Addressing Nursing Student Understanding of Health Care Transitions Through a Cross-Course Writing Assignment.

ABSTRACT: Caring for patients with chronic health conditions and providing them appropriate transitional care that provides positive outcomes and decreased rehospitalizations is essential in today's heath care environment. Nursing students must learn to think critically and communicate effectively in order to provide appropriate transitional care. This pedagogical challenge may be met in part by implementing a cross-course writing assignment that combines the concepts of chronic illness and community health as an effective tool to teach students about transitional care, stimulate critical thinking, and improve writing competencies.