Intervention Two: Develop Hypertextual Writing Assignments That Incorporate Popular Media.

We encourage nurse educators to consider hypertextual writing assignments that specifically incorporate popular media, like film, fiction, and art. As we use the term here, we specifically mean hypertextual writing as enabled by computer technologies, not the sort of broader use that Vannevar Bush envisioned when he coined "hypertext" as a term in a 1945 issue of the Atlantic Monthly. Our research shows that because students sometimes have trouble thinking critically about images of nursing in popular culture, an assignment challenging them to engage materials promises to help them model a more careful approach. A student can incorporate clips from ER, for instance, into a project instead of just referencing episodes of the show and referring to them generally. Hypertextual assignments can encourage students to draw connections -- links, technological and conceptual -- in writing across media, a sophisticated intellectual move this digital age requires of all of us more and more, but especially in professions like nursing where interaction with a wide range of individuals is the norm.