Essay & Dissertation Writing Coach, improve Assignment Grades

Study Coach is online to support nursing students and other students with their essays and dissertation. University students using Study Coach academic services are studying a range of subjects, including: nursing, social work, physiotherapy, public health, housing, law, criminology, youth justice, social care, teaching. Nursing education will require nurses in training to successfully complete essays, presentations, literature reviews, physical assessments and a dissertation in order to become a qualified nurse. Study Coach, is here to help nursing students and other university/college students to excel and raise assignment grades. Study Coach is also here to help students prepare for an employment interview. In view of ensuing interviews, the following information will hopefully provide some help to students. 

Nursing Students University Interview

A newly qualified nursing student seeking employment will need to convince a prospective interviewer that they have the skills and qualities to become a good nurse.  A good nurse need to possess caring qualities, he/she need to demonstrate compassion, have good communication skills, show respect and resilience, be accountable and adaptable.  Having an awareness of what is required of you should help you to ensure that you offer evidence to try and secure the job. 

Potential Questions:

Tell us about a mistake you have been involved with?

This question might be a little shocking, to hear that the interviewer wants to hear about your mistakes, but try to interpret the question positively. You need to note that interviewers say that too often interviewees are very quick to talk about someone else’s mistake. In view of this don’t fall in the trap of talking about other people’s mistakes, instead talk about yours. 

The reason for the question is to see what you have learnt from what took place. How did the mistake  change your practice, how did you work with others to change your practice? You should also reflect on how you make use of evidence. A simple way to do so is to reflect on the many essays you have written in order to qualify as a nurse, reflect also on the presentations delivered and applying evidence in practice. Interviewers want to appraise your learning journey.   

Interpersonal Skills and Conflicts

Interviewers might also want to hear how you would deal with conflict, so be prepared. The aim is to show that you can de-escalate a situation and not make the situation worse. You could say that taking people away from the area and sitting them down, to allow them to explain what led to the problem would be your chosen strategy. Furthermore, you should give your interviewers confidence and let them know that you are aware of when it is best to escalate the matter to a senior member of staff. 

Self Reflection Question

Interviewers might want to know your views about what others would say about you? Towards the end of the interview if you are asked to select three or four words to describe how others would describe you, then make sure that you use single words. It will show that you have listened to the question and that you can provide an answer using single words, as opposed to constructing a sentence. Your answer will furthermore show that you have in the past considered how others see you, and that you are able to use reflective skills. 

Verbal Communication 

Interviews, will clearly test your communication skills, so in preparation for interviews it is worthwhile reflecting on theoretical ideas underpinning communication. Spoken Communication is researched by Michael Argyle and many others. Study Coach would like to encourage students to set aside time to practise for the interview, approach interviews in the same way as you would do for a presentation. Study Coach would like students to focus on articulation, but don’t waste time worrying about having an accent (we all have an accent, and should be comfortable with our accent). The aim is to be understood, to deliver meaning, as opposed to be worrying about elocution lessons. 

Speech/Accents 

In respect of research on accents and perception, formal and informal speech, students might find it interesting to read the following research on accents.   

Labov (1966) studied accents in New York, for example by asking sales staff in different department stores (Kleins, Macy’s, Saks) a question to which the answer would be ‘fourth floor’, and found that ‘r’s were sounded in higher social classes. However, working-class and uneducated people can speak in a more educated or ‘middle-class’ way if they wish or if they are asked to speak carefully. For example Trudgill asked his subjects to read word lists and found the number of dropped final ‘G’s was much lower.

How are speakers of different accents perceived? Research has been carried out with the ‘matched guise’ technique, whereby a versatile speaker makes tape recordings in several accents, which are rated by judges who think they are listening to different speakers. Such studies in Britain found that there is a social hierarchy of accents, from ‘received pronunciation’ (i.e. Southern, educated) at the top, to some acceptable local variants like Yorkshire and Scottish, and down to the stronger accents of industrial towns, including cockney, together with strong rural accents. The speakers of accents at the top of this hierarchy are judged to be of higher social class, and also to be more intelligent, ambitious, wealthy – even taller and cleaner. When considering these theoretical ideas, you can reflect on how times have changed and how people today of different social class share a similar accent.   

