3.5.2 Nursing literacy (prospectus)

For my final research essay, I will be continuing my topic from synthesis essay 2 which was literacy in nursing but more specifically communication, reading and writing in nursing. I will be using 12 specific sources to help support my thesis statement which will be something along the lines of “communication and writing are some of the most vital aspects of being a nurse”, this thesis will most likely be upgraded by the end of my research essay. I picked this nursing topic for a couple reasons, yes but there is one major reason I chose this topic. I chose this topic because I am majoring in nursing, so I feel like the more I learn and research now, the more it will help me in the future with nursing school and classes, passing the NCLEX, getting jobs, and going into grad school. The way I will present my research essay will be more of a discussion where I will integrate my sources, connecting them together and also picking put the differences. Also, I will answer each of my research questions by connecting it with a specific source pertaining to that question.  

As well as summarizing my 12 sources, analyze and explain them to help support my thesis/argument. By researching all about my topic trying to find sources and reading source after source, I have come up with multiple research questions to help with the flow and discussion process of my research essay. My first question is “Are there major difference in the dialect/terminology used by nurses that is different from “normal terminology” used by everyday Americans?” This question will help outline and discuss the similarities and differences with communication among different people and careers. It will also help show that there is a huge importance in the ways that you talk to people. Second question is “Are there any factors that can hinder your ability to communicate with your patients or other members on the staff?” This question will help explain possible struggles nurses and patients go through on a daily basis that might affect their most vital source which is communication. These factors could include things like being deaf, speaking another language, being fairly unconscious, or speaking to a child. My third question will be “Are nursing schools creating specific techniques for learning these literacy practices in the field of nursing?” This question will help gain knowledge on what goes on behind the scenes when nursing students are struggling learning and applying what they learned to real life situations. Because there are many nurses that do not come to their jobs prepared because they did not have the correct teaching styles. My fourth question will be “How is writing used in nursing”, which also ties into another two of my questions which are questions five and six so, “How is reading used in health literacy?” and “How is communication used in health literacy?” All of those 3 questions are going to help with the overall arching discussion and thesis of my essay because those are my pinpoints that my essay will be about. And who knows, you are not limited to what you plan out, so I am going to try not to limit myself to only what I am writing in this plan. Things are susceptible to change and most of the time those changes are for the right reasons. So, I may come up with more questions as my research essay comes along because it may make the essay flow better or help the discussion of one topic transition into another.  

Again, when researching about my topic mainly looking at scholarly sources, there are multiple disciplines or academic fields that are interested in my topic. All of these are: Health care fields in general (doctors, PT, OT, LPN, Oncology, ETC…), Health sciences, Social science, International studies, Psychology, Education, Psychiatry, Medicine, Other countries including Korea and Nursing and health journals in general. There are so many more, but I picked these because I felt like they best represent my topic of literacy in nursing. With all of these academic fields interested in my topic it helps with the discussion of my essay because there is so much information out there that applies to nursing just by seeing that multiple fields are interested. It helps show also that there is so much research done about the specific topic of literacy in nursing while being discussed by different studies, journals, and disciplines.  

With all of that information above, I am going to format a brief outline of how I plan for my essay to flow. I plan to have more of a discussion and summary of the sources and studies so, I am going to try to have 6 to 12 body paragraphs depending how I want to work this out. I will try to relate one question with 2 sources, one scholarly and one non scholarly.  

In my introduction it will introduce my topic as well as why I picked my topic while incorporating my overall theme, discussion, and topic and the main points they will be talked about in my essay. So, nursing literacy, more specifically reading, writing, and communication in nursing.  

Then I will have in this paragraph my questions of “How is reading used in nursing”, then pairing it with 2 of my sources also while going into and in-depth discussion, explanation and summary of the article all while answering that questions. The articles I will use for this are: “Reading in Nursing” By Nancyruth Leibold. And the last source is academic Reading and writing needs of undergrad nursing in research” By Reynold Culimay and Bonjovi Hassan. 

Then in this paragraph I will go into a discussion and answering of the question “How is communication used in nursing”, pairing it with these 2 sources: “Effective Communication in Nursing Practice: A literature review” By Bello Opeyemi. And the last article I will use is “The importance of effective communication in Nursing” By University of St Augustine Health Science. 

In this paragraph, I will again discuss and summarize the sources and answer to “How is writing used in nursing” and pairing it with these 2 articles: “The improving competence of nursing Student’s ability on writing nursing reports” By Ahmad Nur Syafiq. And the last source is “Writing as a. professional Nurse” By Purdue online writing lab.  

