Academic Resources and Strategies
Lavonda Davison RN
Walden University
June 11, 2021
Academic Resources and Strategies
Academic Resources
The academic resources available for the MSN program include journals available in the university library. The university library is an important resource for a student searching for evidence-based information on healthcare issues. Some of the journals include the American Journal of Nursing, American Nurse Today, Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, and Evidence-Based Nursing. The library is a rich platform to find evidence-based information for nursing (Stanfill et al., 2019). Other resources include nursing research databases such as CINAHL, Cochrane, Medline, Medscape, and UptoDate. Nursing databases are pertinent while locating research studies and statistics in nursing. Annual conferences are important academic sources since they provide information on healthcare trends (Hofmeyer & Taylor, 2021). Some of the conferences include the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Student Policy Summit, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, and the AANP Specialty and Leadership Conference. Conferences are important since it helps students to interact and network with other students (Hofmeyer & Taylor, 2021). The writing center is another critical academic center. For instance, writing well-formatted and research papers is a common practice in the MSN program.
Professional Resources
The American Association for Nurse Practitioners is a prolific resource containing important information for nurse professionals. Students can access the site to find information on trending issues, news, clinical resources, and practice information across states (AANP, 2021). Nurses can find information on advocacy and policy changes needed to enhance the nurse practice. The Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and the Journal for Nurse Practitioners are effective resources for students and practitioners (AANP, 2021). Students can use the resources and still access quality information as they transition into nursing practice.
Online mobile applications for nurses are available on the World Wide Web to help practitioners. Students can download the applications to understand the information necessary for the nurse practice (Flynn et al., 2018). For instance, Epocrates is an important resource for practitioners since it provides information on clinical interventions. Practitioners use the application to find information on dosing, reactions, interactions, pharmacology, and pregnancy (Flynn et al., 2018). Finding information on patient management and treatment is vital for nurse practitioners since it eliminates the risk of medical errors. Nurse practitioners can enjoy easy and efficient access to information and enhance their decision-making (Flynn et al., 2018). MSN students and nurse practitioners can use the resources to enhance their knowledge.
Benefits of the Resources
The resources are effective in providing reliable and evidence-based information that expands the knowledge of students and practitioners. For instance, conferences are important in understanding the appropriate perspective for the current emerging issues in the nursing practice (Calinici, 2017). Another benefit is that they provide information on nurse advocacy and policies that affect nurse practice. For instance, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners advocates for the elimination of barriers when nurses relocate to other states (Calinici, 2017). The varying requirements for nurse practitioners across states restrict the easy movement due to certification and licensure requirements.
Conclusion
Academic resources are vital sources of information for MSN students and nurse practitioners. The MSN students and nurse practitioners can use the academic and professional resources to expand their knowledge and easily retrieve information. Easy accessibility of reliable and evidence-based information is critical for safe, efficient, and quality nurse practice. The resources address the emerging issues such as policies on licensure and certification of nurses across states. The information is vital in improving the quality of practice, providing evidence-based, and enhance the knowledge of students and nurse practitioners on contemporary issues.
Plan Part 3: Strategies to Promote Academic Integrity
Part 3, Section 1: Writing Sample: The Connection Between Academic and Professional Integrity
Academic integrity involves demonstrating honesty in completing academic work. Students and professionals have a responsibility to demonstrate academic honesty by completing their work without plagiarizing (Bealle, 2017). Upholding moral behaviors in the academic setting is important to uphold high standards of writing. Students and professionals should provide credit to other people’s work through references. Acknowledging contributors such as researchers improves the integrity of academic writing (Bealle, 2017). The citations encourage researchers but plagiarism denies people the motivation to publish new information due to the fear of plagiarism.
Professional practices are standards that are used to guide the behavior of a practitioner. Strong scholarly ethics is one of the expected codes of conduct in the academic world such as while conducting research, completing assignments, and examinations (Garza Mitchell & Parnther, 2018). Professional practices and scholarly ethics have always been intertwined. For instance, professionals should credit the work of other people to encourage other researchers. Crediting other people will improve the professional rigor of a person. Scholarly writing leads to profound professional practice since it builds on the skills and confidence of a practitioner (Garza Mitchell & Parnther, 2018).
