Hello, my name is Nicol Ruggiero, and i am a Freshman at Sac State.
I have to do interviews in the different types of writing, from personal, to professional, civic, and academic for my English class. The reason for this topic is for me, the student, to understand how much writing really does effect our every day lives within these different types of writing styles. So being that i am majoring in nursing, and will someday BE a nurse, i am here to ask you nurses questions about the field of which the nurses work in and how much nurses actually do write in their professional worlds. Here are the questions, i would very much appreciate honest explanatory answers to help better my understanding of the writing nurses do! Thank you guys so much for your efforts and advice!

1. What kinds of writing skills are needed for this area of writing?

2. What different factors are most important to you in your writing within this field?

3. How much writing is expected of you in your job field?

4. What is most difficult and time consuming in your opinion when writing in this field?

5. What advice would you give new writers/unexperienced writers in this field to better their writing skills?

6. How often do you write in this field? (multiple times daily, sometimes, rarely etc..)

7. What types of audiences do you write for/to?

Those are all the questions i have, thank you once again for your time and effort. I hope to hear from you all soon!

1. Writing skills that are needed is good grammar, technical and medical terminology and a good understanding of medical abbreviations. #2. Factors is the medical audience you are writing to. #3. I am expected to do 10-15 minutes of writing for every patient per shift which will be reviewed by my peers, doctors and possibly a medical review board. #4. The most difficult is wring a nursing plan within the doctor's/health insurance parameters. #5. My advise is to take at least two years of college english, take medical terminology and read medical journals that pertain to their field of expertise. #6. I am mandated to document every patient interaction, which is multiple times daily. I writing is geared to the medical professional. if you have any questions or clarifications, please do not hesitate to contact me.

In addition to Al's wonderful and amazing post I would add: yes correct English and spelling is necessary. good clear concise sentences.Don't elaborate just get to the point with as few words as possible. Describe exactly what you saw or did. Don't be objective or espress opinions. Remember if you didn't chart it, it wasn't done. Unfortunately lots of charting is neccesary in nursing. In fact it's getting to be more paperwork and less patient care, it's sad to say. You must chart verbal MD orders. You must chart on the patients' care and behavior and any unusual circumstances that occur. You must chart if a med error occurs or the patient experiences a reaction to a certain medication. Or if a fall occurs, if the patient is sent out to the ER ,anything unusual. On a admission, there can be as many as 25 papers to be filled out. You must sign off on the medication sheet and note any unusual occurances. If patient is sent to ER, paperwork must go with patient and be written in chart,.With a Code, you guessed it- paperwork. In addition, at the beginning of every month, each patient's medication sheets must be reviewed and new changes placed on new sheet. There is no end to the paperwork. For all of this, your writing must be legible. Good writing skills are important. Good memory too. I try to write stuff down when it happens on scrape paper so I can put it in the chart later. Nurses sometimes write out their reports at end of shifts. Be clear about what you say. Give any pertinent information. Give a good understanding of what has occured with each patient during your shift. Nothing is more frustrating than to get a poor report and not have any idea of what is going on with the patient. Sometimes you will have to write up an employee for something that was not done correctly, not done at all or done in an inappropriate manner. Again be clear, concise, stick to the point and don't include your opinions, just facts. Paperwork is one of the most frustrating aspects of nursing. Sometimes it seems there is not enough time to do patient care for doing all the paperwork. But it must be done. The most important reason for the paperwork - It covers your butt.

Char, thank you for your elaboration. Yes, I did forget about accurate and concise, char is absolutely correct, only report facts, report what can be tested, observed and measured, not opinions or conjectures, we cannot leave room for open interpretations. One must write with”one year clarity," it must be within the standards of protocols, and it must be prudent in the eyes of the law. One year clarity means, that one year from now, it is understood exactly and as clearly as the day it was originally written by the person who wrote it, even if the writer is not present to testify on the events that happened.

Not that what all of you have pointed out here is not the absolute truth, but do all of you still literally "write"?!! Hasn't technology brought you to the world of digital dictation, or at the very least computer data entry? These are only a faster means to an end mind you...you still need to have all of the skills as outlined by dmaze, al, char, and cd!!!

I still handwrite all my notes... Electronic data entry is still too time consuming and bulky to bring to the patient beside and not viable during ambulance runs. I think about 200 times faster than I can type and choosing menu items from a charting screen is very frustrating when my thinking process has to process through menu's items. For example; I have set way I provide care to a STEMI patient, but it will vary by the condition I find the patent, and I chart the way I give care, systematically, I treat the patient not the disease, now that creates a problem for me when I have to hunt and peck all different kinds of options, I have tried to do computer charting during my nursing clinicals, but I find myself writing it out on paper then entering it on a computer.

al: they tried to get me to dictate at the hospital. I hated it. I chose to type up my own discharge summary notes and hand carry them to medical records.

Unfortunately DaMomb, a great many facilities do not have computer charting yet, or only certain areas are computerized. My personal favorite is areas of a facility have different incompatible computer programs, so there is no interfacing information. This is always so very much fun to deal with.

Thanks cd, I mentioned grammar which is a huge part of sentence structure and someone said it wasn't necessary. I thought that was odd and misinformation.........and in the other topic Nicole put up.