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Table of Contents

Introduction: A Guide to Writing in Nursing and Health Professions

Thinking like a nurse or health professional
Questions nurses and health professionals ask
Kinds of evidence nurses and health professionals use
Ethics in nursing and health professions

Researching nursing and health professions
Using databases to find research publications
Primary and secondary sources
Evaluating online resources

Reading the nursing and health professions literature
Active reading
The range of articles in nursing and health professions
The structure of research articles
Hypotheses and hypothesis testing
The structure of evidence-based practice review articles
How to read a research study
How to evaluate a research study

Writing papers and projects in nursing and health professions
Considering your purpose
Understanding your audience and their needs
Forming a thesis, hypothesis, and research question
Planning, organizing, and drafting a paper
Revising and editing

Writing conventions in nursing and health professions
Phrasing for clarity, concision, and directness
Choosing vocabulary
Presenting data

Integrating, citing, and documenting sources
Avoiding plagiarism and recognizing intellectual property
Quoting and summarizing sources
In-text citations in APA style
Reference section in APA style
APA manuscript format

Genres of writing in nursing and health professions
Abstract
Annotated bibliography
Literature review
Best practice paper
Research proposal
Case study or observation report
Narrative, history, care and treatment plan, and clinical interview
Reflection on learning
Short-answer or descriptive response
Poster presentation or health science talk

Glossary of vocabulary in nursing and health professions
Practice activities
Practice activity: Planning a research study
Practice activity: Questions nurses can answer
Practice activity: Making ethical decisions
Practice activity: Primary vs. secondary sources
Practice activity: Evaluating online information
Practice activity: Locating and evaluating sources
Practice activity: Reading and evaluating research studies
Practice activity: Understanding results statements
Practice activity: Writing abstracts
Practice activity: Editing and citing in APA Style
Practice activity: Citing sources in APA style
Practice activity: In-text citations in APA style 1
Practice activity: In-text citations in APA style 2
Answers to selected activities

Sample student writing: Nursing and health professions
Case study analysis: Managing Blood Pressure
Clinical care plan: One Day With One Patient
Nursing practice paper: Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and Hypertension in One Client
Short answer: Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC)

More help with documentation: APA style
APA-style reference list: Additional examples

Editing strategies
Subject-verb agreement
Pronoun agreement, reference, and case
Strong verbs
Sentence fragments
Run-on sentences
Distracting shifts
Parallel structure
Clear, uncluttered sentences
Sentence emphasis
Commas
Apostrophes
Quotation marks

Authors

Stephen A. Bernhardt

Stephen A. Bernhardt is Professor of English and the Andrew B. Kirkpatrick Chair in Writing at the University of Delaware, where he teaches composition, grammar, and technical writing. His professional interests include computers in composition/distance education, writing across the curriculum, professional and technical communication, and visual rhetoric. He has also taught at New Mexico State University and at Southern Illinois University. The author of many journal articles and technical reports, Bernhardt is also the author of Writing at Work (1997) and coeditor of Expanding Literacies: English Teaching and the New Workplace (1998). Bernhardt designed the research plan and reworked content for Writers Help.

Nancy Sommers

Nancy Sommers, who has taught composition and directed composition programs for thirty years, now teaches in Harvard’s Graduate School of Education. She led Harvard’s Expository Writing Program for twenty years, directing the first-year writing program and establishing Harvard’s WAC program. A two-time Braddock Award winner, Sommers is well known for her research and publications on student writing. Her articles “Revision Strategies of Student and Experienced Writers” and “Responding to Student Writing” are two of the most widely read and anthologized articles in the field of composition. Recently she has been exploring different audiences through publishing in popular media. Sommers is the lead author on Hacker handbooks, all published by Bedford/St. Martin’s, and editor of Tiny Teaching Stories on Macmillan Learning’s Bits Blog.

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