The commonality among education in any healthcare discipline is without contest ‘writing assignments.’ Although there may be basic differences in the writing expectations depending on the subject, university and discipline; the crux of assignment writing for a healthcare stream remains clear -

• Basic writing hygiene (grammatically correct sentences, use of punctuation)
• Demonstration of critical thought
• Adequate flow of the article
• Correct referencing methods

This article will focus on the challenges and solutions of nursing assignments or essay writing

Nursing as a profession is primarily concerned about providing quality care to patients and their caregivers and this in turn demands a mix of technical expertise and ability to express thoughts and offer solutions.

To help nurses build up this combination, nursing assignments are a requirement in most universities that teach nursing as a profession. It involves presenting information in a distinct manner, even if technical terminology is used.

As a student of nursing, follow these 5 steps to improve your essay writing skills:

Literature research:

Writing is about reading first and this becomes even more important if you are going to write a nursing assignment on which you will be queried or questioned. In general, to write an 1800-word article, you would have to read through approximately 50 papers or articles. Use Pubmed or other libraries to search for authentic articles.

Develop an outline:

Based on your research and keeping in mind the requirement specified by your guide, develop a rough skeleton of your essay. Your skeleton will include the title, sub-titles and conclusion points. This will help you build a good flow and in turn will make the article reader friendly. Remember, your nursing assignment or essay writing should make good reading too!

Flesh in details:

Use the literature research material to add in content to each of the sub-titles. Be sure to write in your own words to avoid plagiarism.

Present a perspective, since you would not be able to include everything about a particular subject that you've chosen for essay writing. For example, from the perspective of public health or hospital policy, etc.

While writing details remember to showcase your critical thoughts about the subject.

Reference:

This is a critical step to ensure the credibility of your nursing assignment. Most universities prefer the APA style of referencing.

Edit and review:

Once your article is ready, editing will help you fine tune it to the requirements of the university. Use tools like Grammarly to help with proper spellings and grammatical correctness. Have a friend or peer review your article once before submission.

Writing can be an added skill in the healthcare industry. Begin with writing for your assignments and build up your writing muscles as you go on! Happy writing!