Assignments – Presentations

Learners are usually great at talking, however when the word presentation is mentioned, there is usually a deathly silence or behaviours change to a state of panic. “I can’t talk in front of the whole class, I’m just not good at it. I’m going to have a heart attack, look and feel my sweaty palms, I swear I’m having angina”.  Study Coach advice is ‘don’t panic, all will be fine’. Fear will negatively impact on your performance, so push aside fears and embrace the opportunity to show off your verbal skills and enjoy the presentation.  When presenting ensure that you use appropriate Volume in order to be heard, deliver the presentation at an appropriate pace, use clear speech.  If the presentation is to be uploaded, and not delivered in person, students should ensure that power-point slides provides details. Focus more on providing text, as opposed to giving a multitude of slides with large images to fill-up the space, also ensure that information presented is sufficiently referenced.     

Physical Assessment – Essay Writing

Nursing students will need to undertake a number of different placements during their training, and this will result in carrying out physical assessments and writing the essay.  Universities will usually make use of Case Studies for assessment. 

Roper and Tierney model & NMC

When carrying out an assessment, nursing students should make use of a framework, for example: Roper and Tierney (2000) model to explain the nurse’s decision making process. When drafting a physical assessment it is important for nursing students to remember to consider the patient’s privacy and confidentiality, the use of a pseudonym (false name) is recommended in accordance with the Nursing and Midwifery Council Code of Professional Conduct guidance. In this Study Coach example, we can call our patient Mrs Walker. The disease  that we are concerned with is diabetes, a definition of diabetes should therefore be offered.

Diabetes

According to Diabetes UK, Diabetes is a condition where the amount of glucose in the blood is too high because the body cannot use it properly. This is because the pancreas doesn’t produce any insulin, or not enough insulin to help glucose enter the body’s cell or the insulin that is produced does not work properly this is known as insulin resistance.  

Nursing Student & Case Study  

The nurse in training will need to familiarise him/herself with the patient’s medical history, our patient Mrs Walker is a 68 year old Londoner, newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. She lives alone in a house and has two daughters, neither lives locally but one visits her regularly. Following her retirement Mrs Walker worked voluntary at a charity shop. She is an active member of a religious group, she has a friend who she socialise with and takes regular walk in the park as part of her daily exercise. 

Mrs Walker’s diet is high in carbohydrates. Her past medical history includes hypertension and high cholesterol, there is no known surgical history, and no known allergies. She is a non-smoker, no alcoholic intake. She is self-caring with her hygiene needs, no rashes on the upper and lower extremities of her body, no hearing impairment, and visual impairment, she uses glasses for reading. There is no breathing or respiratory problem, no swallowing difficulties, and no known heart disease. Mrs Walker’s appetite is good; bowels open daily, no history of depression.  Your job as student is to consider the Case Study and draft the assessment, taking into consideration the learning outcomes/criteria that you received from the university. 

Dissertation

The Dissertation is a major piece of work and many students are likely to find the assignment challenging. The idea of doing research, whether it is a literature review (critiquing secondary sources) or carrying out a primary research can create stress for students. What is research, the usefulness of research and what is evidence based practice (EBP) are concepts that nursing students will need to understand? Study Coach presents information and guidelines on doing research. Firstly, we will consider the concept of research, in view of planning for a research project, proposal or dissertation.

Doing Research 

Research is an investigation and it should be conducted in a systematic way, it should be a systematic investigation that sets out to increase knowledge. The term ‘research’ can be used to mean many things, first year nursing students will quickly need to understand that doing marketing research to find out shopping preferences is not the same as doing academic research/scientific research.  

Academic/Scientific Research 

Scientific research also referred to as academic research will need to be verifiable, research should be rigorous and findings should be generalisable. The findings of a scientific research carried out on one group of patients in Leeds suffering with diabetes, should therefore be applicable to a similar group of patients other than the patients in the original study – hence generalisable.  Academic research should be empirically verifiable, so that other researchers can repeat the study. The research should therefore explain the research process (how it was done) where and when it was done, so we could check that it actually took place and if we repeat the process we should get the same results. 

CONTACT

Study Coach is here to help you with your education, to improve assignment grades, to be the best you can be. We act as a critical friend and will guide you to understand the assessment criteria and for you to develop your academic skills. We provide both an Essay and Dissertation Online service. Study Coach provides online tutoring at its best, and you can access the service at any time and submit your work overnight. To find out more about our academic support and other services, call Morel Benard for a chat on 07944 849271 or email info@studycoach.uk.com