In this paragraph I will explain how all of the 3 previous questions relate to each other and why they are the most important of all of my questions.  

Then in this paragraph I will talk about the hardships and complications that can happen with reading writing, and communication as a nurse using the research question, “Are there any factors that hinder communication, reading and writing as a nurse”, which I will pair with these 2 articles: “Investigation of health literacy and affecting factors of nursing students” By Sultan Ayaz-Alkaya and Hadan Terzi. And the last article is “Communication skills: overcoming the barriers to effective communication” By the Nursing Times Journalist Moi Ali.  

In this paragraph I will talk about nursing student while in school and different technologies of the way they are learning using the question of “Are nursing schools using specific methodology and technology for students to help them bring these literacy practices to real life” pairing with these 2 sources: “The reading room: Exploring the use of literature as a strategy for integrating threshold concepts into nursing curriculum” By Margaret McAllister, Kathie Lasater, Teresa Stone, and Tracy Levett-Jones. And the last article being “Strategies for teaching evidence-based practice in nursing education: a thematic literature review” by May Horntvedt, Anita Nordsteien, Torbjorg Fermann, and Elisabeth Severinsson.  

Then in this final body paragraph I will explain the last question I have which is “How is the medical dialect different from “normal” everyday English dialect” to which I will discuss and explain and summarize using these 2 sources: “Standard Terminology for nursing” By. Claudia B Bartz, Tae Youn Kim and Dorota Kilanska. And the last source is “Medical terminology vs Plain language” By Stephanie Buga.  

Then I will briefly explain in this paragraph how all of my question s and answers tie together, for a better understanding of why I chose these specific sources and why I chose my research questions as well. 

Finally, I will conclude my piece explaining myself once more and wrapping up my overall theme to give the reader a better understanding. While summarizing everything I previously talked about in my essay. I am not sure yet where I am going to incorporate my thesis because I don’t believe that it always needs to go in the beginning of the essay. So, once I have started to right my essay and get a feel for how the flow is going to go and the organization, I will put my thesis where it makes sense the most.  

Annotated Bibliography 

Ayaz-Alkaya, S., & Terzi, H. (2019). Investigation of health literacy and affecting factors of nursing students. Nurse education in practice, 34, 31-35. 

This is a scholarly article about factors effecting nursing students while trying to learn communication, reading, and writing skills. This article also talks about a way that communication with patients is affected because nurses are not properly trained to have those one-on-one interactions. This article goes over numerous case studies which I talk about more in depth in my essay. This also goes over ways these factors can be changed or helped so that they are not hindering patient and nurse bonds.  

Bartz, C. C., Kim, T. Y., & Kilańska, D. M. (2017). Standard terminology for nursing. Problemy Pielęgniarstwa, 25(2), 108-111. 

This scholarly Article talks about the core data base for medical terminology but also the terminology that has been added over the past recent years. Nowadays nurses are using computer and technology, so it is a little easier to adapt to the different way of speaking, but you still need to have knowledge of important terms used. You also need to have a base understanding of how each term is used so you don’t use the wrong ones.  

Bello, O. (2017). Effective communication in nursing practice: A literature review. 

This scholarly article is talking about how communication is used in nursing and why it is so important. Communication is such a natural way of creating a bond with someone, so when in the career of nursing, that should be your strong suit. In this article they have multiple studies talking about the ineffective ways of communication, improvements, and ways that work for communication almost every time.  

Contributor, N. (2019, August 05). Communication skills 2: Overcoming the barriers to effective communication. Retrieved March 16, 2021, from https://www.nursingtimes.net/clinical-archive/assessment-skills/communication-skills-2-overcoming-the-barriers-to-effective-communication-18-12-2017/#:~:text=Abstract,%2C%20pain%20and%2For%20anxiety. 

This non scholarly article is about barriers within communication. This article talks about barriers such as time/lack of time, the environment you are in/grew up in, tiredness, pain, medications, anxiety, depression, beliefs, morals, etc. There are major ways that communication can be blocked but there are also ways communication can be unblocked. Everyone struggles at times, that is why as a nurse it is your job to do your best when it comes to communication, especially with your patients.  

Fareeda DaL 03/29/2020 at 4:13 AM – Reply. (2020, July 31). Medical terminology vs. plain language. Retrieved March 16, 2021, from https://blog.amopportunities.org/2020/03/23/medical-terminology-vs-plain-language/  

This non scholarly article is about medical terminology and the plain language. It talks about how to decipher from the two and when to use on and when to use the other. Because if you are using unprofessional terms it might ruin your relationship with your patients but also your patient’s family. And if you are using medical terms too often, it could ruin your relationship as well because your patient will most likely not know what you’re talking about. So, it is important nurses can code switch between the two dialects.  