Grammarly, Safe Assign, and paraphrasing improve the value of academic integrity. The tools are important to improve the quality of writing (Sheeba et al., 2019). For instance, Grammarly helps students to identify grammatical errors, paraphrase statements, and measure their plagiarism levels. The grammar tool improves spelling, punctuations, use of appropriate sentence structure, and articles. The tool helps students and professionals to detect the areas that need improvement or paraphrasing (Sheeba et al., 2019). For instance, paraphrasing reduces the level of plagiarism. Safe Assign is an important tool in measuring the level of similarity between the document a student is writing and the databases available online. The tool can improve academic integrity since they reduce the risk of presenting work with compromised integrity (Sheeba et al., 2019). Highlighting the similarity level reduces the risk of submitting poor-quality work. The tools improve the quality and originality of the work and build on academic integrity.
Part 3, Section 2: Strategies for Maintaining Integrity of Work
During learning, I intend to maintain a high level of integrity in my academic work. Maintaining the integrity of my work will promote high ethical standards (Sheeba et al., 2019). Achieving the goal will require various strategies in my professional and academic work. One of the strategies is to prepare myself adequately when completing assignments. Preparing myself involves reading widely and finding information from various sources (Bealle, 2017). The preparation will give me the confidence to write a quality paper and reduce the risk of copying other people’s work. Students who do not prepare adequately copy-paste information from journals and websites since they do not have sufficient time to complete their work. Preparation will be essential in completing coursework and exams.
The second strategy is consulting from my colleagues and professors when I am not understanding various concepts. Consulting is an opportunity to expand knowledge in a certain area (Bealle, 2017). The approach improves the quality of writing and fosters academic integrity. Joining a study group is important to enhance understanding of information. Another strategy is doing personal and group research. Research widens the knowledge and improves the ability to deliver quality work. Research reduces the risk of plagiarizing an essay since it provides diverse information that students can use to complete their assignments (Garza Mitchell & Parnther, 2018). The next strategy is to learn how to acknowledge scholars. I will practice research and cite sources. The practice will involve using different formatting styles to insert citations and references. Another strategy is to learn advanced skills to improve my grammar by using tools such as Grammarly. The tools will improve my sentence structure, use of quotations, and appropriate spelling.
The resources I propose to use for the professional and academic work include library materials, online research journals, past research studies, and technological tools. Conducting wide research in the library and online databases will improve my knowledge of the area of specialization (Garza Mitchell & Parnther, 2018). For instance, I will create time to visit the library frequently. I will select the various journals I will use to find appropriate information online. Another resource is the professional and student code of conduct. The code of conduct will guide my behavior in completing essays with integrity (Bealle, 2017). I will strive to attend workshops to enhance my skills in academic work. For instance, the seminars will reveal new information such as technological tools I can use to improve integrity in writing.
Conclusion
Professional practices are standards that are used to guide the behavior of a practitioner. Students and professionals should adhere to set standards of academic integrity. Students and professionals have a responsibility to demonstrate academic honesty by completing their essays without plagiarizing. Maintaining the integrity of my work will promote high ethical standards. Achieving the goal will require various strategies in my professional and academic work. The professional tools will improve my sentence structure, use of quotations, and appropriate spelling. The resources I intend to use for professional and academic development include library materials, online research journals, past research studies, and technological tools.
References
AANP (2021). American Association of Nurse Practitioners. AANP. Retrieved from https://www.aanp.org/
Bealle, P. (2017). Community college academic integrity lessons that put research into practice. Theory Into Practice, 56(2), 144-155.
Calinici, T. (2017). Nursing apps for education and practice. Journal of Health Medical Informatics, 8(262), 2.
Flynn, G. A. H., Polivka, B., & Behr, J. H. (2018). Smartphone use by nurses in acute care settings. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 36(3), 120-126.
Garza Mitchell, R. L., & Parnther, C. (2018). The Shared Responsibility for Academic Integrity Education. New Directions for Community Colleges, 183, 55-64.
Hofmeyer, A., & Taylor, R. (2021). Strategies and resources for nurse leaders to use to lead with empathy and prudence so they understand and address sources of anxiety among nurses practising in the era of COVID‐19. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 30(1-2), 298-305.
Sheeba, R. P., Vinitha, R., Angelin, E. A., Emily, S. I., Mythily, V. S. C., Anuradha, R., & Selva, T. C. (2019). Nursing Students’ Perception and Practices Related to Academic Integrity. International Journal of Nursing Education, 11(3).
Stanfill, A. G., Aycock, D., Dionne‐Odom, J. N., & Rosa, W. E. (2019). Strategies and resources for increasing the PhD pipeline and producing independent nurse scientists. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 51(6), 717-726.
