Clinical nurses are expert practitioners with deep content knowledge derived from their clinical experiences. They excel at problem-solving, innovation, and effective approaches to enhance patient care and outcomes. However, many of these valuable improvements are lost because, unfortunately, nurses’ voices aren’t shared through publication. As described by Saver, it’s through publication that we ensure the communication of meaningful changes in practice with the wider nursing and healthcare community and that those changes become the basis for new practice approaches, policy changes, or new knowledge.
What are the advantages to clinical nurses writing for publication?
Conference abstracts and publications in journals persist into perpetuity in the electronic literature and reach different audiences. These publications provide a greater description of the content and can explain how to apply the content in the clinical environment. Conference presentations encourage scholarly interactions among authors, scientists, and clinicians interested in applying the content.
We start, in many cases, by first presenting our work at conferences to quickly share content with a targeted audience. In our experience, when clinical nurses present their work first (at conferences or locally), it paves the way for publication. For instance, many nurses we know have presented projects within their hospital during events such as Nurses Week, at hospital research conferences, and in committee and unit-based educational meetings. Local chapters of nursing organizations also provide an opportunity for presentations.
We then follow-up by publishing in scholarly journals that provide rigorous peer-review and reach a broader audience.
Benefits to clinical nurses sharing their practical experience and content expertise through presentations and publications include providing an opportunity for other nurses and clinicians to acquire this new knowledge without conducting an inquiry project. When other clinical nurses find themselves confronted with a challenging clinical situation, they may find relevant content in the literature that addresses the challenge.
For performance improvement (PI), quality improvement (QI), evidence-based practice (EBP) and implementation science (IS) processes, knowing what works and what doesn’t may inform how a reader approaches their own projects. Certainly, every context is different but important findings can inform the reader’s approach within their own environment.
Presentations and publications also contribute to your advancement within professional development programs, such as advancing on a clinical ladder.
How to get started
Saver describes several approaches you can take to presenting and publishing your practical experience and content expertise.
For example, you could consider a gap in nursing practice and how you approached filling. Maybe you used the existing nursing literature and shared it with colleagues. However, too frequently, literature exists on a nursing practice challenge, so sharing through publication how you addressed the challenge will prove helpful to others. You might do via a case study example with the nursing actions you took and the results, a QI/PI approach, an EBP project, or a research study.
When preparing your manuscript, adhere to the journal’s author guidelines (requirements for publication) and reporting guidelines (the framework for how to write the process you undertook).
Start with the target journal in mind and read the guidelines for authors carefully. Journal/Author Name Estimator (JANE), a free online tool, can help you find potentially relevant journals. You want to make sure that your idea fits with the journal’s focus. This resource also guides you in manuscript length and, in some cases, topic. Many journals publish a list of the kinds of articles they’re seeking.
Find an experienced author and share your ideas with them. Seek feedback early so that you can make best use of your time. You may or may not want to include them as co-authors; however, simply providing feedback doesn’t qualify for authorship. Most journals follow the Committee on Publication Ethics guidance. You also may want to share a nearly complete manuscript with peers who would be the readers you want to appeal to. They can help you determine if the manuscript is at the right level of detail and whether anything is confusing or unclear.
Don’t try to accomplish too much in one manuscript. Choose a clear message and provide sufficient detail but don’t overwhelm the reader with extraneous information, even if it’s interesting. Use consistent terms so that the reader understands what you’re describing; use the same term for the same thing every time. For example, don’t use “impaired mobility” in one part of the article and then use “difficulty walking” to refer to the same concept in the same article.
Use active voice—let the subject do the action. Too often, novice writers use passive voice, where the subject receives the action. For example, active voice would read, “The participants then completed three exercise sessions” and passive would read, “Three exercise sessions were then completed by the participants.”
Recommended reporting guidelines exist for some types of manuscripts. We suggest using them from the outset rather than going back and trying to fit your work into the framework at the end. For example, for a manuscript focused on QI, the SQUiRE 2.0 guidelines provide an overview and examples. EQUATOR(Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research) offers free online resources for the various kinds of recommended guidelines. The writing guidelines for EBP continue to evolve, so check the journal requirements for publishing these types of projects.
Many first-time author may think that the first draft they submit to a journal will be published as-is. However, very few manuscripts tare accepted immediately upon submission. Peer review and editorial review frequently require revision and resubmission, with the goal of improving the manuscript.
Barriers to writing for nurses in clinical positions
A common barrier to publication is feeling as if you don’t know enough to write about a topic. But keep in mind that real-world insights and experiences are invaluable. In the same way that you may ask colleagues about challenging clinical situations or thorny practice processes, consider yourself as someone others might turn to in an effort to learn how you accomplished a task or provided high-quality patient care in a challenging situation.
Some novice writers think that they must set aside entire days to write. However, many successful authors write in short segments of time, even 20 minutes. In the draft document, keep notes where you want to go back and expand more. And remember that no one needs to see these early drafts.
Understanding a journal’s author guidelines also presents a barrier for some first-time writers. You many think that you need to create an exhaustive reference list when, in fact, journals typically want a limited number of references and most within the last 5 years.
Takeaways
Nurses in clinical positions have unique insights based on their experiences. They can provide practical solutions that can be implemented at the bedside. However, too few nurses in clinical positions share their wisdom and hard-earned knowledge. Yes, the publication process has a number of steps, but it’s easily learned. And many rewards can accrue to the nurses who read the publications, and their patients benefit. We suggest that you go for it by finding more experienced people to help you. You have so much to offer!
Elizabeth Madigan, PhD, RN, FAAN, FRCN, is Founder of Elevating Healthcare Scholarship, Mentor, OH; Robert Topp, PhD, RN is Co-Founder of Elevating Healthcare Scholarship, and Mary K. Anthony, PhD, RN, FAAN, is Professor Emerita, Kent State University, Kent, OH.
References
Reynolds SS, Waldrop JB. EBP, QI, and IS: Know the difference. Am Nurse J. 2025;20(3):48. doi:10.51256/ANJ032548
Saver C. Anatomy of Writing for Publication for Nurses. 5th ed. Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau International; 2024.
