DNP Scholarship: Developing the Genre of Knowledge Translation and Dissemination

Terhaar, Mary

Monday, 31 October 2011: 3:55 PM

Mary Terhaar, RN
Health Systems and Outcomes, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, Baltimore, MD
Julie Stanik-Hutt, PhD, ACNP
SON, JHUSON, Baltimore, MD

Learning Objective 1: identify critical components of impactful writing about knowledge translation and performance improvement

Learning Objective 2: discuss strategies that prepare nurse scholars to contribute to the genre of nursing literature

Influencial authors lead the science and practice of nursing, yet curricula from baccalaureate through doctorate provide little instruction about the craft of writing. As a result, faculty and advisors shoulder the burden of teaching writing absent a standard derived of evidence. Students write and re-write papers without clear understanding of expectations; save conformity to APA format. Faculty correct and edit documents in which facts and argument are obscured by syntactical and grammatical error. Journals need to provide significant writing support late in the process of knowledge dissemination. The process is inefficient and does not achieve quality. Assuming the profession values nursing literature and prizes quality, these authors assert that graduate curricula should include writing as a key competency.

PURPOSE: To describe the approach undertaken by faculty at the Johns Hopkins University SON to develop an evidence based method to teach professional and academic writing.

METHODS: In collaboration with the School of Arts & Sciences, faculty are engaged in extensive performance improvement focused on writing nursing. Faculty are describing the attributes of quality writing within the discipline of nursing, designing a program to teach writing to faculty, developing assignments across the curriculum that build writing competency, and determining metrics to evaluate efforts.

EVALUATION: A tool has been designed to evaluate the quality of the capstone projects; surveys will determine if the approach lessens faculty burden or increases student satisfaction; and number of publications will be tracked to quantify scholarly productivity.

CONCLUSION: Leaders are required to write well in order to: contribute to the body of knowledge, make the case for innovation, and create sustainable change. The full impact of scholarly practice will only be achieved when expert clinicians become influenncial authors. Providing instruction in writing will contribute to achieving these ends.

See more of: Leading Change in Nursing Education Systems
See more of: Oral Paper & Poster: Leadership Sessions