Writing for Publication in Nursing and Healthcare (eBook)

Chapter 1

Introduction: The Book, Its Philosophy and Its Focus

Karen Holland1 and Roger Watson2

1School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, University of Salford, Salford, UK

2Faculty of Health and Social Care, University of Hull, Hull, UK

Introduction

The use of evidence has become a central part of both faculty (academia) and professional practice. For many, it has become a core element of their career development and opportunity for advancement. Therefore, producing this evidence has become an essential skill for nursing and midwifery academics and qualified practitioners; one that all undergraduate and postgraduate students need to develop as part of their curriculum and for their future careers.

Disseminating the evidence once it has been produced is at the core of this book, and we will not enter into philosophical debates on the nature of what is best evidence and what we do to obtain the evidence itself, nor about which approach is best for dissemination. This book is, arguably, a body of evidence in its own right; one that has collected a range of views and supporting material on writing for publication, different approaches and – most importantly – how to help you translate your ideas, opinions and research findings into meaningful dialogue with those who will want to read them and hopefully influence and contribute to the development of their professional practice.

This written evidence is found in a range of published works: books, peer-reviewed articles, opinion papers and research reports. Therefore, ‘getting this right’ with regard to writing for publication becomes essential for the future scholarship of the nursing and midwifery professions as well as the evidence-based rigour underpinning professional practice.

However, in the twenty-first century the ‘written’ word is no longer the main form of communication; technological advances enable us to disseminate research evidence and other forms of scholarly endeavour in numerous innovative ways, but which has also brought with it many new challenges. Maybe, we should now consider ‘desktop typing for publication’ as an adjunct to ‘writing for publication’, and offer the basics on not only how to write but also how to use the technology to engage in the dissemination of scholarship. Watson in Chapter 2 of this book refers to some of the practical issues of using a computer in the writing process.

Why publish what we write?

Although publishing in various forms is about sharing best practice and evidence of various kinds, we publish for other reasons. Many of you reading this will recall situations where you read something in a newspaper article that you disagreed with or something you feel strongly about and wished you had the courage to write a letter to the newspaper in reply (see Chapter 16). You may even have reached the stage of having written the letter, but something held you back and you did not send it; possibly having second thoughts that, maybe, the language was too strong!

In many journals, there are opportunities for a similar kind of communications, especially as editorials or guest editorials where, again, it is about having a strong or opposing view on a topic that you feel needs to be raised, resulting often in being a trigger for other responses to be published to further debate (if the editor allows!) or in some cases ideas for further research.

Many clinical practitioners will be developing new ways of nursing that others could benefit from, and unlike in the past, where publishing anything was viewed as the province of ‘academia’ or faculty staff, there has been a major shift in who is writing for publication. Publishing what you write is no longer the province of the few, evident by the plethora of journals published worldwide.

For colleagues in many countries, having the opportunity to publish what they write is not easy; in particular, where English is not the first language, they may not have journals to write in and most importantly no large publishers to take on the risk of developing new journals or publishing new books in an area such as nursing, which is still developing in many countries. This development also involves the undertaking of research, the writing and dissemination of their work in their own country and, most importantly, sharing this with the international community in their own discipline.

One country that is taking the risk, and publishing a new nursing journal, is Lithuania, with colleagues at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences in Kaunas publishing their first issue of the journal Nursing Education, Research and Practice in September of 2011. The editorial by the editor-in-chief and the dean of the Faculty of Nursing highlights a very important reason for why they are supporting the promotion of publishing what their colleagues write, in relation to where they are in the ‘bigger picture’ of what most of us have taken for granted:

[T]he journal specifically aims to become a platform available for Eastern European countries with post-Soviet nursing and midwifery systems to share new ideas and demonstrate rapid and significant advancements in the nursing and midwifery disciplines.

(Macijauskiene and Stankevicius, 2011, p. 1)

Given the fact that the journal was also published at a time of celebrating the 20th anniversary of their Faculty of Nursing, they should be congratulated on this achievement alone, let alone beginning a new journey in publishing what their peers have been writing about in isolation from each other. For many countries and disciplines worldwide, the question ‘why publish what we write?’ is more than simply a question of having to publish, but retains some of the altruistic stance that many of us began with in relation to helping others through sharing our knowledge and evidence as well-perceived wisdom.

For others, publishing what we write becomes an employment necessity with many jobs requiring applicants to have undertaken research and also published papers in journals. For others, retaining their posts also requires the same criteria, and this is often even more challenging for colleagues and takes them very often outside their ‘comfort zone’ both in terms of confidence in their abilities to write anything for publication and also needing additional skills to be gained to maximise their chances for success. Others among you will be postgraduate or even undergraduate students, for whom writing elements of their theses or dissertations becomes an integral part of that studentship. Many of you will be expected to write with your supervisors as a continuous process, but most of you will have a publication plan built into your personal and professional learning plans, including publishing at least one or two of your papers in a peer-reviewed international journal. For many undergraduate students, having an opportunity to write for publication may take a different form, as seen in the Nursing Standard journal (Lee, 2011, p. 29) where students write their reflection and actions as a result of a practice experience in the ‘the real world of nursing’. This is an excellent starting point for the future in managing time, writing and also helping others to learn through their experiences.

We hope that this book will enable this group to gain in confidence and skills, while the more experienced colleagues will use it more for ‘branching out’ into new areas of publishing their work. Seeing your work, whatever form it takes, in print or electronically for the first time or in a different medium is a wonderful feeling and, in fact, for many of us that initial ‘buzz’ never really goes away. Mainly, it is because we remain committed, especially as editors, to writing and sharing our knowledge and experience with others, as well as actually enjoying the writing itself. It is not quite the same as having to write to order, when it possibly can be seen as a chore!

Therefore, if publishing what we write is important, either politically or professionally, why do so many people still find it hard to achieve success or even get off the ground?

What are perceived barriers to successful writing?

In the chapters in this book, you will find examples of why individuals either set up barriers themselves to writing for publication or find obstacles placed in front of them. Many reasons also overlap and are often a combination of both. As mentioned, many of us have to begin somewhere, and all of us writing in this book will have come across barriers of one kind and another since we began to see our work being published for others to read and the material being used in some way in their work or their professional development.

To say that writing for publication is easy would not be the whole truth; however, depending on what you are writing and who you are writing for, some people find some forms of writing much easier than others. This could be writing an article for some, writing a book for others or writing conference abstracts and papers. Some of you reading this in order to learn new skills or knowledge may well be saying, ‘it's all right for them, as they already do it’, but even for us there are always new things to learn, and in today's publishing climate, there are new media to try out in terms of publishing what we write about.

Barriers written about in other books on writing for publication or articles in journals...