APA ASSIGNMENT 513

APA ASSIGNMENT 513

Writing is an interesting art through which wordsmiths utilize their skills to deliver meaningful content to the audience. Academic writing, in particular, is unique since it demands strict adherence to predetermined standards to enhance a piece’s appeal to a professional audience. My journey as a writer has been quite fulfilling, especially when I reflect on the knowledge I have gained so far in matters pertaining to paper formatting and content presentation. In 1929, a group of business managers, anthropologists, and psychologists collaborated to form the American Psychological Association (APA) standards of writing to guide professionals in various domains including psychology, neuroscience, sociology, linguistics, human geography, political science, economics, and cognitive science. It is important to have a rough idea of the disciplines of writing in which the APA style is applicable to avoid employing it in unwarranted pieces. Other notable styles of writing include Chicago, MLA, OSCOLA, and Harvard. The limiting scope of the present piece only allows its author to focus on the APA Style of writing.

Effective Communication

            First and foremost, it must be established that the official criteria for the recent version of the APA style is accessible from the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition. The third chapter of this manual offers its readers some guidelines on how to communicate effectively through clear and concise writing. Clarity and conciseness are largely dependent on the organization of the paper, writing style, bias, and grammar usage. Each of these dynamics has a crucial role in creating a sense of connection between the writer and his/her audience. The sixth chapter ‘Crediting Sources’ provides further guidance on how citations and references can be leveraged to enhance both the credibility and relevance of a piece (APA, 2010). This section acknowledges the challenge often faced by writers as they engage in personal communication: this kind of communication involves the use of private content, which can only be included in the in-text citations, but not the reference list.

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Personal Communication

            The two main types of communications in academic writing include personal and interpersonal, depending on the reader’s ability to retrieve the primary data: the first includes pieces of information that cannot be retrieved by the reader while the latter are retrievable. Personal communications include live speeches, personal interviews, emails, online chats, text messages, unrecorded classroom lectures, letters, non-archived discussion group messages/bulletins, and memos (Appelbaum, et al., 2018). As highlighted earlier, personal communications cannot be included in the reference list, so it is important to incorporate sufficient details inside the text. For example, email messages received from John Doe on September 8, 2020 will be cited as either (D. John, email, September 8, 2020) or D. John (email, September 8, 2020). Noteworthy is the fact that the first is written in a parenthetical manner while the latter assumes a narrative structure, yet both are correct.

Levels of Heading

            As stated, clarity and conciseness are primary quality indicators in the APA style of writing. For a writer to experience proficiency in this factor, he/she should be willing to utilize the APA level of headings (APA, 2010). According to the sixth edition edicts, APA pieces ought to abide to the five-level heading protocol.

First-Level Heading. Typically, first-level headings should be centered, boldface, with both uppercase and lowercase words. The headings “Introduction” and “Effective Communication” are good examples of first-level header. Noteworthy is how they have been applied to shape the discussion.

Second-Level Heading. On the other hand, the second-level heading follows the same technique save for the fact that it is flushed left. The present subsection “Levels of Heading” offers a clear illustration of how this level of heading can be applied in an article to advance the discussion.

Third-Level Heading. The third-level heading in APA is usually used as further advancement of the argument summarized in the second-level heading. The preceding parts have presented clear illustrations of how the first two levels of heading are utilized in the writing process (APA, 2010). At this point, the reader is urged to reflect on how this third-level of heading is used to advance the information summarized in the second-level heading titled “Levels of Heading”.

Fourth Level Heading. Like the third-level heading, this level is also indented and bolded. However, fourth level headings are written in the sentence form, with a period at the end. When taken into perspective, this heading would be written as Fourth level heading (APA, 2010). Unfortunately, this piece has not utilized this level of heading as there lacks a need for its usage.

Fifth-Level Heading. This level of heading also follows the same format as the fourth-level heading, but it is not written in bold. In such a case, this heading would be written as Fifth level heading. Like the other headings, this one has to contain information that advances the previous word.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

What is a DOI?

            The internet is a wide network of information presented in a broad range of formats including websites, pdfs, GIFs, video, and audio formats among others. In an attempt to enhance the accessibility of academic information in this huge network, researchers utilize a digital object identifier (DOI) (APA, 2010). A DOI incorporates a string of letters, symbols, and numbers to allow web crawlers to locate a document or article, then link it to a particular website portal. Most DOIs use the following format http://doi.org/10.0000/0000. This link is usually inserted in the reference, just after including the publication.

Why is a DOI Important to a Researcher?

            As a researcher, my primary goal is to deliver written content to the desired audience. Such a progressive move cannot be attained without the use of strategic tools such as a DOI. Digital object identifiers allow a researcher to share his/her work via a short link: the audience can also partake in this process by sharing the link (Appelbaum, et al., 2018). This technique makes it easy for information to be disseminated across the internet easily compared to when the audience is only given the option of downloading a piece.

Accessing Information at the Jerry Falwell Library

            Jerry Falwell is an online library that applies the ‘information fence’ technique to prevent visitors from accessing data unless they have an active membership. For members, this site offers a broad range of resources including an academic database (for e-books, journals, and other media), interlibrary loan, and access to academic events and workshops. One of the most interesting resource in this digital library is research assistance and student interactions. The research assistance guides site visitors on how he/she can utilize keywords to access the desired articles and research reports.

