How baccalaureate nursing programs teach writing.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Academic Writing Skills
• Health Professions Education

Background:

• Written communication is essential for safe and effective nursing practice.
• Nursing faculty frequently observe deficits in prelicensure students' written communication abilities.
• Baccalaureate nursing programs face challenges in adequately preparing students for professional writing demands.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and analyze pedagogical approaches for teaching writing skills to prelicensure nursing students.
• To review existing literature on writing instruction within baccalaureate nursing programs.
• To determine common elements and effective strategies in nursing writing programs.

Main Methods:

• An integrative review of scholarly literature was conducted.
• Databases searched included PubMed, CINALHL, and ERIC.
• Nine articles published since 1990, detailing writing programs for prelicensure nursing students, were analyzed.

Main Results:

• Five key instructional elements were identified: short assignments, faculty development, sequential tasks, clear grading rubrics/examples, and feedback-driven revision.
• Writing instruction integrated across the nursing curriculum was more likely to incorporate these common components.
• Stand-alone writing programs were less consistent in their inclusion of these elements.

Conclusions:

• Integrated curricula may offer a more robust framework for developing nursing students' writing proficiency.
• Further research is needed to evaluate the short-term and long-term efficacy of these writing programs.
• Standardizing and assessing the impact of writing interventions is critical for nursing education.