Textual mediation in simulated nursing handoffs: Examining how student writing coordinates action

Authors

  • Lillian Campbell

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17239/jowr-2019.11.01.03

Keywords:

nursing, pedagogy, simulation, workplace writing

Abstract

In clinical nursing simulations, a group of students provide care for a robotic patient during a structured scenario. As care is transferred from one group to another, they participate in a patient handoff, with outgoing students passing key information onto incoming students. In healthcare, the nursing handoff is a critical and perilous communication moment that is mediated by a range of participants and texts. Drawing on observations and video recordings of 52 simulation handoffs in the United States, this article examines how two student-designed texts – a collaborative patient chart and individual notes – are leveraged during the handoff. I also consider how handoff talk and writing changes as student nursing knowledge increases over the course of a year. By focusing on textual mediation of the simulated nursing handoff, this article contributes to existing research on professional writing pedagogy and to nursing scholarship on the handoff. Ultimately, it argues that a textual mediation framework can help bridge classroom and professional contexts by evaluating student writing not for how successfully it meets a set of imposed criteria but for how effectively it supports classroom activities.

Published

2019-06-15

How to Cite

Campbell, L. (2019). Textual mediation in simulated nursing handoffs: Examining how student writing coordinates action. Journal of Writing Research, 11(1), 79–106. https://doi.org/10.17239/jowr-2019.11.01.03

Issue

Section

Articles