10 lessons on writing for publication

All nurses have the potential to be an author. Each nurse can make wonderful contributions to the body of nursing literature, whether you're a staff nurse, educator, manager, or even a student. Your perspective can help others gain insights into our profession. The biggest barrier to writing for a nursing journal is that nurses assume that authors easily come up with great ideas and write wonderful articles. That's not how it works! Investigation and preparation before writing play a large part in any successful author's work. This work is time-consuming, I admit, but if you do it, you'll be better prepared to write and you'll increase your chances of having your manuscript accepted by a journal. The information in this article will help you write for both formal and informal style journals.