The importance of encouraging nurses to publish in scholarly journals

Whenever we think about health-related academic literature published in journals, nurses as the authors would perhaps not spring to mind. There is certainly a dearth of literature produced by nurses.

As I mentioned in the previous article in this series, clinical nurse specialists provide high-quality, patient-centered, timely, and cost-effective care (Royal College of Nursing, 2013). Many of the nurses performing non-invasive procedures eliminate the need for a doctor, giving consultants more time to work with high-risk patients. Since many nurses work for extended periods with patients who have chronic diseases, these nurses are continually innovating in their field of practice, and many of these innovations can prove helpful to their peers and other health professionals too.

Committee members from UK nursing associations such as the inflammatory bowel disorder (IBD) Nurses’ Network, Association for Stoma Care Nurses, and British Liver Nurses’ Forum often complain about the difficulty in getting their members to publish articles in academic journals. Meetings and conferences for nurses often throw up discussions on nurse-led innovations and/or efficient patient-care pathways they have introduced at their hospital departments. However, it is rather difficult to convince nurses to publish these best practices in scholarly journals.

There are two possible reasons for this:

1. Research opportunities are scant in the field of nursing.

2. Nurses believe that they should not talk too much about what they do, lest they be perceived as selfish in a caring profession.

Heinrich (2009) explains that the latter problem is an adage that needs to be forgotten, because the survival of the nursing profession depends on the sharing of stories. The former reason is more tangible. Even though nursing research could greatly influence current and future professional nursing practices (Tingen et al, 2009), it is rather difficult for nurses to obtain the necessary funds and leave of absence from work to carry out such research.

I am the Editor of a nursing journal called Gastrointestinal Nursing, and interestingly, this journal was started by a group of colorectal nurses back in 2002. This proves that there are nurses who understand the importance of publications produced by nurses and for nurses. However, the number of nurses publishing in academic journals remains quite small. Therefore, it is vital that nurses be encouraged to publish the best practices and innovations they introduce in their departments/hospitals, as sharing their experiences with other health professionals could considerably help improve patient care.

References

Heinrich KT (2009) Why more nurses should write for publication (but don’t). American Nurse Today 4(8): 11-12

Royal College of Nursing (2013) RCN Factsheet: Specialist nursing in the UK. http://www.rcn.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/501921/4.13_RCN_Factsheet_on_Specialist_nursing_in_UK_-_2013.pdf (accessed 10 October 2014)

Tingen MS, Burnett AH, Murchison RB, Zhu H (2009) The Importance of Nursing Research. J Nurs Educ 48(3): 167-70. doi:10.3928/01484834-20090301-10