Conclusion

            At this point, it is fair to assert that academic writing is a unique skill that demands efficacy, especially in matters pertaining to academic style and standards. The APA style of writing offers the most appropriate set of rules that ought to be followed by a writer in order to deliver a piece that demonstrates conciseness, clarity, quality, credibility, and relevance.

Reference

American Psychological Association (APA) (2010). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition. APA. Available from https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/4200066

Appelbaum, M., Cooper, H., Kline, R. B., Mayo-Wilson, E., Nezu, A. M., & Rao, S. M. (2018). Journal article reporting standards for quantitative research in psychology: The APA Publications and Communications Board task force report. American Psychologist, 73(1), 3. Retrieved from https://psycnet.apa.org/journals/amp/73/1/3/

Assessment Description

APA style is used for professional writing in nursing and health care. As a professional, it is important to be able to clearly communicate your research or professional writing in an accurately formatted paper using the most current APA style. The purpose of this assignment is to write a 500-750 word paper focusing on the proper application of APA style.

Refer to the resources in the Class Resources and Student Success Center for assistance with APA. Use the APA Style Guide resource, located in the Student Success Center, to complete this assignment.

Include the following in your paper:

1. Describe the purpose of applying nursing theory to patient care.
2. Explain why nursing theory is meaningful to current practice.
3. Explain how a nursing theory can be applied before planning and providing care in current practice.
4. Discuss which theory best reflects your personal view of the essence of nursing and how it has been helpful to you for planning and providing care to your patients.

Nursing theories consist of concepts, perspectives, frameworks and hypotheses that guide nurses in care delivery. Theorists develop these models using inductive and deductive reasoning. The use of nursing theories is critical as it allows one to address issues in care provision and promote the attainment of positive patient outcomes (Watson & Woodward, 2020). The purpose of this essay is to explore the role and importance of nursing theories based on their purpose and significance to the current practice.

Purpose of Applying Nursing Theory to Patient Care

The use of nursing theories is critical to patient care because of the different purposes that they serve. Nursing theories assist in informing every interaction between nurses and patients. Through defining the features of the nurse-patient interaction, these theories shape how nurses develop relationships with patients (Wei et al., 2019). The purpose of most nursing theories is to help nurses identify care needs among patients, articulate what they can do for patients and why they do it, and determine the kind of information to collect to develop care plans. Through theories, nurses can comprehend and evaluate health situations, explain and anticipate certain responses from patients and map out objectives and anticipated outcomes (Bahabadi et al., 2020). These theories also help nurses determine the interventions to deliver, best practices, and selection of productive areas for research. The implication is that nursing theories are fundamental to quality care provision as they help nurses to possess background propositions to offer the best care.

Importance of Nursing Theory in Current Practice

The current practice trends implore nurses to offer innovative and patient-centered care to enhance outcomes. Models like the Quadruple Aim, evidence-based practice (EBP), and value-based care all urge nurses to be well-positioned to offer quality and cost effective care to patients and maintain their wellness in practice. Therefore, nursing theories are essential to the current practice as they offer nurses background approaches to the integration of these models. Nursing theories are essential because of the focus on patient-centered care. The use of nursing theories enhances values and goals of nursing practice implying that nursing models can only work when there are proper guidelines in care provision. These theories are interconnected and inextricably intertwined in nursing practice, irrespective of the nursing situation or circumstance. The application of nursing theories in any nursing situation means that nurses are keen on improving care outcomes, reducing the cost of care, and increasing accessibility.

The current practice environment emphasizes inter-professional collaboration and teamwork to deliver quality care. Therefore, through these theories like Nola Pender’s health promotion model, nurses understand their roles and the actions that they can initiate to improve public health (Bahabadi et al., 2020). Theories provide answers to complex nursing healthcare issues that emerge based on trends like increased use of technology to offer virtual health care services.

Application of a Nursing Theory

Planning and providing care in current practice are essential as they allow nurses to understand and use the most appropriate and effective interventions to deliver care. Nursing theories focus on the four main concepts in nursing metaparadigm. These include the person, the environment, health and nursing (Ortiz, 2018). The use of a nursing theory implies that one must focus on the metaparadigm when offering care. The planning should focus on patients, their environment, the need to attain healthy outcomes, and the role of nurses or nursing in this context.

Dorothea Orem’s self-care model entails three critical areas that include self-care, self-care deficit, and the nursing process. Similarly, Watson’s caring model emphasizes the significance of allowing patients to attain independence and understand their underlying conditions and what they can do to alleviate adverse outcomes (Watson & Woodward, 2020). Therefore, nurses can use a theory to plan care provision as it will help determine what they need to implement their care plans in consultation with the patient. Gathering information before the care provision is essential and requires nurses to leverage appropriate theories in nursing.

