Do most nurses not like writing papers?

[purplegal]

It seems that whenever the topic of nursing school comes up, many of the people I went to school with mention that they always disliked writing papers. Whenever I talk to people who are currently in nursing school, or want to enter the healthcare profession in some other way, the answer is pretty much the same--they dislike writing papers, as well as other projects.

I was just wondering if this was the norm? I usually don't share this with anyone, but I rather enjoy writing papers. I love being able to sit down and just let my thoughts flow, or organize information that I've found through research articles. I also quite liked the projects we had during our public health clinicals such as making booklets and powerpoints, and then teaching the content to others. Most of the people who went to my BSN program disliked the public health portion part.

At work, I still love to write. I love charting and writing progress notes, whereas most of the nurses I work with dislike that aspect of the job. So, am I really that abnormal in that I enjoy writing? Do I seem to have less of a nurse personality because my opinion on writing seems to differ from many others who are in the same profession?

I don't believe it affects my nursing care, at least not in a negative way. I work well with my patients and am very attentive to their care and needs. It's just that my documentation is very thorough and I may have the tendency to over-document.

[Libby1987]

I enjoy doing just about anything with my job given the TIME! I don't like to be under the gun.

Back when I was doing home health, in the days of paper charting, I opened a case on a dressing change for an I&D as the result of an infection on a LE s/p ORIF. The nurse that was going to take the case requested that I do a drawing of the wound so she knew what she was getting into. I enjoyed doing that! So much, in fact, I'd sketch pictures in my notes whenever I believed they would be helpful.

Once, when I was the nursing supervisor for the home health agency, I opened a new case with an AIDS patient who was receiving five different IV fluids though a timed device. One IV fluid was through a "baby bottle" that was administered q24hr. I sketched out the entire setup with instructions so any nurse coming onto the case knew what to do.

Yeah, purplegal, I enjoy writing, but love drawing!

I love this!

[Nori.Giselle]

I'm great at writing papers; however, I HATE IT!! Such as waste of my time.. With that being said I've always been complimented on my charting.

[ProperlySeasoned]

I enjoy academic writing, and have found it useful for my role (I am a BSN, but not in a traditional bedside role.) When I write protocols, teaching/orientation manuals, and even in-services, these skills are quite useful. Being a well spoken nurse who can articulate thoughts in writing helps elevate our profession. If we want to be seen as more than technicians, we need to show we can do more.

[SummitRN, BSN, RN]

While I prefer tests and symbolic/numeric problems (physics/math) instead of papers, I'm not opposed to papers.

The problem was some of the papers I wrote in nursing school were little more than exercises in regurgitating nursing "theory" and APA adherence.

Some papers were actual learning experiences.

[HeySis, BSN, RN]

The problem was some of the papers I wrote in nursing school were little more than exercises in regurgitating nursing "theory" and APA adherence.

Yes, this, this is how I feel about the papers in the RN to BSN program.

[AllOfMyWat]

I love writing.

[JBudd, MSN]

When it was a topic I liked it was great. Otherwise just a chore. I am avoiding the PhD program because I hate doing research.

As far as APA, I just bought the PERRLA software, typed it in and let the computer format it all. I used my APA book to choose which level of headings and proper inline citations. Once I had those down (kept index cards with each type on hand, I didn't have to worry about it. Only time it was a problem, it glitched on my references and I didn't catch it before I submitted. Other than that, wasn't a problem.

[Lev, MSN, RN, NP]

I did not mind writing papers in school. They were an easy A. I have always been pretty good at writing. (Better at expressing myself through writing than speaking which many fellow introverts can nod their heads too). I do not mind writing notes on patients as long a I have time to do so. I think nurses like to "do" and writing just doesn't feel like doing to many. We are so overburdened with patient care that the documenting and writing part just seems tedious. In school, the papers tended to be on topics related to the "fluffy" classes which again - seem tedious instead of practical.

APA is completely not intuitive to me. Was NOT invented by nurses obviously.

[tyvin, BSN, RN]

Me love...research is one of my best things; along with the writing :) ...

[Amethya]

I LOVE WRITING PAPERS! And I'm actually good at it too. I don't know why, but I always been good at it. Lots of my still college friends come to me to edit their papers.

[AdobeRN]

Nope....I hate it. Writing is one of my weaknesses - I have always struggled with it, even way back in elementary, middle & high school. I would have never made it through college if I didn't have my husbands help along with spending hours in the campus writing center with help from the tutors.

[Graduatenurse14]

I don't like writing papers as I don't have confidence in myself as a writer so I spend a ton of time writing, re-writing, editing, re-editing. I do well on the papers but it's not worth the torture-not that I want a bad grade but it's rough for me. I'm in an online BSN program and we write a lot and it's hard. I want to get my MSN but the writing will be so brutal for me! I was going to take a non-credit writing course at my local community college to try to get a better handle on it.

I thought about my lack of confidence in my writing ability years ago and came up with this: I went to a Catholic elementary school from the mid 70'to mid 80's where we did very little writing of essays, themes, and papers. When I went to public high school, we did more but still not a lot. In college for my BS in Education, we wrote in certain classes and I think used MLA not APA.

Once I became a teacher in public schools the early 90's writing was much more prevalent in the curriculum starting in the early grades mostly due to the literacy philosophy of Whole Language and I was happy to see it that it was.