Horntvedt, M. E. T., Nordsteien, A., Fermann, T., & Severinsson, E. (2018). Strategies for teaching evidence-based practice in nursing education: a thematic literature review. BMC medical education, 18(1), 1-11. 

This article is about strategic ways to practice any sort of literacy in nursing. They use methodology like EBP (Evidence-based practice) (Horntvedt et al., 1) in their journal studies. This is for the safety and well-being of the patients and the staff. This article showed that while students learn in nursing school, the may is not equipped to the right information and ways of learning so they cannot start the EBP learning because they are not ready. So this article is important in a way showing your teaching is an important process to nursing as well.  

McAllister, M., Lasater, K., Stone, T. E., & Levett-Jones, T. (2015). The reading room: Exploring the use of literature as a strategy for integrating threshold concepts into nursing curricula. Nurse education in practice, 15(6), 549-555. 

This scholarly article is talking about the hard transition from nursing classes, to clinicals, to the real world. This shows teaching methods that have been very successful over the past years that were helping nurses become the nurses they are today by the training and precautions they take. The transition from nursing school to the real world is extremely hard and that is why the better base knowledge and practice you have, the better off you will be.  

Padagas, R. C., & Hajan, B. H. (2020). Academic Reading and Writing Needs of Undergraduate Nursing Students in Research. Online Submission, 19(5), 318-335. 

This non scholarly article is about the writing required by nursing and how it is actually used in the real world. Nursing uses plenty of writing like charting, a patients food log, a patient’s feelings, a patient’s symptoms and signs. Nurses use writing quite frequently than you think but over the years it has become less prevalent due to technology. But charting is one of the main jobs as a nurse which requires writing and knowledge of medical terminology.  

Purdue Writing Lab. (n.d.). Writing as a PROFESSIONAL nurse // Purdue Writing lab. Retrieved March 16, 2021, from https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/healthcare_writing/writing_as_a_professional_nurse/index.html 

This non scholarly article is about the three general rules of writing as a professional nurse. Those three rules are: Be precise, be objective, and Remember your audience. You want to be precise because that shows your accuracy as a nurse and how well you can perform a written task when it is given. You want to be objective because you do not wany your personal opinion involved anywhere when writing a chart. And you want to remember the audience because you are speaking professionally to other staff, so you do not want to use short slang or anything like that.  

 Syafiq, A. N. THE IMPROVING COMPETENCE OF NURSING STUDENTS’ABILITY ON WRITING NURSING REPORT: Case Study on the Fifth Semester of S1 Nursing Students of STIKES Muhammadiyah Kudus. 

This article is talks about teaching habits that have problems and ways that these problems can be fixed. It also analyzes how writing is important in many ways and uses as a nurse. A nurse uses writing for things such as charting which is one of the most commonly used things as a nurse. Nowadays they have most charting online, but you have to have a basic understanding or writing to be able to type on the charts as well. This article shows common studies and research methods to help with your basis of writing in nursing.  

 The importance of effective communication in nursing. (2020, November 12). Retrieved March 16, 2021, from https://www.usa.edu/blog/communication-in-nursing/ 

This article is about why communication is so important for nurses, the staff, and the patients. It briefly discusses why communication is important for nurses and patients, but it also goes over what could happen if there is poor communication between anybody in the hospital. It goes over how if communication is damaged, lost, or miscommunicated in a nurse and patient relationship, the patient could adhere some difficulties with understanding what is happening and incorrectly do something. Also, the article analyzes 10 effective skills foe successful communication which could include active listening, etc.  

University, S. (n.d.). Reading in nursing. Retrieved March 16, 2021, from http://otb.smsu.edu/sections/section2-disciplinary-perspectives/nursing/nursing-reading.html 

This article talks about how reading is learned, used, and read in nursing. You usually learn the importance’s of nursing while enduring clinicals and in nursing school. But reading is essential to the job of a nurse. You need to be able to read numbers like vital signs, time on the clock, etc. You need to be able to read medications that are on a patient’s char, how much they get and when they get it. Also, as a nurse, you are constantly learning new words and phrases so you need to be conscious and read what they mean and when to use them. This article shared that nurses should keep up with the latest nursing journals to keep up on their nursing reading skills.