"Transition in and between Discourse Communities: One Nurse's Struggle"
Terrie ColeTerri Cole graduated from Rhode Island College in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in English literature and a minor in creative writing. She is 26 years old and currently teaches English at an all girls’ middle school in South Korea. Her academic interests are in composition and rhetoric studies, education and ESL. Her future plans are to apply to graduate school after teaching and traveling. ContentsIntroduction</p |
ConclusionIn this article I have discussed the stages one nurse goes through when transitioning from an academic discourse community to a workplace discourse community and the complications she experiences within this transition. My research with Lena causes me to suggest that her initiation into the nursing community is largely socially constructed, as demonstrated when she participates in social functions outside the workplace (Christmas party), and within the workplace (program at Sherwood Hospital for new nurses). Additionally, the SBARP appears to be like a social engagement; there is a conversation between one nurse and another and the flow of this conversation is determined by the social status of the two nurses participating in the information-exchange. With Lena’s story, we see how audience determines the value of what is written on the SBARP; Lena is told not to include information by one nurse, and then is criticized for not including enough information by another nurse. Although my research does not delve specifically into how social roles outside the workplace affect the role within the workplace, one might conclude that if Lena developed close friendships with her co-workers that her SBARP process might have unfolded differently. The final stage in the cycle of transition illuminates how Lena comes to understand that she must negotiate her identity and adapt to the shifting rhetorical and social situations in order to appropriately perform in her nursing discourse community. We see how she uses social functions outside the hospital to make this transition easier. I have argued that the writing in which Lena engages in the workplace vastly differs from the kinds of writing that she was used to performing in college—it is less extensive, short, abrupt, and moreover, Lena lacks an authority she once felt in the academic context. Furthermore, Lena is thrown into these nursing literacy practices, which were not fully explained in her training and yet she is expected to enact them appropriately from the get-go. This research demonstrates just how fundamental writing is in nursing communities, and thus draws attention to the de-prioritization of writing in one instance of nursing orientation and training. All of this causes me to contend that hospital orientation and training procedures should be re-evaluated and, likewise, supplementary methods must be implemented in educational institutions to more fully prepare students for writing and social functioning in the workplace. ImplicationsResearch Implications For those in the field of writing studies, my research contributes to enculturation studies and highlights that writing is constructed by outside social and political forces and that writing can also construct social roles as demonstrated through Lena’s experience with the SBARP. This research might raise questions on how the academic discourse community prepares one for the workplace discourse community and perhaps draws on the role writing has in hospital institutions. This research may also raise questions about writers’ identity considering the focus nurse, although she wrote frequently, did not consider herself a writer. Teaching Implications Reviewing Lena’s process of negotiations through Anson and Forsberg’s Cycle of Transition might suggest one way new nurses negotiate their identities when transitioning from an academic discourse community to a workplace discourse community. I contend that for many new nurses, literacy practices influence their initiation into the workplace. I believe that there are a number of possible implications for those who teach nurses to write in academic settings. Perhaps teachers could obtain documents from hospitals to have students’ review and imitate. Another implication might be extending students’ clinical course by including a writing portion so they have more hands-on experience with nursing documentation before they graduate. Practitioner Implications I feel that there are potential implications of this study for hospitals and supervisors that could help new nurses acclimate to the workplace. The training and orientation period for new nurses could be longer and explicit writing instruction could be implemented. Documentation, specifically concerning the change-of-shift report, could have mandatory regulations and perhaps be conducted in less distracting surroundings. |