Calling general practice and community nurses – we want to hear about the work you’ve been doing. What might you have to share with nursing colleagues in an article?
You’ve led a great project in your practice, have expertise in an area to update others on, or you have a viewpoint to share, and would like to write about it so that colleagues across the country can hear all about it too – but where do you start?
Here at Nursing in Practice, we want to hear from you about what you’re doing on the ground, whether that’s a new way of doing things, approaching routine processes with a fresh perspective, or bringing something completely new into the mix.
These initiatives, no matter how small, deserve to be shared with nurses up and down the country to show what best practice can look like and shine a spotlight on the ingenuity, leadership, and creativity of primary care nurses.
While we’re not looking for formally published research papers necessarily, but if you have some work, or expertise in a clinical area to write on, here’s how to go about it.
Send us a summary
So that we can help you and find the right place to talk about your work, send us a summary first in an email, so that we can feedback to you what we need and offer you guidance. In the short overview should be a few lines telling us who you are and about the work you’re doing.
Think about:
- What inspired you to change things?
- How did you go about it? Who did you involve? What resources or support did you need?
- What has been the outcome, was it successful? Have you had good feedback from colleagues and patients?
- Did you overcome any challenges along the way?
- What do you hope to achieve through these changes?
Contacting us first will help to ensure that your article has the best chance of being accepted.
Get started
Then it’s time to get writing. But perhaps you aren’t sure where to begin?
Ignore those niggling thoughts telling you that you can’t write or that you don’t have time. Even professional journalists like us can feel intimidated by that blank Word doc, and we write for a living. Our trick? Just start writing.
if it’s something that you’re passionate about, start writing, even if you’re beginning ‘in the middle’ of your article – you’ll find those words will start flowing, and you can add in an introduction and a conclusion later.
Another trick is to write out one main action point or achievement that you want to tell people about in a few simple sentence (as if it was being read out as the main story on the television news?), and work from there.
What else is there to know?
Whether you’re an avid reader of Nursing in Practice or only have time for a quick scroll through the website before you start your shift, take a look to give you some idea of what makes a good article.
Be simple and direct in your writing – try to write as if you are speaking – and don’t think you have to use long and complicated sentences to get your point across.
The editors here at Nursing in Practice will be on hand to help you craft a sparkling article through both advice and an editing process, via a few questions, to ensure the best possible final version that will then go on to be published online or in the magazine. We will be ready and waiting to look your draft article and produce an edited version for you to check.
We look to accept as many articles as possible from nurses working in general practice and community relating to evidence-based and innovative practice.
Benefits to you?
By being published in Nursing in Practice, you can:
- Share and discuss ideas and best practice initiatives with nurses across the UK
- Refine your writing with the help of our experienced editors
- Promote your work at a national level
- Build your own profile as well as that of your workplace
- And, hopefully, you’ll enjoy it, too!
Popular article formats
Over the years, we’ve been championing the voices of nurses from across the primary care sector from general practice nursing and community nurse. Here are a few examples of nurse-written pieces we’ve published:
- We run opinion pieces, for example Marilyn Eveleigh discussed her thoughts on nurse recruitment, while George Coxon explored political activism in nursing.
- Nurse lecturer Sarah Weaver wrote for us about being an effective mentor and supervisor.
- Advanced nurse practitioner Julia Taylor looked at why nursing is so important in tackling challenges in primary care.
- Contributors have also written diaries about what their day-to-day working lives involve.
- And nurse Sarah O’Donnell discussed the diverse role of the general practice nurse and the opportunities the career offers.
- Rose Gallagher has written a clinical explainer article on the emergence of monkeypox, and Louise Newson, Hayley Berry and Amanda Worsley co-wrote an article on supporting patients through the HRT shortages.
What topic will you write about?
Get in touch with our editor, Carolyn Scott at [email protected] – we can’t wait to hear from you.
