Problem in the profession: How and why writing skills in nursing must be improved

Student Reflections on Learning in a Doctoral-Level Writing Course

BACKGROUND

Programs to improve student writing have been deployed widely in nursing graduate education, but few operational indicators exist for measuring their value.

PROBLEM

The challenge of measuring outcomes reflects the complexity of what transpires when graduate students write. Better understanding is needed of what it means to students to "learn" from writing support.

APPROACH

A full-semester writing course was implemented in a nursing science PhD program. In formative course assessment activities, students identified problems in early drafts of their work, which they subsequently learned to detect and resolve. In this article, students report what was learned.

CONCLUSION

Writing skills, like clinical skills, are intertwined with intellectual maturation and sense of professional identity. Writing, like clinical learning, requires an investment of time and labor far beyond what is typical in didactic approaches to classroom-based graduate education. Our experience suggests a need to reconceptualize writing pedagogy in nursing.

Key strategies in scholarly writing instruction for doctor of nursing practice students: A Q-methodology study

BACKGROUND

Development of scholarly writing skills in Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) students is essential to their capacity to advance nursing science after graduation.

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study was to inform instructional design choices and teaching strategies for DNP writing courses by examining student viewpoints before and after completing a scholarly writing course.

DESIGN

Q methodology was used to explore student self-perceptions of scholarly writing skills.

SETTING

An online scholarly writing course at a large university in the midwestern United States.

PARTICIPANTS

Twenty-six DNP students with either a bachelor's or master's degree in nursing.

METHODS

Before and after a scholarly writing course, students ranked 34 writing competency statements according to how well the statements described them.

RESULTS

Three pre-course and four post-course factors represented student viewpoints of their scholarly writing knowledge, skills, and attitudes before and after a writing course.

CONCLUSIONS

Effective instruction in scholarly writing for DNPs should include explicitly directed pre-writing activities, frequent opportunities to give and receive feedback, and training on management of emotional aspects of writing.

Willing But Not Quite Ready: Nurses' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Research in an Academic Healthcare System

OBJECTIVE

To describe nurses' research knowledge, attitudes, and practices within an academic hospital system.

BACKGROUND

Hospitals are investing in research resources to meet Magnet® goals and advance the science of nursing, but nurses' specific needs for support are not well characterized and may vary by setting.

METHODS

We conducted an anonymous online survey of RNs at an academic hospital system in 2019-2020 using the validated Nurses' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Research Survey.

RESULTS

Respondents (N = 99) indicated high willingness to engage in research-related tasks but low or moderate knowledge of and ability to perform them. Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of research increased with level of education, although gaps between willingness to engage versus knowledge and ability persisted even among doctorally prepared nurses.

CONCLUSIONS

Research support for clinical nurses should leverage enthusiasm for research and focus on developing and applying specific practical skills, even among nurses with advanced degrees.

The lived experience of nursing faculty developing as scholarly writers

BACKGROUND

Nursing faculty are expected to disseminate scholarly work through publications, yet little is known about how faculty develop as scholarly writers.

PURPOSE

This manuscript discusses a hermeneutic phenomenological research study that uncovered the experience of nursing faculty developing as scholarly writers.

METHODS

Audiotaped personal interviews were conducted with 12 nursing faculty to understand the lived experience of nursing faculty developing as scholarly writers. A 5-step data analysis process consistent with phenomenology was used to identify common themes.

RESULTS

Findings revealed five themes: pulling everything together, steering me in the direction, using feedback to grow, squeezing it in, and staying on task.

CONCLUSION

This study offers educators insight into the experience of faculty developing as scholarly writers and leads to recommendations for approaches that may be useful in writing development.

Structured academic writing retreats in healthcare professional practice

The critical importance of writing skills in communicating issues, such as the evidence needed for resources and change as well as the implementation of new practices and processes based on evidence-based outcomes, are now core skills for every healthcare professional including nurses in clinical practice. Within a very busy and challenging work environment, while maintaining a work-life balance, writing to fulfil these professional requirements can become challenging and even impossible. This article describes an educational intervention which adopted the Structured Writing Retreat (SWR) model developed by Murray and Newton in 2009 into a healthcare practice setting. The aim of this intervention was to promote self-efficacy in academic writing in a supportive environment. Three tools are described which outline how to set this intervention up within a healthcare setting. The outcomes and participants' evaluations clearly affirmed the benefits of this model to enable healthcare professionals working in any clinical environment to support their professional development and career advancement.

The COMITS Model: A Framework for Successful Publishing

Publishing is a necessity for nursing faculty and a growing expectation for nurse clinicians. Overcoming personal, organizational, and publishing barriers to writing is critical for successful publishing. The purpose of this article is to introduce the COMITS model. COMITS is an acronym that represents the following concepts: Commitment, Organization, Mechanics, Interpersonal, Time, and Sustainability. Strategies for overcoming barriers are described. Using these strategies associated with the COMITS model provides a framework for overcoming barriers that often prevent nursing faculty and clinicians from publishing. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2020;51(10):477-483.].

Developing advanced practice nurse writing competencies as a corequisite for evidence-based practice

Writing competency is increasingly recognized as imperative for advanced practice nurses (APNs) who are engaged in evidence-based practice (EBP). Writing skills are an implied expectation inherent in many APN evidence-based practice competencies, such as "formulating evidence based policies and procedures," and "communicates best evidence …." A quality improvement project was implemented for APN's within a post-Master's Doctor of Nursing Practice program, to create a novel set of low-cost, high-impact strategies that could be embedded into a program of study to improve APN writing skills. Prior work has indicated that mentorship and peer support are useful strategies that can contribute to the enhancement of APN writing skills. This study builds on prior work to develop a quantitative evaluation of a peer-supported writing intervention for APNs. Read Aloud innovation was one of two strategies chosen from among many writing improvement strategies identified in the literature because of easy implementation, even by faculty who lacked confidence in providing traditional writing instruction. If explicit development of writing competencies is not elevated to a higher priority in APN education, suboptimal writing confidence is likely to continue across the professional lifetime and will present as a recurring challenge for APNs who pursue higher educational degrees, transition into faculty roles, or seek to fully develop APN EBP competencies. Findings from this study indicate that feedback received from peers during the structured Read Aloud innovation, with emphasis on hierarchy of paragraph sentences (i.e., explicit examination for overarching quality of the leading sentence), is effective in improving clarity and brevity of writing among APNs.