Theory Reflecting my Personal Perspective on the Essence of Nursing

Theories are essential in nursing because they offer guidelines and a framework, concepts and approaches that one can deploy to offer quality patient-centered care. Younas & Quennell (2019) assert that theory-guided practice in nursing leads to better quality of life, increased self-efficacy and self-care and reduces patient’s levels of stress, especially those with chronic conditions. The theory that aligns with personal perspective on nursing is Watson’s caring theory. Watson asserts that effective caring regenerates life energies and potentiates individual capability. Caring promotes self-actualization and mutually benefits both the patient and the nurse (Watson & Woodward, 2020). The theory advances that nursing is about health promotion, prevention of illness, caring for the sick and restoration of health. The theory captures my perspective on nursing since I believe that nursing is a selfless profession to help people attain the best outcomes from their health conditions. The theory has been effective in planning and providing care to patients as it focuses on health promotion and interventions that can guarantee better outcomes. Nurses must demonstrate the ten carative factors that Jean advances like willingness to learn to enhance one’s caring experience.

Conclusion

The use of nursing theories is critical as it offers guidelines on how nurses can implement different components of care provision and attain quality patient outcomes. Nursing theories are essential because they help nurses to generate interventions to improve care and understand their roles in care provision. Theories also help in shaping nurses’ personal perspectives on nursing and promotion of quality care.

References

Bahabadi, F. J., Estebsari, F., Rohani, C., Kandi, Z. R. K., Sefidkar, R., & Mostafaei, D. (2020).

Predictors of health-promoting lifestyle in pregnant women based on Pender’s health promotion model. International Journal of Women’s health, 12, 71. DOI: 10.2147/IJWH.S235169.

DeNisco, S. M. (2019). Advanced Practice Nursing: Essential Knowledge for the Profession:

            Essential Knowledge for the Profession. Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Ortiz, M. R. (2018). Patient-centered care: Nursing knowledge and policy. Nursing science

            quarterly, 31(3), 291-295. DOI: 10.1177/0894318418774906.

Watson, J., & Woodward, T. (2020). Jean Watson’s theory of human caring. SAGE Publications

            Limited.

Wei, H., Fazzone, P. A., Sitzman, K., & Hardin, S. R. (2019). The Current Intervention Studies

Based on Watson’s Theory of Human Caring: A Systematic Review. International Journal for Human Caring, 23(1). DOI: 10.1016/j.ijnss.2018.12.001

Younas, A., & Quennell, S. (2019). Usefulness of nursing theory‐guided practice: an integrative

review. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 33(3), 540-555. DOI: 10.1111/scs.12670.

Nursing theories provide the framework for comprehending and improving patient care. The Health Belief Model (HBM) and Orem’s Self-Care Deficit theories can encourage patient behavioral changes and are generally applicable in nursing practice. The HBM is used to elaborate and forecast people’s health behaviors by taking into account their attitudes and beliefs. It suggests that people are more inclined to engage in behaviors that promote good health if they think they could develop a health issue, may face serious consequences or would limit the possibility of the problem (Green et al., 2020). The HBM can be utilized in patient care to evaluate patients’ views of their health and assist nurses in identifying potential obstacles to behavior change. By addressing these attitudes, nurses can design treatments that encourage patients to adopt better behaviors. For instance, a nurse can utilize the HBM to address a patient’s opinion of their risk of acquiring diabetes, the seriousness of diabetes, and the advantages of making lifestyle changes. The theory is easy to apply, flexible enough to allow individualized interventions, and can be successfully incorporated into patient education and counseling (Green et al., 2020). However, it does not completely consider the impact of social or cultural influences on behavior since it assumes people always make logical judgments. Thus, the possibility of stigmatization or blame should be avoided when applying the HBM, which should be done with consideration for each patient’s personal values and cultural beliefs.

On the other hand, according to Dorothea Orem’s perspective, nursing should concentrate on assisting people to satisfy their self-care requirements when they cannot do so on their own because everyone has a natural potential to do so. Three categories are used to categorize self-care: universal, developmental, and health deviation (Yayla et al., 2023). When and how patients need help with self-care should be identified by nurses, who should then offer the appropriate care or instruction. This theory emphasizes patient independence and focuses on education and support to give patients the tools they need to care for themselves. For instance, a nurse can evaluate a patient’s drug management capacity and provide the necessary education. This encourages behavioral change and allows people to take charge of their health. This theory is beneficial because it promotes patients’ independence and autonomy, encourages a comprehensive understanding of the patient’s needs, and emphasizes patient support and education (Yayla et al., 2023). However, some limitations exist, such as it may not apply to patients with complex disabilities, and its application can take some time. Thus, ethical considerations include respecting a patient’s autonomy and ensuring that their best interests are upheld while encouraging self-care.

The Health Belief Model was used in a study by Tsai et al. (2021) to improve diabetic elderly adults’ foot care practices. According to the patient’s beliefs and attitudes, the researchers gave education and interventions after assessing the patient’s knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions regarding diabetes-related foot problems. The results showed that the intervention group had significantly improved knowledge, attitude, and foot care behaviors. This study has had a huge impact on how I approach patient care because it emphasizes how important it is to understand and address patients’ attitudes and beliefs while trying to change their behavior. It emphasizes the value of individualized treatment, resulting in better, more patient-centered healthcare.