Nurse profession has evolved very fast since its origin. Today, nurses are no longer associated with untrained professionals. In contrast, nurse professionals are among the most educated professionals, with academic grades ranging from Associated degrees to PhD. In fact, nurse expertise is being valued over years, and nurse salaries are above the average salary in US, being the average annual salary of $73,550 (US average salary is $50,620 (1), and ranking among the highest paying jobs in US, ranking in number 9(2).
This is a reflection of the high academic achievements of nurses, especially in the last 40 years. The number of peer-reviewed publications in nursing journals has been increasing worldwide, and more than doubled from 2009 (12,958 publications) to 2018 (31,665 publications)(3). This can be a reflex of the growing interest of nursing as an academic subject and the increasing number of nurses dedicated to research and academic roles and positions.
But, why do nurses need to write and publish?
1. To contribute to knowledge generation and evidence based nurse practice:
Evidence based practice in nursing has grown in importance since 2001, but since Florence Nightingale that nurses have been using the best available evidence to guide their practice(4). When a nurse or group of nurses use their knowledge and data from their interventions or research to generate new knowledge, they are contributing to increase and share knowledge in the studied topic. When the results are published in peer-reviewed journals, the quality of the studies is assured, or at least checked. Every article published in nursing peer-reviewed journal is a contribution to generate and spread knowledge. These articles will then be read and studied by other nurses and nurse students that will be able to reproduce or implement the findings.
2. To advance your nurse career and access advanced roles:
Nurses usually work hard, and having to read, research and write is not always easy during a full day of work. However, writing and publishing academically is also a way to advance in career and access higher position jobs. For example, having researched in the field of nurse human resources management can be a way to advance to leadership position. Research in community patient care can help in a transition from field nurse to a decision-making role. Also, nurses have a role in academia, and a PhD is a way to achieve a position as a lecturer at nurse College or University.
3. Collaborate to peer review other articles in nurse journals:
Your nurse expertise in a specific field will be recognized in the scientific community when you start to be invited to peer review articles from other nurse researchers. Journal’s editors do not have the necessary expertise to critically analyse the enormous amount of articles they receive every month. In this cases, there is a database that editors of scientific journals can access to find and invite reviewers based on their expertise, usually based on the previous publications of other authors. This way, if you have published some articles in a specific field, you have a higher probability of being invited as a reviewer for a nurse’s scientific journal(5).
If you need help to research, write or review your articles, you can contact Boost my Course. Our experience will help you achieve your goals, no matter if you want to graduate, publish your first article or finish your PhD.
References:
(1) RN Salary -Registered Nurse wages and employment information, 2019. Nurse Salary Guide [Accessed 27 February 2019]. Available from: https://nursesalaryguide.net/registered-nurse-rn-salary/
(2) TALAJKOWSKI, ANDY, 2019, The Top 10 Highest Paying Jobs in 2018. Glassdoor Blog [online]. 2019. [Accessed 27 February 2019]. Available from: https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/highest-paying-jobs-2018/
(3) PubMed - NCBI, 2019. Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov [online].
(4) YANCEY, NAN RUSSELL, 2018, Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing for Teaching-Learning: But Is It Really Nursing?. Nursing Science Quarterly. 2018. Vol. 32, no. 1, p. 25-28. SAGE Publications.
(5) GOULD, KATHLEEN AHERN, 2013, Peer Review. Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing. 2013. Vol. 32, no. 6, p. 323-324. Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
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