The Сomplete Guide to Writing a Nursing Paper

A nursing paper is a prerequisite to becoming a top-notch professional in your occupation. Plans-of-care, plans and other legal forms of documentation require to be well-versed in this type of nursing essay writing. A good nurse must assess the patient’s state of health, critically approach and analyze all the data provided by necessary screens and communicate first aid treatment.

Why Do Nurses Have to Write Research Papers?

The reasons why nurses have to write research papers may vary, but generally, writing teaches students valuable proficiencies that will assist them in the nursing practice. When nurses write research papers, they learn how to:

• Document research
• Cite sources
• Maintain an academic/professional tone
• Organize information
• Synthesize data
• Pay attention to detail
• Manage their time

What Is a Research Paper?

A research paper is a form of academic writing that demonstrates a student’s knowledge, research capabilities, powers of persuasion and organizational skills. Typically nursing school research papers are written in the American Psychological Association (APA) format and fall into three categories:

• Analytical: The writer presents an analysis of a topic.
• Argumentative: The paper is analytical but the writer uses information as evidence to reinforce their opinion and persuade the reader.
• Expository: The research paper explains a subject matter with facts.

What Is APA Style?

The APA style is used most often by scientists, educators and nurses. Writers in other fields may use another style, such as AP, MLA or Chicago. The purpose of any style guide is to ensure the writer’s work is consistent for a number of criteria, including citations, font size, spacing, paragraph structure and punctuation.

What Is the Structure of a Research Paper?

A good research paper usually follows this structure no matter the subject or style:

• Introduction: The paragraph should introduce the subject and include your thesis.
• Body of paper: These paragraphs should cover your analysis of a topic and show evidence that supports the argument or explanation you have offered.
• Conclusion: The end should recap the main point of your paper, reassert your thesis statement and signal the end of the document to the reader.

How to Write a Nursing Research Paper

• Find an interesting topic that was not previously elaborated. Look on the Internet, for example, for topics for a research paper, family assessment paper nursing, case study essays.
• Sift through relevant documentation and materials to understand whether you possess the necessary amount of information and data.
• Your essays should include both theoretical and practical parts.
• Try to find more keywords that are connected with your topic and that due to the search engines find more information that fits the topic of your survey.
• Make the structure coherent.
• Each paragraph in your nursing essay needs to begin with a topic sentence.
• Apply tables, graphs, statistics to present the reader with the indispensable data.
• Always stick to a plan.

The Common Structure of Nursing Papers

1. This section of the essay is primarily devoted to the presentation of the following parts. It must encompass the reason of the value of your research, the aim (why are you conducting it), the already existing data concerning your topic (names of the prominent scientists who touched it), what hypothesis or hypotheses you have. Your introduction is like a face of your project. It should draw reader’s attention and engage them in the whole thing. To come up with the introduction of your own you may look through Dissertation Introduction. E. g.  “Pain and culture are both nebulous terms which are difficult to define authoritatively. However, they are both important considerations in the provision of health care”
2. Methodology and literature used. This section is one of the most time-consuming ones. Here you describe very precisely and meticulously all the methods and approaches you used while doing your survey. Every topic in the field of nursing has been already covered by at least a few scientists. That is why there exists lots of literature connected with nursing (articles, essays, documentation, dissertations etc.).
3. Obtained results. Present all the outcomes you have while fulfilling your task. What results are the most productive and essential. Tell what supports and backs results you have got.
4. This is the part where you may express your personal opinion. Name all the downsides and advantages of your research. Tell whether the topic you dwelled on have  future perspectives within the theory and practice. You evaluate the results and explain them to the reader.
5. The conclusion is a concentration of the information mentioned above. Mention points that were stated in the introduction  including hypothesis, tell whether the aim of your survey was achieved or not, mention all the methods you turned to. Do not go into detail, this part is the briefest one. E.g. “This report has highlighted elder abuse as a complex social problem…”

Ensure you follow the rubric

The first step toward getting an “A” is to follow the rubric. A rubric serves as a guide you should use when planning your research paper. Faculty, like me, use the rubric to score the quality of your written responses according to specific evaluative criteria.

The rubric is what you will be graded against. Do not wander away from it. Read the rubric. Seriously, read it. On occasion, I have read a paper and wondered one of two things:

1. Did the student even look at the rubric?
2. Did someone else write this research paper?

Do not make us think this for a second. Once we think this, we will be reading your research paper even more critically. At this point, I am preparing for the worst-case scenario. If you couldn’t follow the rubric, did you read the article or book or do the appropriate research to write this paper? Are you trying to pull the wool over my eyes and pretend you know what you are talking about?

Visualize your professor sitting down to grade your paper with one screen open to your paper and another screen open to the rubric. I scroll down my rubric as I read through your paper. But your paper doesn’t follow the rubric.

Faculty members spent hours creating that rubric for a specific purpose — to make grading easy and to make it easier to understand what we wanted you to write about. Follow the rubric and don’t deviate from it without permission.

Avoid These Mistakes While Writing Your Research Paper on Nursing

• Using colloquial style.
• Reiteration of the same again and again in different parts of the essay.
• Choosing topic that you do not like and are not interested in
• Going into detail in the conclusion and discussion paragraphs.

What Are Some Tips for Writing Research Papers?

Guidelines for writing a research paper may vary among nursing schools and educators, so it is important for students to adhere to any instructions given to them, including citation style. It is also beneficial for students to check in with their institution’s writing lab for any questions they may have about writing. Other tips include:

• Form a well-thought-out thesis statement to set a clear purpose for your paper.
• Create an outline so you have a roadmap while writing your paper. An outline aids the writer with arranging key points and organizing the flow of the paper.
• Develop a spreadsheet to keep track of the information needed for references.
• Read your paper out loud or use a text-to-speech feature on your computer so you can pinpoint problems that need to be addressed.
• Revise your paper without permanently deleting any information. Instead cut and paste the text you want to omit to another document so it is available if you later decide you want to use it.
• Edit your paper to correct grammatical mistakes, style errors and typos.

Avoid These Mistakes While Writing Your Research Paper on Nursing

• Procrastination.
• Using colloquial style.
• Reiteration of the same again and again in different parts of the essay.
• Choosing topic that you do not like and are not interested in
• Going into detail in the conclusion and discussion paragraphs.

It is important for nurses to know how to effectively communicate in writing because they have to provide accurate documentation regarding a patient’s medical history, health status and care plan. Nurses may also find themselves in a research role at some point in their careers. Through writing assignments, students gain awareness of the need to write clearly, accurately and concisely.