Posted: January 30th, 2023

How to Write a Nursing Paper Complete Guide

Whether at the end or in the middle of a nursing course, students will be required to write a nursing paper and broaden their practical skills by diving into several research sources and conducting their research. Writing a nursing term paper is not a cakewalk since it entails supporting the thesis with arguments, statistics, proper referencing, etc. However, with a complete guide on how to write a nursing paper. You are good to go.

What is a nursing research paper?

A nursing paper is a thesis-driven academic paper written on a specific topic given by the instructor, or sometimes it can be a student’s choice. As a nursing student, you must write nursing papers by providing supporting evidence on a given topic.

Nurses doing their practicum, doing their nursing courses, nursing methodology, or evaluation will sometimes be required to write a nursing paper. Writing a nursing paper includes systematic research to showcase given statistics, look into nursing theories and come up with conclusions. A nursing paper can vary from 5 pages onwards.

How to write outstanding Nursing Papers

The essence of nursing in the healthcare field is vital that research is required since it inherently betters the nursing field and improves healthcare services. Here is a step-by-step guide and no steps skipped process on how to write a nursing research paper.

Choosing a Topic for the Nursing Paper

The first step toward writing an outstanding term paper is choosing a nursing paper topic. The instructor will provide a nursing student with several topics to select from in most cases. If you don’t like or have no interest in the provided topics, you can opt for your nursing paper topic. It should be related to the specific nursing topic in your particular nursing area of specialization.

Most importantly, you should find a nursing paper topic that you deem interesting or one you are always deeply concerned about. Explore the topic you would like to write about and weigh if the theoretical knowledge is available and you have the necessary skills to write a nursing paper.

Topic Relevancy Matters

The relevancy of your topic to the specific course is just as crucial as your interest in the desired topic. You should select a topic that has been analyzed severally in the past, and that way, it will be easier to find relevant, credible, and up-to-date references. You should introduce some freshness into the area in the same line as your readers should be 100% original and not just copy-pasted from other publications. To master this, you should research some reputable sources and develop distinct viewpoints and perspectives on the point.

Always be mindful of the number of sources available, and they must be credible and relevant. The nursing paper shouldn’t be too broad and make it challenging for you to cover all the crucial points or structure the paper well. Conversely, if the nursing paper topic is too narrow, you will find it challenging to expound on the research later. So to be on the safer side, you should first consider the topic’s relevance and look for contemporary issues surrounding the topic.

Deriving from the tips listed above. Some of the best examples of nursing paper topics

are:

• The issue of racism inside the healthcare system.
• Disorders of sleep in women
• Innovations in EBP Nursing
• Why Quantitative Studies Are Never Sufficient
• Professional nursing functions
• Guidelines for the fundamental treatment of catastrophe victims
• Changes and limitations of the sensory system in older adults: nursing care approaches
• Instruction for EBP
• Evaluate the effectiveness of meditative therapy for individuals with cognitive development impairment
• Misunderstandings Regarding Evidence-Based Practices Among Nurses
• EBP Ability
• Critical care nursing administration
• Examining the effects of telephone care during postnatal therapy
• Using machine learning to detect dementia in older adults: an evaluation of its effectiveness and precision
• Works of nursing theorists
• Bias towards women in the nursing profession
• Establishing a medical practice
• Between occupation and service to others
• Recommendations Based on Evidence in Primary Care
• Quantitative Studies and Sampling
• Protocol standard for the treatment of adult headaches.
• Nursing professionals
• Evaluation Methodologies in Evidence-Based Nursing Practice
• Guidelines for basic gynecological education
• The parenting experience of women: attachment and mother-child bonding
• Healthcare contract constraints
• Morality and homelessness treatment
• EBP and Administration
• History of eating disorder treatment and current treatment analysis
• Pathogenesis, immunology, and therapy of HHV6
• Difficulties for New Nurses Regarding EBP
• Social Work and the Health Promotion Specialist’s Function
• The evolution of nursing in the 20th and 21st centuries.
• Qualitative, Quantitative, or Mixed: Nursing’s Preferred Research Method

Look for reliable sources for Nursing essay writing

After selecting the nursing paper, it is time to look for relevant, credible, and up-to-date sources to help you fully explore different perspectives on your topic. You can use the library or the internet to find these sources. Ensure you do your due diligence and get information from reliable and credible websites with online sources.

