I've been startled by one particular reaction to my announcement (see Editorial, July) that I left the editor-in-chief position at AJN to assume an endowed chair at the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing at the City University of New York. At least six people have asked me, "Will you have to teach?" The tone of the question seemed to suggest that it's almost dishonorable to teach. When I asked what they meant, most people explained that academia expects tenured faculty to bring in research grants that will release them from teaching. But if the experts aren't teaching, how will nursing students learn to write the professional, publishable papers so often crucial to career success?
I happen to love teaching. But academia all too often rewards faculty who focus on their own interests rather than on those of their students or the school. In many schools, you get tenure only if you've obtained (and retain) an R01, the major research project grant from the National Institutes of Health. I'd argue that this emphasis on the R01 is undermining the quality of nursing education if it means that our leading researchers think it's beneath them to "have to" teach students. Indeed, it's the well-published academic who can best help the next generation of nurses learn about publishing their work and experiences.
Such expert help is sorely needed. Recently several graduate and undergraduate nursing students have submitted manuscripts to AJN with cover letters that state, "My instructor suggested that I submit this paper for publication." Sometimes there's no cover letter, and the first page lists the course title and number for which the paper was originally written. At least 90% of these papers are rejected for one or more of the following reasons.
* The author relies heavily on secondary sources.
* The literature review is limited.
* There's a lack of synthesis of the literature.
* There's only a cursory "theoretical framework."
* The author's analysis is superficial, demonstrating a lack of expertise.
Even a graduate student who's a seasoned nurse will struggle to produce a publishable paper when it's on a topic with which she or he has had limited experience. The graduate student with 20 years' experience in critical care nursing should probably write about that field, rather than on another topic explored briefly to meet a course requirement. And the undergraduate student with no real clinical experience shouldn't try to write an article describing how to manage complex clinical care.
There are exceptions, of course. AJN has published some papers written by students who had expert faculty or clinicians as coauthors. (Faculty who don't actually help in the writing of the paper shouldn't be listed as co-authors.) We've also published a few Reflections by students, most notably by those with degrees in other fields who are pursuing a second degree in nursing.
The best doctoral programs, recognizing the importance of competent writing, require students to develop three publishable papers: a review of the literature on their topic, a paper on their research methodology, and a report on that research. The student often leaves school with one or two publishing credits, a good start given how important publishing is to success in academia.
It's admirable that faculty want to encourage students to publish. But I worry that the rejections that inevitably follow the submission of naively written manuscripts will discourage authors from writing later on, when they have more experience and knowledge. At a recent meeting of the AJN editorial board and contributing editors, we agreed that faculty need to give more thought to how to encourage students to write and publish. I'll blog about this topic at http://www.ajnoffthecharts.wordpress.com and invite readers to post their own recommendations. We must encourage nurses to write about their work, but let's not set them up for failure.