Evaluating undergraduate nursing students' self-efficacy and competence in writing: Effects of a writing intensive intervention.
While professional nurses are expected to communicate clearly, these skills are often not explicitly taught in undergraduate nursing education. In this research study, writing self-efficacy and writing competency were evaluated in 52 nontraditional undergraduate baccalaureate completion students in two distance-mediated 16-week capstone courses. The intervention group (n = 44) experienced various genres and modalities of written assignments set in the context of evidence-based nursing practice; the comparison group (n = 8) received usual writing undergraduate curriculum instruction. Self-efficacy, measured by the Post Secondary Writerly Self-Efficacy Scale, indicated significant improvements for all self-efficacy items (all p's = 0.00). Writing competency, assessed in the intervention group using a primary trait scoring rubric (6 + 1 Trait Writing Model(®) of Instruction and Assessment), found significant differences in competency improvement on five of seven items. This pilot study demonstrated writing skills can improve in nontraditional undergraduate students with guided instruction. Further investigation with larger, culturally diverse samples is indicated to validate these results.
University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing, School of Nursing Building, Columbia, MO 65211, USA. Electronic address: LMiller@missouri.edu.
Louise C
LC
Miller
University of Missouri Kansas City School of Nursing and Health Studies, 2464 Charlotte, Kansas City, MO 64108, USA. Electronic address: RussellC@umkc.edu.
Cynthia L
CL
Russell
University of Missouri Kansas City School of Nursing and Health Studies, 2464 Charlotte, Kansas City, MO 64108, USA. Electronic address: ChengA@umkc.edu.
An-Lin
AL
Cheng
University of Missouri Kansas City School of Nursing and Health Studies, 2464 Charlotte, Kansas City, MO 64108, USA. Electronic address: SkarbekA@umkc.edu.
Anita J
AJ
Skarbek
D003142:Communication; D003479:Curriculum; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015397:Program Evaluation; D020377:Self Efficacy; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology; D014481:United States; D014956:Writing
Communication-writing; Nursing education; Nursing research; Self-efficacy