Voices from the pen and the page: Quick writes for nursing students

Abstract

Scope and Method of Study: The purpose of this study was to use quick writes as a creative method for nursing students to connect new learning with previous knowledge. Quick writes give students the opportunity to observe their thoughts and understanding of content objectively. Reading the quick writes aloud allows students to consider information from the perspective of others. This was a qualitative study which involved eleven nursing students. Data was collected through quick writes and interview. Using narrative inquiry, hermeneutics, and lifeworld theory, the data was analyzed through a interpretivist perspective.

Findings and Conclusions: Data analysis demonstrated that students with minimal lifeworld experience wrote from basic content from the textbook. Those with lifeworld experience wrote from their experience and connected it back to content. In the interviews they stated that reading the quick writes in class was valuable. Even if the students did not read or only read occasionally they wanted to hear what their classmates had written. They discovered that their words had value and they realized their classmates' words had value.