Interview for Nurses for a Class Assignment

[MnM_King]

Hey, guys! So, I'm writing a nurse discourse community ethnography paper for my English class, and I need two volunteers (a student who's studying to become nurse and an actual nurse) to answer a few questions for me. It's a really interesting topic and I'd really appreciate responses. If you're interested, please provide elaborate answers for the following questions:

1. How long have you been in this community? Why are you involved?

2. How did you learn to write in the specific way required by the community?

3. How do you communicate with other people that are in the same community?

4. What writing and communication do you do on a daily basis?

5. What does communication from this community look like (email, texts, memos, etc)?

6. How does your community view "errors"? What things are considered errors? In writing? In speaking?

7. What kind of writing did you complete during your education? Do you feel prepared for the writing you do in your profession?

8. What advice does this person have for students learning about communication and writing in this field/discourse community?

9. What documentation style or formatting does this discipline use?

10. What are the contemporary problems in this field? What questions dominate your work?

[krisiepoo]

Imagine how much more interesting it could be if you went out and interviewed someone face to face...

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

How are you going to verify that someone on the internet hiding behind a screen name is truly who they claim to be? Generally, the purpose of these assignments is to get you out there and talking to people not someone on the internet. Check with nursing schools, local hospitals, your doctor's office.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

We get these requests a lot, so if there are any other students out there who might get this kind of assignment, listen up:

Part of your faculty's reason for giving you this assignment is to get you to go out there and speak to an RN face to face. A big email blast is not a substitute for shoe leather. AN is not Google.

See, in nursing, you have to learn to speak to a lot of people you would not otherwise encounter; you might find yourself out of your comfort zone. This is part of nursing, a huge part. An anonymous respondent online, well, you don't really know who we are, do you? We could be the truck driving guy living next door for all you know.

So if all you do about learning new things is "Go to the keyboard and hit send," then you are limiting your chances of actual learning a valuable skill you will need all your working life. Also, your faculty will not be impressed by your citation of an anonymous nurse on the internet.

That said: Where will you find a nurse? Think outside the (computer) box.

Local hospital: go to the staff development/inservice education office and ask one of them. They value education and will be happy to chat or to hook you up with someone who is.

Go to the public health department downtown. Ditto.

Go to the local school and ask to speak to a school nurse. Ditto.

Go to a local clinic / physician/NP office. Ditto.

Go to the local jail and ask to speak to the nurse there. Ditto.

Notice all of these say, "Go to..." and not "Email..." Remember that part about meeting new people face to face and comfort zone.

Go!