A look at the place of writing in professional nursing

You may think, in company with many others, that writing is outside the scope of nursing, or at least the kind of nursing you want to practice. Maybe, you say, there is a place for researchers and professors to write, but I don't want to do that - I just want to take care of people.

Think again. When you enter the community of professional nurses, you take on great responsibilities. Your patient population expands greatly, and includes, in a broader sense than you may have thought, your fellow citizens, on the local, state and national level.

• When you write a report on healthcare policy to inform politicians, you are caring for the welfare of the politician's constituents. Example #1 and Example #2 (You will need to download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software in order to see the reports. You can get it at this site.)
• When you write a policy about visiting in the ICU, you are caring for all the patients who will be patients in that ICU, as well as their families.
• When you write patient educational materials, you are caring for all the people in your practice area who are affected by the disease or health concern. Examples
• When you write a letter to the editor about nursing, you are caring for your fellow nurses and your profession. Examples

These are a few of the ways in which writing is used as a tool for caring. There are many more. Here are views about the importance of writing from two prominent nurses.

Elaine Larson is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, Infectious Disease Society of America, New York Academy of Medicine, Institute of Medicine, and The National Academies of Practice She served on the President's Committee for Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses, the Board of Scientific Counselors, National Center for Infectious Diseases, CDC, and was a member and then Chair of the CDC's Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC), 1992-2000. She is currently a member of the Board, National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.

Dr. Larson has been Editor of the American Journal of Infection Control since 1994. She has published more than l90 journal articles, four books and a number of book chapters in the areas of infection prevention, epidemiology, and clinical research and has served as a consultant in infection control and nursing in international settings such as Kuwait, Jordan, Singapore, Japan, Australia, Ghana, Peru, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, France, and Egypt.

Elaine Larson, RN, PhD, FAAN, CIC

As you might guess, since I serve as the Editor of a journal (American Journal of Infection Control) and have published over 100 papers, I am absolutely and firmly committed to the mandate that nurses must assume the power that could be theirs in excellent writing. I believe that the primary purpose of writing is to communicate what you have learned or done so that others can be persuaded and can hopefully learn from your successes and failures. I believe that it is, in fact, unethical to use resources and time to learn important lessons and fail to communicate them in a cogent and convincing fashion. I know that my beliefs are extreme, but part of the failure of the nursing profession to be understood or valued is our own fault--who knows what we do or know if we can't and don't communicate it well? And how much more impact we could have on improving patient care if we not only applied what we know with the few patients we encounter, but also communicated it for others to use!

Barbara Hafer, a Registered Nurse and Treasurer for the State of Pennsylvania , began her professional life as a public health nurse and health care administrator. After seeing tax dollars wasted rather than channeled to the public health programs that desperately needed them, she began speaking out on public policy issues. A concern for victims' rights led her to found the Allegheny County Center for Victims of Violent Crime in 1973. She also served as executive director of the center, the state's first federally funded agency for crime victims. Through her work in public health and with crime victims, Hafer saw that the real power to implement change lies with those who control the public purse strings. That insight led to a political career and an abiding interest in public finance.

Barbara Hafer, Pennsylvania Treasurer

While writing is as indispensable a tool to the professional nurse as the stethoscope, thermometer or BP cuff, it is more powerful because of its ability to bring about change - its ability to remedy.

As nurses struggle through the extremely difficult working conditions precipitated by the nursing shortage, writing is the one tool in the nurses' medical bag that can help remedy the problem.

The current shortage, as you know, is unlike any other. Previous nursing shortages were the result of mismatches between supply and demand. The current shortage, on the other hand, reflects dissatisfaction with the profession by nurses, and competition from other career opportunities for women. The cure, according to a report issued by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation earlier this month, is to "re-envision the nursing profession and help it establish a full partnership with the profession of medicine."

Re-envisioning the profession and establishing a full partnership with the profession of medicine is a tall order, that will require a clear, concise, detailed approach or plan. Statistics and reasoning supporting this plan will be necessary to persuade all participants in the healthcare industry to support and advance this plan - to support this full partnership with the profession.

Nurses will need to not only organize their voice, but also win over others throughout the industry and the public to join in their mission. Letters must be written to enlist support. Articles need to be written and published, both in academic and general circulation publications, to recruit support.

Writing is a tool that will play a major role in remedying what ails the nursing profession today, to make it the highly respected, appealing, and desirable profession of the future.

You may feel that you don't have much in common with these nurses, but you do. You are a professional nurse, and a member of the same professional community. Larson and Hafer are not talking about some rarified group of nursing scholars. They are talking about you. So take up the challenge, and learn to advocate for your patients and your fellow nurses by writing powerfully.