Draft 1-Individual project
To: Dean of Nursing, Clemson School of Nursing
From: Tammy Smith, RN to BSN Student
Date: July 18, 2005
Subject: Technical Writing Class
As requested, I have investigated the need for a technical writing class for nurses to be added to the nursing curriculum for Clemson University School of Nursing.
The definition of technical writing is the process of getting information to a wide range of people in understandable language. The School of Nursing teaches men and women how to be nurses’ but they also need to be taught how to communicate with others when they are working in the nursing field. According to the U. S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook, “Technical writers put technical information into easily understandable language.” The report goes on to say that technical writers do a number of tasks including planning and editing the preparation of materials. This class may benefit nurses more if it is focused on nursing and the task that nurses do day to day. Today’s nurses are faced with creating documents that are required for their jobs. Many baccalaureate prepared nurses are seeking nursing management positions. These positions require the nurse to prepare many types of documents. They are required to do policies and procedures, job descriptions, evaluations, clinical ladders and requests for funding staff positions and or equipment.
Since many hospitals are becoming computerized, nurses are often writing proposals to request services and documenting technical guidelines and policy and procedures for new systems. Many of these systems are customized for the hospital, therefore training manuals and self studies must be written for the system to communicate to nursing staff. May nursing positions are creating web pages for disseminating information to hospital staff. Newsletters, reports and memorandums are also a way of communicating with hospital staff.
Many new nursing positions focus on education and technical writing instead of direct patient care, therefore technical writing skills would greatly increase the likelihood of success in becoming effective communicators.
By the university offering a technical writing course with an emphasis in nursing documents, graduate nurses would be more effective and better prepared in the work place.
Course Requirements
This proposed class does not teach nursing or technical terms; therefore I would suggest that this be a senior level class. Basic course materials should contain examples of technical writings used today in the nursing field. This course could benefit if the university partners with local hospital’s to keep up to date with the changing technical writing needs in the nursing profession. This would be a 3 hour credit course taught either on-line or in the traditional class.
Students will be given instruction in technical writing for nursing. The students will be given assignments of writing a new nursing policy, a job description, proposal to management requesting new equipment for a nursing unit and a monthly newsletter in web format.
Course Outcomes
This class will increase the student’s awareness of communication tasks necessary to be successful communicators. This class will better prepare graduate nurses to meet the communication needs in the medical profession. The graduates will be able to produce documents currently used in hospitals or medical offices. This class will benefit the medical profession by creating more effective nurses.
Conclusions
A technical writing course for nurses will benefit students, future employers and will increase the value of a nursing education obtained from Clemson University.
From: Tammy Smith, RN to BSN Student
Date: July 18, 2005
Subject: Technical Writing Class
As requested, I have investigated the need for a technical writing class for nurses to be added to the nursing curriculum for Clemson University School of Nursing.
The definition of technical writing is the process of getting information to a wide range of people in understandable language. The School of Nursing teaches men and women how to be nurses’ but they also need to be taught how to communicate with others when they are working in the nursing field. According to the U. S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook, “Technical writers put technical information into easily understandable language.” The report goes on to say that technical writers do a number of tasks including planning and editing the preparation of materials. This class may benefit nurses more if it is focused on nursing and the task that nurses do day to day. Today’s nurses are faced with creating documents that are required for their jobs. Many baccalaureate prepared nurses are seeking nursing management positions. These positions require the nurse to prepare many types of documents. They are required to do policies and procedures, job descriptions, evaluations, clinical ladders and requests for funding staff positions and or equipment.
Since many hospitals are becoming computerized, nurses are often writing proposals to request services and documenting technical guidelines and policy and procedures for new systems. Many of these systems are customized for the hospital, therefore training manuals and self studies must be written for the system to communicate to nursing staff. May nursing positions are creating web pages for disseminating information to hospital staff. Newsletters, reports and memorandums are also a way of communicating with hospital staff.
Many new nursing positions focus on education and technical writing instead of direct patient care, therefore technical writing skills would greatly increase the likelihood of success in becoming effective communicators.
By the university offering a technical writing course with an emphasis in nursing documents, graduate nurses would be more effective and better prepared in the work place.
