Writing a paper for Intro to Nursing class

[kaseyk]

I have to write a paper for my Intro to Nursing class. The only directions given are "What do you want to know more about in nursing?"

I understand that this is a very broad question, but I was hoping that someone would have a really interesting and cool topic to research. Thanks in advance!

[Summer Days]

In other words, what drew you to the nursing profession? A majority of us go in knowing which specialty we'd like to end up in! Which specialty interests you? If you answer that question, you'd know what to focus your paper on.

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

probably left the question broad for a good reason - to get creative answers. Do you want to know when to call the doctor, who to go to for help, does every nurse respond to codes, can I use references or do I need to memorize lab values and other data--- think about what YOU believe nurses do, and then find a gap of knowledge. Once you get experienced and have some more education, the gaps will fill, and you will be able to judge your progress.

[llg, PhD, RN]

Here is how to pick a good paper topic:

1. Identify some broad general areas of nursing that interest you. What type of nurse do you hope to be? When you picture yourself as a nurse 5 years from now, what type of job do you want to have? etc.

2. Then go to the library. (If you have a physical nursing library to go to, that's perfect. But if you have to use an online nursing library, you can do it online.) Browse -- and I do mean browse -- several nursing journals that deal with your chosen specialty. Look and see what topics are covered by the available literature. Pay attention to the types of topics that people in that specialty are talking/writing about. If you really couldn't think of a specialty in step #1 above, you could skim general nursing journals for this second step.

3. While you are browsing the literature, which topics strike you as being particularly interesting? Choose one of those topics.

The above 3-step process guarantees that you will pick a topic of interest to -- and that you will be able to find literature to use while writing your paper. Too many students pick a topic that "sounds good to them" only to discover that they can't find a literature to use for the assignment. Or they pick a topic some stranger on the internet suggests and discover that it's not all that interesting. By browsing/skimming the literature first, you guarantee that you can find appropriate literature to use -- and that reading that literature is interesting.

Good luck.

[SeattleJess]

In other words, what drew you to the nursing profession? A majority of us go in knowing which specialty we'd like to end up in! Which specialty interests you? If you answer that question, you'd know what to focus your paper on.

Or what interests you now that you're in the profession.

Try writing a free association list of these things. For me, the list could start with building a common culture in an increasingly diverse health care system, how electronic recordkeeping has changed and will change nursing, HIPAA perils and pitfalls, how the Affordable Care Act will affect nurses in the future, how nurses function in their unique role as supervisor and subordinate, the pros and cons of patient satisfaction surveys to assess delivery of healthcare services.

You could also scroll through the nurse threads on AllNurses to find a topic that interests you. I know I sure have!

Hope you find a topic that excites you so that researching and writing the paper will be fun.