Today there are many irrelevant and unreliable websites, and you don’t want to risk your academic future. To avoid any self-doubt, use academic journals and specialized directories. Look for:

• academic periodicals specializing in Nursing, Healthcare, Medicine, and other sub-fields; websites ending in.gov or.edu since they are pertinent and can be used for academic purposes;
• general and specialized databases as well as digital libraries.

There are numerous websites and databases dedicated to nursing and medical-related issues. The most popular among them include:

• CINAHL Plus – an online database including useful nursing and related health resources;
• Nursing Reference Center Plus Is a database containing credible, evidence-based information about nursing practice;
• Cochrane Library — an online library containing medical evidence that can be used to inform clinical treatment decisions;
• PubMed is an online service that is part of the National Library of Medicine; it includes vital citations and more books and databases connected to nursing and other life sciences.
• MEDLINE is a bibliographic database including scholarly publications in several medical disciplines, such as veterinary healthcare administration and nursing.

Planning and Preparing for nursing papers

After you have selected the preferred nursing paper topic and found a relevant, credible nursing paper, you already have a rough idea of what your nursing paper is going to look like. But you might not know where to start or go. To make everything more manageable, you need to have a prewriting practice that will help you articulate the main points of your nursing paper and come up with new ideas for your nursing paper to write an outstanding nursing paper.

Brainstorming

The pre-writing practice should be centered around the information you have garnered on the given topic and other related issues. That is why it is crucial to initiate the writing process and gain the knowledge pertinent to the nursing paper topic before you begin writing the key points. Next, you should practice brainstorming techniques. Brainstorming includes jotting down all the key points pertinent to the topic in your mind.

Freewriting

Another crucial tip is to practice a strategy called freewriting. Freewriting is all bout jotting down in the form of sentence lists. This will help you expound on the initial ideas and create new viewpoints on which you might further explore the idea.

Mind-Mapping

You can also use “mind-mapping”. You should create a visual presentation of your nursing paper. The mind mapping strategy will help you visualize your nursing pape ideas. You have to select the more leading ideas. Then on the key points, list down the supporting point you will use to support the main ideas.

Now that you have the ideas and the key points listed on the selected topic, it is time to create an outline of your nursing paper. An outline will help you structure all the parts of your paper and make it sound logical and professional. The nursing paper outline is centered around your topic, and the thesis statement also includes a list of the key points you intend to discuss in your nursing paper. You should also review the key points further and make sure it touches all the crucial points.

Nursing Papers outline

If you intend to obtain the highest grades on your nursing paper, you must follow a given format or structure. Go through your instructor’s instructions and stick to the provided instructions. In most cases, a nurse’s paper should be written according to the American Psychological Association (APA). In the APA format, it defines structure.

The APA format typically contains the title page. The abstract, main body, and reference list. Your nursing paper should be in Time New Roman and font 12. The in-text citations must have the author-date format. In these cases, you can include the page number if you insert the citation directly from a publication or an online source.

As mentioned earlier, the structure of your nursing paper should help you develop an outline. If your instructor provides some additional instructions, be sure to follow them, a typical Structure of Nursing Papers in APA contains the following.

Title page

The title page must have the running head, the name of the nursing paper, the student’s name, and the affiliated school or college.

Abstract

Your abstract should be on a separate page. The title should be “abstract” and unsorted in the center. The main role of the abstract should contain the key points of your nursing paper and highlight the value you are adding to the existing knowledge and your interpretations of the findings.

Body

The main body of the nursing paper has the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusions. The primary function of the introductory paragraph is to provide a background of the nursing paper and explain the problem your paper aims to solve. Your introduction must have a thesis statement which is usually the last part of the introduction that sums up the main argument of the nursing paper.

