the nursing writing help

the nursing writing help

The Importance of Nursing Writing Skills

1. The Role of Effective Writing in Nursing

The relationship between writing and learning has been the focus of numerous studies conducted in a variety of academic settings. A consistent finding of research on teaching writing to students in kindergarten through twelfth grade is that the best approach to teaching writing is teaching the process of writing. This involves teaching pre-writing strategies, planning strategies, evaluating strategies, and strategies for revision and editing. Concurrently, research on nursing documentation has found that the quality of the documentation is improved with the level of the education of the nurse. This is an important point as the push for higher education in nursing via RN to BSN and entry level Masters programs has significantly increased over the past decade. With the knowledge that process writing is the best approach and that the education level of practicing nurses is increasing, the conclusion can be drawn that it is important to develop teaching methods to build the writing skills of nurses to enable them to write in a manner that best reflects critical thinking abilities learned in their educational programs.

Just as there are varying levels of critical thinking and problem solving associated with the writing task, the same is true for the level of complexity in the nature of the writing. At the novice level, for example, students are asked to write a narrative about an event, while at the advanced level, students are asked to synthesize and evaluate a sampled case. Similarly in the workplace, nurses are often required to document on a standardized assessment tool, write a college for a specific patient, or write a report on a case that was witnessed in the community. As well, there are times that writing is an indirect activity in that the nurse is not writing something per se, but instead is communicating through the process of typing electronic patient information into a database. At each of these levels there are assorted errors and ways in which the writing can fall short.

2. Developing Strong Communication Skills

While verbal interaction is the most common form of communication, researchers know that writing skills are equally important. There is abundant evidence that writing skill is a marker of competence in other skills. Sessions argues that the effectiveness of a written document is a good indicator of the writer’s professionalism, credibility, and thoroughness. They go on to suggest that a nurse’s written communication skills can influence relationships with other health professionals and the public, along with their level of confidence and their job satisfaction. Coco conducted a study to identify the importance of well-developed communication skills in the form of clinical writing by nursing students. The purpose of the study was to establish the effectiveness of an intervention designed to enhance clinical writing ability. The results revealed that despite the comfort many students had with computer technology, they were unskilled at composing professional documents. These students were not aware that the ability to communicate well in writing could affect their future employment. Coco reports comments from students, “I didn’t see the importance of writing; other subjects were more important” and “having to write this assignment has irritated me, it’s a waste of time.” These students were more concerned with the expected style and format of the assignment and received no feedback on improving their writing.

3. Enhancing Critical Thinking through Writing

When expanding the importance of writing from a method of communication to a vehicle for learning, it is evident in Simmons’ article on critical thinking in nursing. He suggests requiring students to write only a few sentences to clarify the second premise in an argument, or to summarize an article’s conclusion in no more than 20 lines. This is a method of analysis and evaluation which is the heart of critical thinking. In asking students to write, the lecturer is prescribing an exact mode of learning and thinking. Simmons advocates using writing to teach students how to identify and evaluate arguments in a relatively risk-free and non-threatening environment. Written work makes it easier for the teacher to assess if the student understands and is making correct theoretical connections. Compiled by all this, Simmons offers a systematic approach to teaching students who are poor at thinking or problem solving by using writing to aid the development of these skills. He has said “writing improves our ability to think about an issue, our mastery in solving problems, and our chances of success at any level of problem solving”. This statement accentuates the value of writing as a tool to enhance critical thinking.

The importance of critical thinking is valued in nursing. Skills to sharpen our critical thinking are essential for taking. Critical thinking is required to see the relationship between ideas. It is the foundation of the science in which nurses base their practice. It is a process in which we try to make a sound decision, after the reflection on the problem and evaluating the information available. Critical thinking involves identifying, evaluating and constructing an argument. It is an essential skill to have for a nurse; as it enables us to provide the best possible care, is a cost effective way of solving problems and is a desirable attribute in health care professionals. Higher learning is promoted when writing is the means of learning. Writing is essential to communicate in nursing, as it is how we record and pass on our findings.

4. Writing Techniques for Nursing Professionals

The final step, proofreading, is to ensure the final document is free of errors. This can be compared to the evaluation of oneself after receiving constructive criticism from a peer, and the final document is reflective of best practice. These writing strategies may need to be taught in specific writing instruction sessions or may be conveniently integrated into content area lessons. This process will ensure a way of writing and a method of instruction that models the practice. It is a very important skill to be able to write in healthcare and a way that can influence positive change.

During drafting, the writer organizes the information and translates the information into a written format. Revising and reviewing the written work is an important step. The nurse would evaluate the care given to a patient and compare set standards. If errors are identified, the nurse would reevaluate the situation and make the relevant changes to ensure the best possible care is provided. The same process is used in the revising step in the location of errors and making changes, and the reviewing step will allow the nurse to evaluate the change.

Prewriting is the first step and involves understanding the topic, gathering information, and deciding what information will be conveyed. The nurse and other healthcare professionals often express prewriting by using concept maps, care plans, or by discussing an issue that has arisen, giving them the opportunity to seek information regarding the issue.

On discussion of writing techniques, it is relevant for nursing professionals to be able to express accurate information to the reader. It is important to be able to communicate in a clear and understandable manner. The basic writing process consists of a variety of skills that include prewriting, drafting, revising, and proofreading. The writing process provides a way to teach how to brainstorm ideas, organize, develop, and evaluate. These skills can be applied to a writing assignment in healthcare, which can be constructed into a flowchart, an informal paragraph, or a formal report.

5. Overcoming Common Writing Challenges in Nursing

The transition from tasks to scholarly writing can be difficult because the styles are very different. Task writing is simply referring to and other professionals focusing on patient to remember something. The patient care plan is a perfect example. Writing it is a documented way for nurses to prioritize, communicate, coordinate, and evaluate care on the basis of the patient’s needs. This is simply a task. This is a far cry from scholarly writing, where a nurse is taking an idea and developing it through research and writing, gestating and case study. Another obstacle to scholarly writing is that many of today’s older nurses did not attend college.

When nurses decide to pursue further education in the form of a Baccalaureate or Master’s degree, writing becomes more crucial to their everyday duties as a result of higher-level theory courses, research-focused curriculums, and thesis development. The purpose of writing in nursing is to elaborate on a given idea, using evidence-based research to support it. This is often used in an everyday nursing care plan, a Master’s thesis, or a case study. Nurses are the largest group of health care professionals; however, they are the least to participate in scholarly work, with only 10% of the nation’s nurses having a Baccalaureate or higher degree. Many of these nurses may not have written a paper in years, and they are suddenly faced with the task of writing again in order to further their education. This can be an unsettling task, as it is often hard to find support and resources geared towards nurses writing, and even more difficult to find a mentor in the field of nursing research. Often, the going gets rough and nurses may become discouraged, reverting back to their old habits of writing with a focus on tasks.

In the health care field, most nurses have a writing skill that is largely utilitarian. It is focused on tasks, such as charting and writing clinical notes. Nurses are already overwhelmed with their day-to-day duties. Learning how to write a research paper, an abstract, a manuscript, or a case report is just another job added to their load. There are many challenges to writing in the field of nursing. This paper will briefly discuss the importance of writing in nursing, common challenges that are encountered, and specific strategies to help make writing easier and more enjoyable for nurses.