The write stuff: A proactive approach to increasing academics' writing skills and outcomes

• Published in: Nurse education in practice Vol. 15; no. 4; pp. 321 - 326
• Main Authors: Dwyer, Trudy, Friel, Deborah, McAllister, Margaret, Searl, Kerry Reid, Rossi, Dolene
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Scotland Elsevier Ltd 01.07.2015; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Academic staff; Best practice; Collegiality; Communities of Practice; Community Relations; Conference Papers; Creativity; Educational Practices; Feedback; Goals; Grouping (Instructional Purposes); Health Personnel; Humans; Medical personnel; Midwifery; Nursing; Nursing Research; Obstetrics; Occupational Therapy; Opportunities; Performance appraisal; Periodicals; Publication output; Publishing; Queensland; R&D; Research & development; Research and Development; Research capacity; Research funding; Research methodology; Researchers; Retreats; Scholarship; Sense of Community; Social Support Groups; Student Diversity; Teachers; Teaching; Teaching Methods; Trend Analysis; Trends; Workshops; Writing; Writing Improvement; Writing instruction; Writing Skills; Writing Workshops; Queensland; Australia; Writing; Nursing; Publications; Research capacity; Scholarship
• ISSN: 1471-5953; 1873-5223
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nepr.2014.12.004

An important way to advance the profession of nursing, to promote best practice and to improve the quality of nursing care, is for nurses to publish. A publication track record is necessary to gain competitive research funding, build knowledge, disseminate new insights and advance the profession. However, academics often experience obstacles in publishing ranging from a pervasive teaching culture, lack of confidence in writing, and lack of strategies to write more strategically. The benefits of writing retreats have been discussed within the nursing and other academic literature but the specifics about the method as well as the unplanned benefits have not been explored. More exploration and discussion is needed about factors assisting writers to complete papers and successfully publish. This paper discusses a novel intervention which aimed to seed the beginnings of a flourishing scholarly community at a regional Queensland University. The paper also presents qualitative and quantitative evaluation data.