Enhancing academic and professional literacy in Swedish specialist nurse and other professional education programmes: a teacher’s perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47408/jldhe.vi31.1161Keywords:
academic literacy, higher education, professional education, professional literacyAbstract
This opinion piece focuses on the vital integration of academic and professional literacies in specialist nurse education and other professional education programmes within higher education in Sweden. In this opinion piece, we argue that extended learning, practise, and support can enhance the academic and professional literacy competence of specialist nurse students and other students in professional educations. To offer student specific and targeted support, educators, researchers, and policymakers can engage in collaboration, as well as inspire and empower their teachers through ongoing professional development. We also argue that the relationship between these two literacies should be highlighted in higher education to clarify the importance of academic skills within specialist nursing and other professions. We therefore suggest higher education could be more active in implementing and visualising intended learning outcomes with progression and learning activities regarding academic literacy as well as professional literacy curricula in professional educations. This approach, with an emphasis on systematic monitoring and research, ensures proficiency in effective communication, evidence-based practice, ethical responsibility, continuous learning, and quality assurance.
References
Ask, S. (2007) Vägar till ett akademiskt skriftspråk (Roads to academic written language). Academic thesis. Acta Wexionensia No 115/2007. Växjö: Växjö University Press [13:01].
Björklund, E., Magnusson, L. and Fernström, I. (2023) ‘Lärares perspektiv på breddat deltagande i högre utbildning: mångfald, omsorg och merarbete’ (‘Teacher’s perspectives on widened participation in higher education: diversity, care and extra work’), Högre utbildning, 13(1), pp.58-71. Available at: https://doi.org/10.23865/hu.v13.4013.
Blåsjö, M. and Wittek, L. (2017) ‘Writing in professional education research overview and theoretical starting points’, in Erixon, P.-O. and Josephson, O. (eds.), Kampen om texten. Lund: Studentlitteratur, pp.36-41.
Borglin, G. (2012) ‘Promoting critical thinking and academic writing skills in nurse education’ Nurse Education Today, 32, pp.611-613. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2011.06.009.
Borglin, G. and Fagerström, C. (2012) ‘Nursing students’ understanding of critical thinking and appraisal and academic writing: a descriptive, qualitative study’, Nurse Education in Practice, 12, pp.356-360. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2012.04.009.
Coster, M., Watkins, M. and Norman, I. J. (2018) ‘What is the impact of professional nursing on patients’ outcomes globally? An overview of research evidence’, International journal of nursing studies, 78, pp.76-83. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2017.10.009.
Gazza, E. A., Shellenbarger, T. and Hunker, D. F. (2013) ‘Developing as a scholarly writer: the experience of students enrolled in a PhD in nursing program in the United States’, Nurse Education Today, 33(3), pp.268-274.
Hillege, S. P., Catterall, J., Beale, B. L. and Stewart, L. (2014) ‘Discipline matters: Embedding academic literacies into an undergraduate nursing program’, Nurse Education in Practice,14(6), pp.686-691. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2014.09.005.
Jefferies, D., McNally, S., Roberts, K., Wallace, A., Stunden, A., D’Souza, S. and Glew, P. (2018) ‘The importance of academic literacy for undergraduate nursing students and its relationship to future professional clinical practice: a systematic review’, Nurse Education Today, 60, pp.84-91. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2017.09.020.
Johnsson, J. E. and Rulo, K. (2019) ‘Problem in the profession: how and why writing skills in nursing must be improved’ Journal of Professional Nursing, 35, pp.57-64.
Karseth B. (2004) ‘Curriculum changes and moral issues in nursing education’, Nurse Education Today, 24(8), pp.638-643. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2004.08.003.
Kennedy Sheldon, L. and Hilaire, D. M. (2015) ‘Development of communication skills in healthcare: perspectives of new graduates of undergraduate nursing education’, Journal of Nursing Education and Practice, 5(7), pp.30-37. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5430/jnep.v5n7p30.
Mitchell, K., Blanchard, L. and Roberts, T. (2020) ‘Seeking transformation: how students in nursing view their academic writing context – a qualitative systematic review’, International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship, 17(1), pp.2-14. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1515/ijnes-2020-0074.
Newell, S. and Jordan, Z. (2015) ‘The patient experience of patient-centered communication with nurses in the hospital setting: a qualitative systematic review protocol’, JBI Database of System Reviews and Implementation Reports, 13(1), pp 76-87. Available at: https://doi.org/10.11124/jbisrir-2015-1072.
Råholm, M. B., Larsen Hedegaard, B., Löfmark, A. and Slettebo, Å. (2010) ‘Nursing education in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden – from Bachelor’s degree to PhD’, Journal of Advanced Nursing, 66(9), pp.2126-2137. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2010.05331.x.
Rai, L. and Lillis, T. (2013) ‘“Getting it write” in social work: exploring the value of writing in academia to writing for professional practice’, Teaching in higher education, 18(4), pp.352–364. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2012.719157.
Soderlundh, H., Lind, T. and Nordstrom, A. (2017) ‘Hur får man en högskolepedagogisk satsning att leva vidare? Några reflektioner kring ämnesintegrering av akademiskt skrivande på Polisutbildningen’, Högre utbildning, 7(2), pp.35-39. Available at: https://doi.org/10.23865/hu.v7.1035.
Sørensen, K., Van den Broucke, S., Fullam, J., Doyle, G., Pelikan, J., Slonska, Z. and Brand, H. (2012) ‘Health literacy and public health: a systematic review and integration of definitions and models’, BMC Public Health, 12(1), pp.1-13. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-12-80.
The Swedish Constitution Law (2022) Lag om sammanhållen vård och omsorgsdokumentation (913). Available at: https://skr.se/skr/halsasjukvard/utvecklingavverksamhet/naravard/sammanhallendokumentation.74603.html (Accessed: 14 May 2024).
Tyndall, E. and Skott, D. (2017) ‘Writing development in associate degree in nursing-to-baccalaureate degree in nursing students: moving out of the comfort zone’, Journal of Nursing Education, 56(3), pp.182-185. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20170222-11.
Wingate, U. (2006) ‘Doing away with “study skills”’, Teaching in higher education, 11(4), pp.457-469. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13562510600874268.
Wingate, U. (2016) ‘Academic literacy across the curriculum: towards a collaborative instructional approach’, Language Teaching, 51(3), pp.349-364. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444816000264.
Wingate, U. (2019) ‘Achieving transformation through collaboration: the role of academic literacies’, Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, Issue 15, November, pp.1-9. Available at: https://doi.org/10.47408/jldhe.v0i15.566.
Wingate, U. and Tribble, C. (2012) ‘The best of both worlds? Towards an English for Academic Purposes/Academic Literacies writing pedagogy’, Studies in Higher Education, 37(4), pp.481-495. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2010.525630.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).