Editorial

Telling our stories: writing for publication to enhance reflective and contextualised family and community practice

This Introduction is advance text extracted from the accepted manuscript. For edited full text in PDF format see http://pubs.e-contentmanagement.com/

Debra Jackson
Professor, Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Health, University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Broadway NSW

Sharon Andrew
Department of Acute Care, Faculty of Health and Social Care, Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, United Kingdom

Michelle Cleary
Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore

PP: 2 - 4

Article Text

Health care provision is an area in which constant innovation and improvement is needed, with nurses and others involved in service planning and delivery being called upon to do more with less, and to meet the needs of individuals and communities facing ever more complex health challenges and disease processes (Jackson & Saltman 2011). In addition, health care is delivered within a culture of increasing performativity, accountability and demand for evidence (Taylor, Lyon & Harris 2005; Jackson 2009). These two factors create a need for innovation in service design and delivery as well as for focused and considered dissemination of such innovations and how they are applied, through stories of practice- reflective and contextualised accounts of what has worked well, what has not worked so well, where improvements have been made and where further improvements are necessary.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and right from Nightingales time (Stanley 2007), nurses have shown themselves to be inventive and able to adapt to various settings and situations in order to provide the best possible care in all manner of circumstances (Biedermann, Usher, Williams, Hayes 2001; Hegney et al 2002; O'Brien & Jackson 2007; Rewi  2007). But, when working with families and communities there are various persuasive cultural and social imperatives that will exert a strong, even decisive influence on openness and adherence to education, intervention and treatment (Wade, Jackson & Daly 2003; Mohan, Wilkes & Jackson 2006; Ogunsiji, Wilkes & Jackson 2007).  The strength of these factors may be such that they cannot be ignored and quite possibly accounts, at least in part, for the poorer health status of some minority community groups.

In establishing trusting and respectful relationships with patients, clients and families, there is much that can be learned. In this issue we are pleased to present a range of papers that portray perspectives from consumers, and cover diverse issues such as the meaning of childbirth for African women in Canada (Etowa 2012), experiential accounts of Muslim people with diabetes, and how they manage this in the context of Ramadan (Peterson, Nayda & Hill 2012), the meaning of smoking from the perspective of older women (Treloar & Gunn 2012), and older New Zealand women's perspectives of factors that impact on their quality of life while living with chronic illness (Lowe & McBride-Henry 2012). These papers all contribute insights that can inform practice and services so as to make them more appropriate and sensitive to a wider range of health consumers.

However, there are many innovative approaches to practice and service delivery that are potentially very useful to others, but that are never adequately disseminated (Cleary, Walter & Luscombe 2007). This means that other nurses, patients, clients and communities may not ever benefit from the knowledge that has been generated. There is a disconnect between doing and writing and it may be that we are more comfortable with talking than writing, as some information about innovations in practice development and novel approaches to care can only be found in the form of conference abstracts, which, while of some use, tend to lack the contextual and other detail necessary to make full and informed decisions about their efficacy, benefits and potential for further development or application.

It is known that there are all sorts of reasons why writing is an activity that can cause avoidance and procrastination in many people (Jackson 2009). Even where there is a high level of commitment and desire to write, in today's highly pressured organisational environments, it can still be very difficult to find the time to write. So how can we approach writing to facilitate targeted and focused, rather than informal and unplanned, dissemination?

Given that there are a limited number of hours in a day, and ever-increasing demand, simple and realistic goal setting is essential. Therefore, it can be useful to position writing as a part of everyday life. McGuiness (2008) suggests that being proactive in spending 20 minutes each day writing is achievable and will generate enhanced confidence, skills and outcomes. This idea of regular and daily writing resonates with comments by McGrail, Rickard and Jones (2006:20) who suggest that lack of momentum, being in a 'writing lull', or being unable to keep writing as a focus in within the occupational/professional role all plays a part in failure to produce writing outcomes.

Publications can take many forms including literature reviews, discursive papers, practice reports, case studies, and academic reports. There are numerous avenues for publication, and it is important to carefully select an appropriate target journal to ensure that a paper reaches its intended audience. As well as publication in journals, additional dissemination strategies can include media coverage, and development of materials such as pamphlets, and websites that can be targeted to a wider audience, including consumers, and thus also contribute to increasing health literacy in the community (Cleary, Walter & Luscombe 2007).

While there is a lot of literature around quite resource intensive strategies such as writing groups,  and coaches (McGrail, Rickard & Jones 2006), garnering the necessary support - for example, resources for coaching and the commitment of others for groups - may not be easy in these times of economic rationalisation, staffing pressures and general belt tightening. However, a number of resource articles on publishing are available to guide clinicians, and early career researchers with a view to disseminating practice knowledge, and improving clinical outcomes (see for example Horsfall, Cleary, Walter et al. 2007; Cleary, Walter & Luscombe 2007; Cleary et al. 2009). Group writing with a coordinator, schedule of timelines, and a clear allocation of responsibilities can assist nurse authors that are relatively new and inexperienced in telling their stories to translate their ideas into writing, and promote scholarly development and collaborative writing (Cleary & Walter 2004).

As health care professionals we need to be able to bring education, support, information and care to communities, and present our interventions in ways that are culturally and socially acceptable to a diverse consumer group. We owe it to ourselves,  to those who will follow us, but most of all to the patients, clients, families and communities who depend upon us, to record our stories of practice, so that those making health care decisions now and in the future have the information and evidence they need to provide the best possible care for all.

View references

Navigate: Archives | Contents | Top of page

Search

Translate

Related Publications from eContent Management