The Insanity That Is APA in Nursing School

As with most things in life, there are rules to be followed or there would be chaos! In Nursing, APA format is one such rule and we welcome it; what we detest is the inflexibility of it as wielded by most instructors. And against this, I am advocating content before format! Nursing Students General Students Article

I am sure that I am not alone in having had pure evil thoughts about "A.P.A" format. What is this APA format, you ask! This so well-loved format that could be the determining factor between a passing or failing grade. If you have ever heard the saying, "crying more than the bereaved", then you have successfully described the APA in nursing.

Nursing schools took APA from the original initiator and simply ran with it.APA is to nursing school, what water is to fish; one crazy love!

It was hammered into our skulls, we were terrorized with it. It simply HAD to be the APA format. You were often judged more by your APA format than the contents of the paper. Wrenching!

(Show of virtual hands)

Can one nurse, just one, say that she has EVER used APA format in the care of his/her patients? I did not think so.

It was sad but funny really, how instructors went on about APA format. They did not go on and on about the possible toxic environment nursing could be. They did not tell you life experiences and how it could be applicable to yours in the real world. They mostly told you about APA format and how you could write an article or publish a journal in the far off future.

Teacher, please! I just wanted to pass the course first!

My thoughts? If I ever got to the point of writing or wanting to write an article, then I should be able to research the correct format with the plethora of resources available to me or heck, I should hope the book publisher has a credible editor to do that!

It has been years later, but I still burn at the wasted efforts of APA and the disservice being done to nursing students. You are only to follow rules, never questioning, especially when your questions are contrary to the general consensus. Be a "sheeple" (SHEEp+ peoPLE)by all means, always following, never questioning.

Then how do people learn? Where is the buy in? If people know nursing for what it is and is not, then they are better able to make informed decisions and can avoid potential career disasters early enough. But I digress!

The constant hammering on APA format is not helpful to anyone. By all means, introduce and teach the "subject" and then be done with it. Do not go hammering on it as is currently done. Teach the important things like work conditions, burn out environment, coworker conflicts and possible solutions along with course work. Make nursing education more meaningful to the student, enough with the constant harping on APA format. Enough, we say!

Please critique this article. Be gentle but real.

I don't think that I've used anything but APA format in college so far. I was a Microbiology major beforehand and any research papers were in APA format. It's definitely not exclusive to nursing school.

Specializes in NICU.

I don't even write in full sentences in my charting narrative, lol. But I do currently use APA format in my MSN program and did through nursing school as well. With the proper software (PERRLA) it's a breeze. You can focus on your writing instead of the format. The downside to APA, I've found, is that the capitalization of every word in a title now looks all kinds of wrong ;).

I don't even write in full sentences in my charting narrative, lol. But I do currently use APA format in my MSN program and did through nursing school as well. With the proper software (PERRLA) it's a breeze. You can focus on your writing instead of the format. The downside to APA, I've found, is that the capitalization of every word in a title now looks all kinds of wrong ;).

One of my professors is a research and APA expert. She says that she has never reviewed a paper that used an APA formatting program that was ever formatted correctly.

Specializes in NICU.
One of my professors is a research and APA expert. She says that she has never reviewed a paper that used an APA formatting program that was ever formatted correctly.

I wouldn't argue with you ;). You do need a working knowledge of APA because the headings/content, etc., can't really be formatted by even the best software. The real benefit is the "edges" of the paper. Being able to click on an icon and get automatic headers and a citation builder is well worth the little bit of money the software cost.

The APA Style Guide 2nd printing is incredibly un-user friendly. It's nearly impossible to look anything up. It needs more examples. Just give us a really long Reference List with lots of varied examples and I'm good.

Also, OWL is not always correct and the teachers who grade students on APA are themselves not always properly schooled or are using an older Style Guide. PERLLA is really messed up, too. And don't even get me started on EBSCO's "Citation" tool. You can bet the homestead what you'll get back will be totally messed up when you use that tool.

That's my rant after spending five hours trying to cite a huge simulation lab prep work assignment that needed to be in APA. I learned next to nothing about the sim patients I might end up having to take care of, but I have become much more proficient in the past 24 hours on APA.

Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

APA format is used by professional scientific research. If nursing decided to use another format we would present as less professional. Also, if you are familiar with the format you can read, decipher and apply other people's research. Just do it.

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