That Capstone Time of Year

Is that paper ready for prime time?

It’s almost that time of year when graduate students (and some baccalaureate students, too) are preparing final papers. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears are involved, and understandably so—after all, these capstone projects and the resulting reports often determine whether one graduates. If done correctly, some papers might be worth submitting for publication. Faculty might even be encouraging you to do so—kudos.

I wrote a blog post a couple of years ago, suggesting some things that perhaps faculty neglect to mention along with their encouragement. As I noted in the post, we want you to be successful:

“…we need nurses at all levels to write about their work, and not enough of them do so. And the responsibility for nursing’s scholarly work cannot rest solely with academics and researchers; clinicians have the firsthand knowledge about care processes and outcomes, and they need to document their work. They need to communicate to the public about what it is that they do so that nurses’ work becomes more visible; they need to communicate to colleagues about what works and what doesn’t so that we can replicate successful quality improvement initiatives.”

Some Things You’ll Probably Need to Know to Get Published

So, before you get too far along in developing the paper, here’s that blog post, along with some other resources that might help make this time of year easier:

‘My Professor Said to Submit My Paper’ (We Hope They Also Told You This) – Some basics, if you want to “morph” your paper into a publishable article.

Resources for Writing collection – This series takes nurses step by step through the writing and publication process, highlighting style and style fundamentals, what gets published and why, how to submit articles and work with editors, and common pitfalls to avoid.

Systematic Reviews, Step by Step (CE credit available) – From the Joanna Briggs Institute, an international collaborative supporting evidence-based practice in nursing, medicine, and allied health fields, this series walks readers through how to conduct a systematic review—one step at a time.

Reporting on Quality Improvement Projects: Where’s the Quality? – An editorial on the problems many editors see with QI reports. “The first step is ensuring that the student’s project is well designed and executed—no amount of good writing can fix a fatally flawed project.”

On Writing: Just Do It  – Some basic points for getting started on that paper. “A person is no more born a writer than born a nurse . . . .The best way to become a writer is to write.”

Another great resource: NA&E (Nurse Author & Editor), a free online journal that offers articles and links to writing and editing resources.