every field on the waiver is completed in full with no blank sections. Both the student’s and participant’s signatures are present, legible, and dated. The course name, instructor name, and submission date are correctly entered. The document is clean and professionally prepared.	All required fields are completed. Both signatures and dates are present. Minor formatting inconsistencies (e.g., abbreviated course title, unclear handwriting in one field) do not impede the document’s completeness or validity.	One or two non-signature fields are incomplete or inaccurate. Both signatures are present, but a date is missing, a name is misspelled, or an incorrect course title is entered. The document requires minor corrections before approval.	The waiver is substantially incomplete — multiple fields are blank, one or both signatures are absent, or the document submitted is not the correct Capella waiver form for NURS-FPX4015. Submission cannot be approved in its current form.
Informed Consent and Ethical Process: Evidence that the participant’s consent was obtained voluntarily and with adequate prior explanation of the purpose, scope, and limitations of the simulation	The submission includes or is accompanied by a brief written statement from the student confirming that the participant was fully briefed on the educational purpose of the activity, the non-clinical nature of the content, the video recording terms, and their right to withdraw — prior to signing. The ethical process is transparent and complete.	The completed waiver indicates voluntary participation and the correct purpose of use. The submission provides adequate evidence that consent was informed. A student briefing note may be absent, but the waiver content itself reflects proper consent procedures.	The waiver is signed but lacks contextual evidence of a genuine informed consent process. No student briefing note is included, and the waiver language alone is insufficient to confirm that the participant fully understood their role before signing.	There is no evidence of informed consent. The waiver appears to have been signed without proper explanation, or the student has submitted a self-signed form without a genuine volunteer participant.
HIPAA Compliance Awareness: Demonstration that the student understands and has applied the confidentiality and privacy standards relevant to the simulated clinical assessment context	The student’s submission reflects a clear understanding of HIPAA boundaries: the activity was conducted in a private, non-clinical setting; no real patient data was introduced; and the completed document is handled and submitted in a secure, confidential manner consistent with Capella’s courseroom standards.	The submission is consistent with HIPAA-compliant practice. No breach of patient data confidentiality is evident. The simulated context is appropriately separated from any real clinical environment.	Minor HIPAA concerns are present — for example, the student’s written description of the activity references a clinical setting, or vague language about patient data suggests the boundaries between simulation and real clinical practice may not have been fully understood.	The submission contains a clear HIPAA violation — real patient data or identifiers appear in the documentation, the assessment was conducted in an active clinical setting without proper controls, or confidential information has been disclosed outside of the secure courseroom environment.

FlexPath Note: Assessment 1 must receive a Proficient or Distinguished rating on all four criteria before you can submit Assessments 2 through 5. If your submission is returned, read the instructor’s feedback carefully and correct every flagged item before resubmitting. Resubmissions are available without penalty within your FlexPath subscription term.