The Article: Smith, Y. & Caplin, M. (2012). Teaching the literacy of professionalism: When clinical skills are not enough. Nurse Educator, 37(3): 121-125.

Big Idea: Writing, presenting, and speaking are professional nursing skills that are expected but rarely taught intentionally. Many nurses incorrectly think professional presentations, posters, and articles are reserved for nurses with advanced degrees. Smith and Caplin, recognizing this knowledge gap and ongoing false assumption, utilized the term “professional literacy” to explain the phenomenon. In order to increase RN-BSN nursing students’ professional literacy, they developed a three-credit-hour, online, elective course incorporating the Community of Inquiry framework, which focuses on cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence. The course covered five objectives encompassing numerous professional nursing skills.

Survey Says!: All of the nurses who enrolled in the elective course completed the requirements for completion. They studied articles each week, developed presentations, prepared mock articles for journal submission, and encouraged one another along the way, providing open and constructive criticism. The authors, who were also the course teachers, received excellent student evaluations, which recommended the course as a required course rather than an elective. Authors were also surprised by the far reach of the course as participants openly shared the coursework and knowledge gained to their colleagues both informally and formally.

Quotable: “Interesting career accomplishments, unique clinical scenarios, and valuable project contributions are common among nurses and are worth sharing with colleagues. But when asked how often they speak or write about their work, nurses identify barriers such as feeling inadequate, lacking knowledge on how to present, and failing to recognize the value of contributions [reference]” (p. 121).

So What?: I agree many nurses lack professional literacy to present and write their great work to others; this honor and expectation is not solely for advanced practice nurses. Others interested in beginning a similar program either within their school or health care facility should review this article as it contains objectives and a framework for the entire course. Professional literacy is an important skill all nurses should possess.