The writing microboost initiative: An embedded model to strengthen scholarly writing in graduate nursing education

Graduate nursing programs often enroll students who lack strong academic writing foundations, creating barriers to success in coursework, scholarship, and evidence-based practice. Traditional remediation strategies frequently increase workload for both students and faculty.

This descriptive pilot article describes the Writing Microboost Initiative (WMI), an embedded, curriculum-integrated model designed to support graduate nursing students' writing proficiency through short, focused exercises aligned with weekly assignments. Grounded in Cognitive Load Theory and Self-Regulated Learning Theory, the WMI embeds incremental writing tasks, such as improving paragraph structure, revising citations, and strengthening scholarly voice, into required coursework. Each task is concise, directly tied to graded deliverables, and reinforced through optional reflective activities and responsible use of AI writing tools.

A faculty-developed descriptive survey was administered to 20 graduate nursing students following an eight-week course integrating WMI activities. Quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and qualitative comments were thematically summarized.

Students reported perceived improvements in writing proficiency, relevance and confidence while maintaining a manageable workload and high engagement.

Preliminary findings support the WMI as a feasible, theory-based approach to supporting students' perceptions of writing development within existing curricula. Further research is warranted to assess long-term and multi-course outcomes and to evaluate sustained development of scholarly writing proficiency.