Course Requirements
This proposed class does not teach nursing or technical terms; therefore I would suggest that this be a senior level class. Basic course materials should contain examples of technical writings used today in the nursing field. This course could benefit if the university partners with local hospital’s to keep up to date with the changing technical writing needs in the nursing profession. This would be a 3 hour credit course taught either on-line or in the traditional class.
Students will be given instruction in technical writing for nursing. The students will be given assignments of writing a new nursing policy, a job description, proposal to management requesting new equipment for a nursing unit and a monthly newsletter in web format.
Course Outcomes
This class will increase the student’s awareness of communication tasks necessary to be successful communicators. This class will better prepare graduate nurses to meet the communication needs in the medical profession. The graduates will be able to produce documents currently used in hospitals or medical offices. This class will benefit the medical profession by creating more effective nurses.
Conclusions
A technical writing course for nurses will benefit students, future employers and will increase the value of a nursing education obtained from Clemson University.
posted by Anonymous at 7/18/2005 04:06:00 PM
1 Comments:
As requested, I have investigated the need for a technical writing class for nurses to be added to the nursing curriculum for Clemson University School of Nursing.
The definition of technical writing is the process of getting information to a wide range of people in understandable language. The School of Nursing teaches men and women how to be nurses’ but they also need to be taught how to communicate with others when they are working in the nursing field. According to the U. S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook, “Technical writers put technical information into easily understandable language.” The report goes on to say that technical writers do a number of tasks including planning and editing the preparation of materials. This class [you need to specify what class.]] may benefit nurses more if it is focused on nursing and the task that nurses do day to day. Today’s nurses are faced with creating documents that are required for their jobs. Many baccalaureate prepared nurses are seeking nursing management positions. These positions require the nurse to prepare many types of documents. They are required to do policies and procedures, job descriptions, evaluations, clinical ladders and requests for funding staff positions and or equipment. [You might want to talk about how many hours a day nurses write/communicate or what percentage of their efforts fall into that category.]
Since many hospitals are becoming computerized, nurses are often writing proposals to request services and documenting technical guidelines and policy and procedures for new systems. Many of these systems are customized for the hospital, therefore training manuals and self studies must be written for the system to communicate to nursing staff. May nursing positions are creating web pages for disseminating information to hospital staff. Newsletters, reports and memorandums are also a way of communicating with hospital staff.
Many new nursing positions focus on education and technical writing instead of direct patient care, therefore technical writing skills would greatly increase the likelihood of success in becoming effective communicators. [You might want to be more explicit about saying that even if the information nurses put out is *correct* if they don't have the communication skills to make it understandable, the information becomes useless.]
By the university offering a technical writing course with an emphasis in nursing documents, graduate nurses would be more effective and better prepared in the work place.
Course Requirements
This proposed class does not teach nursing or technical terms; therefore I would suggest that this be a senior level class. Basic course materials should contain examples of technical writings used today in the nursing field. This course could benefit if the university partners with local hospital’s to keep up to date with the changing technical writing needs in the nursing profession. [so are you saying that it might be a service learning course? If so, you may want to say more about that.] This would be a 3 hour credit course taught either on-line or in the traditional class.
Students will be given instruction in technical writing for nursing. The students will be given assignments of writing a new nursing policy, a job description, proposal to management requesting new equipment for a nursing unit and a monthly newsletter in web format. [Since you're proposing a new course, you may want to say what competencies would have to be demonstrated for successful completion--what would characterize mastery of this subject either here or in the paragraph below.]
Course Outcomes
This class will increase the student’s awareness of communication tasks necessary to be successful communicators. This class will better prepare graduate nurses to meet the communication needs in the medical profession. The graduates will be able to produce documents currently used in hospitals or medical offices. This class will benefit the medical profession by creating more effective nurses.
Conclusions
[You might want to say something, at the beginning of your conclusion, about a theme that you keep touching on but don't explicityly address: That what is expected of nurses, communication-wise, has changed a great deal and that the curriculum for them hasn't quite kept up.] A technical writing course for nurses will benefit students, future employers and will increase the value of a nursing education obtained from Clemson University.
Good start. I think you're right on target with the information about the different ways nurses have to communicate (including electronically) and would like to see a bit more about that. I look forward to the next draft.
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