Evaluating undergraduate nursing students' self-efficacy and competence in writing: Effects of a writing intensive intervention
Introduction
Effective communication skills, both written and oral, are essential for professional nurses to function in leadership roles in today's increasingly dynamic and complex healthcare environment (Huston, 2014, Sullivan, 2012). Historically, nurses have relied on face-to-face communication to share ideas, exchange information, and provide patient care. This oral tradition, often informal and unstructured, is used to plan and implement appropriate, safe nursing care (Yoder-Wise, 2011). Today though, nurse leaders must go beyond face-to-face conversation to communicate more broadly across healthcare settings with other providers, ancillary support services, and non-health related services to positively impact patient and family outcomes. It is critical, then, that professional nurses in this diverse technology-driven environment are able to construct clear, coherent messages to effectively address patient care issues (Huston, 2014, Sullivan, 2012, Yoder-Wise, 2011).
Recognizing that essential communication skills are often limited or lacking in professional nursing practice, our team implemented a writing intervention targeting the generalist nursing curriculum with the intent to improve student writing skills. The goal of this pilot project was to develop and test this innovative writing intervention implemented in a typical online learning setting. Participants in this project were practicing registered nurses (nurse to degree-prepared nurse students) who were completing their undergraduate baccalaureate nursing (BSN) degree in two non-traditional nursing programs in the United States. As a result of learning higher order critical thinking, problem solving and decision-making skills through writing skill development, we hypothesized that these professional nurses would be better prepared to communicate effectively, and ultimately, demonstrate themselves to be leaders in their clinical environments.
Using a quasi-experimental, pre-post design, nurse to degree-prepared nurse (baccalaureate completion [RN-BSN]) students enrolled in their final course at two universities located in the mid-western United States participated in the 16-week project. One group received the writing intensive intervention; the comparison group received usual writing experiences consistent with preparation for the generalist nursing degree in the United States. The primary aim of this present study was to determine the efficacy of a writing intensive intervention on the outcome of writing competency in online nursing students completing their generalist nursing degree. A secondary aim of this research was to examine the influence of the writing intensive intervention on assigned writing tasks over the semester on the outcome of writing self-efficacy, a potential mediating variable. Therefore, the study questions of interest in this pilot study were:
- 1)
What is the difference in the change in writing self-efficacy over the semester between the intervention group and the comparison group?
- 2)
What is the change in writing competency for the intervention group after a semester-long writing intensive intervention?
Section snippets
Writing self-efficacy
An important factor in achieving writing competence can be explained by having confidence that one can be a successful writer, as shown in studies using Bandura's concept of self-efficacy (1997) to predict writing success (Daly and Miller, 1975, Lavelle, 1993, Pajares and Valiante, 1999, Piazza and Siebert, 2008). Bandura defined self-efficacy as the “belief in one's capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments” (1977, p. 3). The combination
Participants and setting
A convenience sample of 52 online degree completion nursing students enrolled in the final course of their generalist education at two universities in the United States were included. Inclusion criteria were enrollment in the online nursing course and successful completion of course assignments. No student enrolled in either of the two courses was excluded. At the start of the semester, students in the two courses were emailed a study recruitment information sheet through the online course
Results
During spring semester 2013, 44 (of 48; 92%) online students in the intervention group participated in the writing self-efficacy and writing competence assessments. In the comparison group, 8 (of 12; 75%) students participated in the pre- and post-course self-efficacy assessment only. Table 2 displays the demographic characteristics for each group of those who completed the study. The total sample was primarily female Caucasian nurses who were working full time in nursing. More than one-half of
Discussion
Past studies reporting writing competency and self-efficacy outcomes in all levels of student learners are extensive in the psychology, education, and rhetoric/composition literature. This pilot study, however, is the first research of its kind in nursing education to deliver a writing intervention and systematically evaluate higher order writing competence and students' beliefs about their writing abilities. These results support our hypothesis that writing competence improves if students are
Conclusion
Regrettably, student competency in writing and other communication skills is often assumed rather than explicitly taught. In clinical practice, nurses are expected to write clearly, yet when working with nursing students, nursing faculty easily fall short in preparing students to meet these expectations. This ongoing project provides the opportunity to further define and test a research-based writing composition intervention for nursing education, currently not available in the nursing
Conflict of interest statement
All authors state there are no conflicts of interest and no financial interests.
Acknowledgments
Our research team is appreciative of the support of the University of Missouri Campus Writing Program in the United States and recognizes Dr. Win Horner who introduced the writing across the curriculum concept to undergraduate education on the University of Missouri campus.
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