Help with writing

adventure_rn, MSN, NP · Jul 4, 2015

Have you spoken to your instructors or academic advisers (if your program has them)? They may have some insights that can help you. You should also check to see if your school has a writing center; I'm not sure about community colleges, but a lot of universities have writing centers for their students.

Writing can be a big part of nursing school, especially if you have to write clinical journals for your program. This may not help with textbook responses, but if you eventually have to write about your clinical experiences, I'd write them down on a sheet of paper while you're in clinical. That will make it a lot easier to remember any of the important things you saw/did during the shift.

Best of luck to you! We all have different learning styles: even if writing is not yours, you can still be an incredible nurse. I know that this writing stuff seems tedious, but it can be helpful in the long run. When I applied for my first new grad jobs, I actually read back through all of my weekly clinical journals so that I would have specific relevant answers for behavioral interview questions (i.e. "Tell us about a time in clinical when you...")

canigraduate · Jul 4, 2015

The best way to learn writing is to practice it, much like any other difficult to master skill.

Another good way is emulation. Find a writer to model yourself after and practice writing in that style.

ANMpreN · Jul 4, 2015

The best way to learn writing is to practice it, much like any other difficult to master skill

This is so true. Before I started practicing my writing two years ago my grammer skills were horrible. But I did not work on my grammar skills to please others, I did that all for myself because I initially wanted to be a writer instead of a nurse. So don't rush these things, you just have to go at your own pace because you'll be able to actually understand the information your taking in if you're not under too much pressure to learn it fast enough.

You won't be able to become perfect over night, however, you could keep practicing it over and over again until you finally feel it's perfect for yourself. Because when first I took my ACT over a year ago I initially scored a 15 in english and a 20 in reading. Well I just recently received my scores back from taking it over a month ago and I now have a 27 in English and a 25 in reading. That's a big leap.

So just keep practicing.

Some helpful tips:

Search online for some writing prompts and practice your writing regularly then put your finished prompts in an editing application to find the mistakes you've made so you could learn from it.

Read more (spelling definitely helps with your writing). For ex: the correct spelling and word separation is "a lot" not "alot" which is a common misspelled error.

direw0lf, BSN · Jul 8, 2015

Thank you so much for the replies and tips. I haven't been able to come on allnurses much since my 2nd summer class started (intense time!)

I was surprised at how much writing is required in my nursing class! So I will definitely be taking these suggestions and trying to apply them.

You know without meaning to sound so annoying, I haven't been at the bottom of my class in college since my nursing class this summer. I know it's only been a short time. I just felt good being at the upper end of class in my previous classes.

I don't want to not make it as a nursing student because I can't write well. My school is 4 years, but we don't have a writing lab (yet - it's been rumored coming soon though). I thought writing on forums like this was practice, but now I know it's not that much for what I need, because my writing isn't good when I need to write about a topic.

Thanks again!