Troublesome knowledge for entry-level PhD nursing students: Threshold concepts essential for the research-focused doctorate.

BACKGROUND: Evidence supports that PhD doctoral students experience conceptually difficult knowledge, or troublesome knowledge, during their studies. These areas of troublesome knowledge are often associated with threshold concepts, those ideas specific to a discipline that must be understood to advance ways of thinking and making knowledge in the discipline. PURPOSE: To examine troublesome knowledge identified by a group of PhD nursing students during an introductory course and to consider threshold concepts related to that knowledge. METHOD: Design: Case study research methodology. SAMPLE: 18 entry-level PhD nursing students recruited with convenience sampling. DATA COLLECTION: Content analysis was used to analyze data collected from student reflective learning journals. Journal data was triangulated with formative and summative faculty assessments of student learning. RESULTS: Three essential threshold concepts for entry-level PhD nursing students were identified: developing new ways of knowing, constructing researcher and writer identity, and positioning within the nursing research community. Analysis indicates that entry-level students found the threshold concept of constructing researcher and writer identity most troublesome. CONCLUSION: A PhD introductory nursing course which includes metacognitive activities, scaffolding of assignments, and early positioning within the research community can assist students with mastery of threshold concepts for the research-focused doctorate.

Threshold Concepts in Doctoral Education: A Framework for Writing Development in Novice Nurse Scientists.

Pedagogical practices for writing development in doctoral programs are often the by-product of completing dissertation research and may lack deliberate strategies to assist students with complex genres of writing. This article proposes a framework for doctoral education to assist students with mastery of threshold concepts in writing. Threshold concepts in writing are examined for their applicability to the evolution of writing in PhD nursing students as they begin to think and write like nurse scientists.

Factors Facilitating Publication by Clinical Nurses in a Magnet® Hospital.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the cognitive, behavioral, and environmental factors that facilitate publication by clinical nurses in Magnet® hospitals. BACKGROUND: The culture promoted by the Magnet Recognition Program® promotes nurses practicing in those settings to use, generate, and disseminate best practices. Successful and promising models of care and nursing practice are rarely disseminated beyond the organization where they are practiced. The questions persist: what barriers to writing for publication exist for clinical nurses, and how do we overcome them to advance emergent evidence? METHODS: A focused ethnographic, multiple-case study design examined 5 well-published nurses with high levels of dissemination occurring outside the Magnet organization where they were employed. RESULTS: Nurses in this study most often credited cognitive and behavioral factors for promoting publication. Although the organization encouraged peer-reviewed publication, there were limited environmental efforts to support efforts to publish in peer-reviewed journals by clinical nurses. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this case study call for more research on the multifaceted factors that promote publication by clinical nurses in the practice environment. Publication of research in peer-reviewed journals was supported by environmental influences of time to write, collaborative writing opportunities, and supportive and accurate guidance from editors.

Changing the Publication Culture From "Nice to Do" to "Need to Do": Implications for Nurse Leaders in Acute Care Settings.

PROBLEM: Nurses in clinical settings often generate innovative practice ideas to inform their practice and improve patient outcomes. Yet, few publish and share these innovations with a wider audience. Barriers impeding clinical nurses from writing for publication include discomfort with writing, lack of time, and scarce resources. METHODS: A qualitative study was designed to determine obstacles and facilitators to writing for publication. Interviews were conducted with five clinical nurses who had recently published in peer-reviewed journals. FINDINGS: Three themes emerged from the data: culture of "nice to do," personal motivation, and writing experiences. Findings from the study offer implications for nurse leaders to help increase publication efforts by clinical nurses in acute care settings. CONCLUSION: Nurse leaders can promote publication by clinical nurses through three main strategies: create a culture that supports publication, offer incentives to motivate nurses to publish and reward those who do publish, and provide writing experiences that facilitate writing for publication.