Next, the main body paragraphs should detail the arguments mentioned in the introduction and the abstract. Make sure to support your arguments with evidence, statistics, facts, and even real-life examples, not forgetting your evaluation of the issue.

Conclusion

In your conclusion, summarize all the disused points in the preceding paragraphs and again highlight the thesis statement. Remember, you should not add any new information in the conclusion section.

Reference Page

The reference page should be on a separate page. The title page should be titled References and be structured as per the APA referencing style guide.

Proofreading and edit

After you finish writing a nursing paper, next, you edit and proofread your paper. You will have to check punctuation and grammar issues a these are the most common needs you are likely to make when writing nursing papers. Thanks to technology, it has become easier to check grammar mistakes by using tools such as Grammarly that will help you perfect the grammar used on your nursing paper.

Use tools such as Copyscape and Turnitin to check for plagiarism since you don’t want to be penalized due to plagiarism problems with your paper.

After checking for grammar and punctuation, look for the choice of words in your nursing paper, as academic papers must have an official and academic tone. Avoid contractions and idioms in academic language. You can also solicit help from a friend or an expert to help you detect mistakes in your nursing papers. An extra eye looking into your paper will help you discover your writing weaknesses and work on improving them in due course.

How to Write the Best Introduction

The introduction of a nursing paper is crucial since the introduction will determine id the reader keeps on reading the rest of the nursing paper or not. As they say, first impressions matter a lot. A compelling introductory paragraph allows you to make an excellent first impression. A poorly written introduction confuses and puts off the reader.

To understand how to write a compelling introduction, you have to understand the critical aspects of your introduction. It must contain the following aspects.

• Must be attention-grabbing
• Contain the thesis statement
• Introduce the nursing paper topic
• Highlight the key points of the paper
• Explain the problem your paper aims to solve.

Steps for writing the best introduction for a nursing research paper

1. Introducing the topic

When you begin your nursing paper, you must inform the reader about the topic and what you will discuss. You have to make your nursing paper introduction captivating to the readers interested in reading. You can begin by including a quotation, statistic, or a thought-provoking question.

2. Set the foundation

Each paper has its background setting. For instance, if you are writing a research paper, you need to offer a synopsis of the existing research on the topic and give insight into what your paper brings. You need to look at the problems and the missing gap in the preexisting research and fill them.

If you are writing an argumentative nursing paper, you have to trim it down to the title and offer insight into the topic to provide content. Avoid overloading the introduction with unnecessary details.

3. State the research problem

Your introduction should help convince the reader that your paper will address the research question. Demonstrate how your nursing paper will solve the research problems and address the questions you have not addressed in the existing research.

4. Thesis statement

You need to specify the primary goal of the research. You can use it as a thesis statement or throw in a research question with a paper. Your thesis statement should not be more than two sentences.

Tips for Writing Nursing Papers

These tips will come in handy if you want to navigate the process of writing a nursing paper quickly. In this simple but comprehensive list, you will learn the practical tips that will help you nail your nursing paper. Several nursing paper experts have verified these tips, and you should take them as the gospel.

Select a good nursing topic

Most nursing students disregard the importance of selecting a topic that excites or satisfies them. As a result, they struggle with developing a topic chosen for its reason. If you are free to choose the topic, select a topic that you find interesting. If you are interested in geriatric medicine, select topics such as falls or the management of an aging population.

Other possible topics include safety of patients, nurse training, nurse credentials, nursing state laws and regulations, morality, mental health treatment, healthcare informatics, and healthcare transformations.

As this is an advanced paper with a lengthy format, ensure that your nursing topic is supported by data or has been debated in science publications.

Carefully Read paper instructions

When beginning to write the paper, it is essential to comprehend the basis upon which you are to write it from the perspective of an external marker, your professor, or your instructor/teacher. Neglecting this stage is similar to beginning a mountain climb without the proper equipment. You will lose significant points or make tiny omissions that affect your grade.

