A Complete Assignment Writing Guide For Nursing Students

Nursing is not really an easy degree to attain, from assimilating new information to engaging in intellectual processes and new ideas. What’s even more challenging, you are expected to be well-versed in academic writing. No wonder most students get nursing assignment help because producing different types of text in nursing isn’t an easy feat.

From essays, reports to reviews of journal articles and exam papers, you may have to work on different types of academic papers while you pursue a degree in nursing. No matter which paper you write, here are the basic steps that can help you write your nursing assignment like a pro.

1. Analyze and understand the writing task

You need an audience, a strategy, and a purpose to write your nursing assignment. Thus, before you start writing this paper, ask yourself:

• Who is reading my paper?
• Why am I writing this paper?
• How will I achieve my purpose of writing this paper?

These questions will help you determine the type of content such as evidence, arguments and information to include in the assignment. You will also understand how to structure and organize the content in your nursing paper.

But, how can you analyze the task?

Read the assignment question or title several times to unpack the meaning and purpose of your question. Take your time to clearly understand what is expected of you in the assignment.

Usually, assignment questions consist of certain key terms that tell you what to do in the essay. Common key terms include ‘assess’, ‘compare and contrast’ and ‘discuss.’

Consider this assignment question for instance:

Given the many factors that might influence the health of an individual, consider the question: ‘Can nurses really influence the health of others?’

• As you can see, the question has already established that there are many factors that influence the health of others, such as diet, lifestyle, socioeconomic status, and environment.
• The phrase ‘health of an individual’ requires you to get some clarification about the overall concept of ‘health.’
• The assignment requires you to consider the role of nurses in influencing others’ health, keeping the other factors in mind.

Now consider this question:

‘The core skill of nursing is the ability to communicate.’ Using appropriate evidence, outline the arguments for and against this proposition.

• This question requires you to discuss the concepts of communication in nursing.
• Include both sets of arguments and make sure there’s a balance between them.
• You need to do proper referencing of the sources to show that you have used appropriate evidence.
• The key term ‘outline’ means you need to use fewer details than what you would have used in case of terms like ‘evaluate’, ‘discuss’, or ‘analyze.’

Now that you have understood the process of analyzing and understanding the assignment question, let’s proceed to the next steps.

2.Plan your work

Drafting a rough outline means developing a conceptual representation of your response to the topic. You read the topic and understand its requirements. Then prepare the outline to reflect your stance or position in relation to the given topic.

An outline can help you find the following:

• The extent to which you believe that nurses can influence the health of others supported by your research and investigation of evidence.
• Your assessment of the evidence that you have gathered to challenge or support the main proposition related to your topic.
• The key sections of your paper, along with the possible subheadings and the arguments and evidence that would feature in each subheading.

Different students approach the same nursing assignment in different ways. Certain questions may have broad organizational requirements. In one of the examples mentioned above, you had to outline the arguments either for or against the topic. So, in these cases, you have to decide which angle you would use to write the paper.

3.Read the right sources and gather relevant information

Just like any other subject, nursing assignments also require you to read about a particular topic and use credible scholarly sources to write the paper. The best place to start reading for your nursing assignments is your lecture notes. Lecture notes can help you get a rough overview of the topic. You may also find links to relevant literature like journal articles, research papers, case studies, and key chapters from core textbooks.

You may find a wide slew of sources relevant to your topic. But, you must learn how to explore the literature more independently and widely. You have to work on your ability to use your critical judgment to assess the credibility and relevance of sources. Remember, reading nursing-related academic texts is different from what you may read in your leisure time. There will be a lot of technical content involved in this discipline. So, take your time to read each source and then decide whether to or not to use that piece of information in your nursing paper.

Here are some factors you must identify when you approach a source for your nursing assignment:

• What do you expect to find out from that source?
• How that information contributes to your assignment?
• What is the main message of that source and how does it relate to your assignment?
• What are the main points discussed by the author in that source? Do the points have anything significant to do with your assignment?

Use several techniques such as note-taking, annotations, and highlighting to remember the pieces of information you will use in your nursing assignment. You can also use features like abstracts, content pages, introductions, and conclusions to assess the significance and relevance of your source.

4.Focus on the three essentials while writing

Nursing assignments consist of technical jargon that you can’t avoid at any cost. But, you still have to make your writing as simple and easily understandable as possible. Thus, here are the three writing essentials that you need to focus on while organizing your information in a nursing paper:

Relevance

EVERYTHING you write in your nursing paper should be relevant to the main question or task. You must have a word count to maintain. So, it is better not to include any irrelevant material in the paper.

Coherence

Your nursing assignment should make sense to the readers. It should have a clear purpose and direction. Organize your ideas and arguments after careful planning and editing.

• Criticality

Unlike analytical and evaluative, nursing assignments should focus on critical writing. Don’t just narrate the terms or concepts. Critically evaluate whatever you write in the nursing assignment.

5. Start writing critically

The purpose of nursing assignments is to make it clear that you have understood important theories, concepts, and arguments related to your topic. Writing critically involves the following three factors:

• Stance

You must write your nursing assignments with a clear voice and an independent perspective or viewpoint. Clearly convey what you think about the topic and what you want your readers to think about the same.

• Arguments

You need valid arguments to explain and justify your stance to the readers. An argument is what you need to organize and express a specific viewpoint. Make sure your arguments help you achieve the purpose of writing the assignments and should be based on solid, convincing evidence.

• Nuance

Your stance in nursing assignments should be nuanced. You must acknowledge the weaknesses, strengths and grey areas in your arguments.

Wrapping Up,

Academic writing is central to nursing universities. The process isn’t easy, but this is how your professors will assess your knowledge in this field. So, read relevant samples to get the hang of the structure of nursing assignments. After all, different types of assignments have different structures. You can also mention that you are skilled enough to write academic assignments in your nursing resume to boost your employability chances.