First-Year Writing Gives Nursing Students an Early, Hands-On Look at the Profession

For students who may not enter nursing courses until their junior year, a first-year writing class can offer an early view of the field—and a practical reason to care about writing. At the College of Coastal Georgia, an English 1101 course designed with nursing faculty connected composition work to healthcare topics, including a medical narrative, instructions for a clinical procedure, and research on current health issues.

The approach gives writing a role beyond the composition classroom. Students practice communicating ideas while encountering concepts tied to a possible major. One assignment even included a demonstration of Foley catheter insertion on a medical mannequin, followed by a chance for students to practice the procedure. That combination of writing and hands-on learning appears to have helped students test their interest in nursing before they had spent years preparing to enter the program.

Writing becomes a bridge to the major

High-impact practices (HIPs) use active and collaborative learning to support student engagement and outcomes. The Association of American Colleges and Universities identifies active learning as an important part of college education, but implementing HIPs can be difficult when budgets are tight. White (2018) describes financial constraints as a barrier for institutions seeking to put these practices in place.

This course offers one way to make cross-disciplinary work manageable: build relevant experiences into a required first-year class. English 1101 already asks students to develop writing skills. Working with a nursing faculty member, the course connected those goals to questions and tasks that prospective nursing students could recognize as relevant to their studies and future work.

That connection matters at this institution because nursing students may wait at least two years before taking nursing courses, and they enter the program only after acceptance. For some, their first direct exposure to nursing concepts and conversations comes in junior-level courses. A discipline-specific writing class can give them an earlier point of contact with the field and help them consider how their academic choices relate to their professional aims.

The design also makes a case for humanities instruction within professional education. Students were asked to think about how writing supports communication in healthcare, while considering the broader human experiences involved in medical work. The course’s focus was not simply to rehearse technical tasks; it was to help students see how clear writing and critical thinking carry into a discipline-specific setting.

Three assignments connect composition to healthcare

The course took shape over a semester and the following summer. Its designer, English professor Stephanie B. Conner, began with the institution’s learning outcomes for English 1101, then worked with a nursing faculty partner to identify concepts prospective nursing students could encounter early in their academic careers.

One assignment asked students to write a medical narrative explaining their interest in pursuing a nursing career. The task linked personal reflection with the role of narrative in healthcare, while giving students a chance to express why they were considering the profession.

A process project focused on communication through instructions. The nursing faculty member demonstrated Foley catheter insertion using a medical mannequin, after which students had an opportunity to practice the foundational procedure themselves. For a writing course, the activity made the relationship between precise language and practical communication tangible: instructions have to convey steps clearly, and students could connect the written work to a procedure they had just observed and tried.

Students also built research skills by investigating current healthcare-related issues and presenting their findings in a multimedia assignment. Across the course, they used APA citations and formatting rather than the MLA style common in many humanities classes. That choice aligned the writing practice with conventions students would encounter in the nursing program.

Copies of the assignments are available through the QR code image below.

Early exposure can clarify student choices

Students responded with greater motivation to engage in the assignments, Conner reports. They valued encountering nursing concepts early and having the opportunity to form a relationship with a nursing faculty member. The activities also prompted them to think about issues within their intended major and future profession.

That early exposure can serve students in more than one way. Some became more excited about the discipline-specific courses ahead. Others found that the hands-on experience suggested nursing might not suit them. Either outcome gives students information while they are still making decisions about their education, rather than after years of working toward program admission.

The broader teaching point is that students can make stronger connections when academic work is not confined to a single subject area. A writing assignment about a healthcare issue, for example, asks students to practice composition while considering a question with meaning in their prospective field. In this course, active experiences helped make those connections visible and gave students a setting to ask what nursing study might involve.

Collaboration can begin with a conversation

Cross-disciplinary course design can feel demanding. Faculty may be protective of their course content, and finding partners beyond a home department can take effort. Conner’s experience suggests the work can start informally: the nursing and English collaboration began as an idea discussed while traveling home from a teaching and learning conference in a college-issued Ford Taurus.

Turning that idea into a course still required coordination. Conner advises involving immediate supervisors, including department chairs and deans, as well as advisors and the Registrar. In this case, the course needed to reach future nursing students. The Registrar could provide information about enrollment, while advisors could use it during registration.

The practical lesson is that a collaboration does not need to begin with an elaborate redesign. A focused partnership, a few activities tied to a relevant discipline, and coordination around which students enroll can create a meaningful experience. The course combined classroom writing with a clinical demonstration and student practice, while keeping its assignments aligned with English 1101 outcomes.

A model for connecting core courses with professional learning

Team teaching and shared disciplinary knowledge can give first-year students an early encounter with ideas they might otherwise meet much later. In this example, writing instruction supported communication, research, and reflection, while nursing faculty brought professional context into the classroom. The result was a clearer link between core curriculum and students’ possible career paths.

Conner is a tenured associate professor of English at the College of Coastal Georgia, specializing in composition and interdisciplinary studies, with more than 25 years of experience. Her work focuses on college writing instruction and teaching development. The course reflects that interest in connecting writing pedagogy with students’ learning beyond the English classroom.

For institutions considering similar work, the strongest starting point may be a shared question: what can students learn in a required course that will help them make sense of a field they hope to enter? This nursing-focused English 1101 offers one answer. It puts writing into a professional context early, gives students a concrete experience to reflect on, and lets them make more informed decisions about the path ahead.

Dr. Stephanie B. Conner is a tenured associate professor of English with a focus on composition and Interdisciplinary Studies at the College of Coastal Georgia with over 25 years of experience. She has presented at nearly 40 conferences including the Conference on College Composition and Communication and published her work in journals such as Response to Writing. Her research is grounded in pedagogical best practices in college writing instruction as well as professional development in teaching and learning. Her most recent work includes a collaborative, dual-institution IRB-approved study with three other composition professors exploring faculty emotional responses to plagiarism and AI in writing courses and is due for publication at Composition Forum in spring 2026. Other research areas include incorporating Writing Center coaches into peer review activities and using weak examples as instructional material to bolster students’ critical thinking about citation and AI use. Dr. Conner has also worked collaboratively to develop a discipline-specific first-year writing course for students interested in the nursing program.

References

Bresciani, M. J. (2015). The neuroscience of learning and development and its implications for inquiry. Journal of Student Affairs Inquiry, 1(1), 1-11. https://vcsa.ucsd.edu/assessment/coalition/april-6_bresciani_the_neurosciene_of_learning_implications_for_inquiry.pdf

“High-Impact Practices | AAC&U.” American Association of Colleges and Universities, American Association of Colleges and Universities, https://www.aacu.org/trending-topics/high-impact. Accessed 6 Mar. 2026.

White, A. (2018). Understanding the university and faculty investment in implementing high-impact educational practices. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning, 18(2), 118. https://doi.org/10.14434/josotl.v18i2.23143