Spending time reviewing the instructions will assist you in:

• Determine the ages of the scholarly sources that are permitted.
• Recognize and read other items necessary to complete the document related to the instructions.
• Understand the deadline to plan the entire process
• You will be able to develop an outline for a research paper if you learn how to organize your document.
• Help you restrict the scope of the paper because you are aware of the required number of words or pages.
• Select the appropriate theoretical or conceptual frameworks to apply throughout the paper.
• Evaluate if you are required to use the specified sources or if you can also conduct your research.

Understand the topic you will be writing. Even if it is a research paper on a case study, you will know what components of the case study to discuss.

Before selecting a nursing paper topic or making significant progress, get clarification if you discover you do not understand the directions.

Plan your nursing paper

Nursing papers can be analytical, argumentative, or explanatory. According to the American Psychological Association (APA) style, they are consistently formatted. To complete a nursing project, you must display an exceptional command of knowledge, research skills, persuasion, and organization. This is only possible with sufficient planning.

Take the time to familiarize yourself with the nursing paper guidelines after receiving the project via the internet, email, or your institution’s method. Then, after determining the topic and word count, devote time to planning the paper. In most instances, this is where you will outline the structure of your paper to decide the primary sections and how to approach the topic.

Organize your nursing paper

Following the selection process, but the sources into a folder and use citation management tools to keep track of them. The following step is to organize your research paper’s bibliography using the information from step one. The bibliography must meet all of the guidelines for a standard research paper.

You can also save your favorite websites to your browser’s bookmarks. There are even better options for linking your sources, such as citation management systems or a digital bibliography. To give yourself the best opportunity to read, comprehend, criticize, and present ideas, it is imperative that you begin writing your paper as soon as you have completed your research. In the beginning, you should write a thesis statement for your nursing paper.

The outline should serve as a guide for your paper’s writing process. You can use it to help you organize your paper’s flow and convey important ideas and parts. If you can, use the Pomodoro approach to complete your paper, in which you finish sections and take a break before moving on to the next piece.

Begin researching and writing early

When writing a nursing paper for a nursing program, do not wait until the last minute; this increases your chances of failing. Begin your research as soon as possible to ensure that your paper will be a success.

Find credible sources in the scholarly nursing databases and sift through the data as needed. As you research, you would have already or somehow, along the road, developed your thesis statement. You can then choose from a variety of academic sources. Do not fear seeking information from Gray search on Google or Wikipedia.

You can use these sources to expand your knowledge and better understand topics, but you are not allowed to credit some of them when writing. You can learn a lot about a topic by looking at available sources, finding keywords to use in your research, and getting a sense of the sheer volume of knowledge. However, the sources you utilize in your paper should be relevant, credible, and reliable.

Use Citations tools

Use citation management programs like Zotero, EndNote, Legacy, and RefWorks to keep track of your citations.

Several tools might help you arrange your citation database. As a bonus, you can ensure that the citation style is correct because they offer AMA, APA, ASA, or Harvard formatting options.

With such tools, you can create bibliographies and paste them into your research paper once you’ve finished it. Avoiding intentional plagiarism is easier when you write first and cite later. A citation is much more likely to be lost when using the latter method. You’ll also find that quoting while writing helps keep your thoughts flowing and critically examine your reporting data.

Proofread and edit nursing paper

You should first congratulate yourself on finishing your paper. An excellent job, but you are still in the woods. You must make sure your nursing paper complies with all established standards. It’s always a good idea to edit your work before submitting it.

Look at the structure, organization, length, and wording of the text before beginning nursing paper editing. Look at your thesis and how you’ve developed it in your paper. Is it necessary to adjust it? Make changes to your introduction and conclusion if you think it’s necessary. Using our nursing paper checklist, you can ensure that everything is in order.

You can hire a nursing research paper editor to review your paper’s instructions and requirements. The editor will make any necessary adjustments if necessary. They are also capable of doing a thorough proofreading job. Nursing paper writing experts from Online Nursing Papers can always help you if you need someone to integrate the changes.

The Bottom Line

If you have followed this blog up to this point, you are already an expert on writing nursing papers. You need to choose a suitable nursing paper topic, look for credible and relevant nursing sources, use a nursing paper outline and proofread your paper before submission. These are just some crucial steps that will help you nail your nursing papers.