title: The write stuff: A proactive approach to increasing academics' writing skills and outcomes.
abstract: An important way to advance the profession of nursing, to promote best practice and to improve the quality of nursing care, is for nurses to publish. A publication track record is necessary to gain competitive research funding, build knowledge, disseminate new insights and advance the profession. However, academics often experience obstacles in publishing ranging from a pervasive teaching culture, lack of confidence in writing, and lack of strategies to write more strategically. The benefits of writing retreats have been discussed within the nursing and other academic literature but the specifics about the method as well as the unplanned benefits have not been explored. More exploration and discussion is needed about factors assisting writers to complete papers and successfully publish. This paper discusses a novel intervention which aimed to seed the beginnings of a flourishing scholarly community at a regional Queensland University. The paper also presents qualitative and quantitative evaluation data.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Midwifery, Central Queensland University, Australia. Electronic address: t.dwyer@cqu.edu.au.
authors.forename: Trudy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dwyer
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Midwifery, Central Queensland University, Australia. Electronic address: d.friel@cqu.edu.au.
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Friel
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Midwifery, Central Queensland University, Australia. Electronic address: m.mcallsiter@cqu.edu.au.
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McAllister
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Midwifery, Central Queensland University, Australia. Electronic address: k.reid-searl@cqu.edu.au.
authors.forename: Kerry Reid
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Searl
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Midwifery, Central Queensland University, Australia. Electronic address: d.rossi@cqu.edu.au.
authors.forename: Dolene
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rossi
mesh_terms: D003405:Creativity; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D015399:Nursing Research; D011643:Publishing; D011793:Queensland; D014956:Writing
keywords: Nursing; Publications; Research capacity; Scholarship; Writing