This webtext explores what new knowledge about students' interactions with images of nursing in popular culture can mean for a strong emphasis on effective writing in nursing education. We present the results of a survey we conducted of a population of composition students at Furman University with the specific goal in mind to learn how entering college and university student writers perceive nursing as a profession and nurses as individuals. Our argument is that this sort of knowledge is critical; nursing educators already know how they represent nursing and nurses in their classes, but they do not know how student writers perceive nursing and nurses before beginning upper-division nursing curricula. Our webtext bridges this gap in knowledge and proposes "curricular interventions" that can make a difference for the teaching of effective writing in nursing education.
This webtext includes the following sections:
Writing in Nursing
Research Methodology
Research Results
- Comparative Data
- Theme One: Students who most frequently encounter romanticized images of nursing often prove naïve about its real professional character.
- Theme Two: Students who most frequently encounter realistic images of nursing in popular culture often demonstrate informed awareness about critical issues in the profession.
- Theme Three: Students who encounter images of nursing in popular culture often have the knowledge required to make sound choices about a possible future in the profession.
Curricular Interventions
- Intervention One: Encourage Broader Understandings of Nursing History Early in Programs.
- Intervention Two: Develop Hypertextual Writing Assignments That Incorporate Popular Media.
- Intervention Three: Require Oral Presentations on Images of Nursing.
- Intervention Four: Include Popular Culture Texts on Syllabi and in Class Discussions.
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