There has never been a better time to share your knowledge and experience with your colleagues. Ever say to yourself, I know somebody has faced this same situation. I wish there was someplace to find out how others have dealt with this situation. One of these places is Plastic Surgical Nursing journal. This may even be the reason you are reading this article. You started browsing this issue looking to find information helpful to your practice. Nurses just like you contributed the articles in this issue. Their passion for nursing prompts them to share their experiences. So, just how should you go about sharing your experiences? If you have not written for publication previously, you might think about writing about a specific experience. This type of article is commonly known as a case study, usually around 2,000 words and is basically telling a story.

Figure. No caption available.

ANATOMY OF A CASE STUDY

A case study uses narrative style to emphasize exploration of a specific patient, event, or situation. The experience that you wish to share will determine the sections of the case study, but some areas to consider addressing include the history, background information, presentation of the patient/event/situation, subjective and objective observations, and recommendations. A discussion of what worked and what did not work is also helpful. Pasadena City College (2008) provides a guideline for nursing students on how to write a case study with an example paper. Using this guideline, the following sections may be considered for inclusion in a case study for Plastic Surgical Nursing (Table 1).

TABLE 1 Case Study Guideline

Where to Start

There are many techniques that may be used to get started. There is really no one right way but more a preference for what works for you. Some techniques include brainstorming, outlining, and just writing what comes into your mind. Brainstorming is a way of jotting down all the ideas you can generate about a particular topic while linking these ideas together on the basis of the relationships between the ideas. Most people start with too many ideas in random order. Brainstorming can help focus on a manageable set of ideas as well as help organize them. They can be very complex or very simple. The following example is fairly simple and is based on the article "Photography and Plastic Surgery: Part 1" by Marcia Spear and Kevin Hagan, MD, published in the April/June 2008 Plastic Surgical Nursing, Volume 28, Issue 2, pp. 66-68 (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Brainstorming example.

Brainstorming is one way to get to an outline. So why make an outline?

* Aids in the process of writing

* Helps organize your ideas

* Presents your material in a logical form

* Shows the relationships among ideas

* Constructs an ordered overview of your writing

* Defines boundaries and groups. (Owl Purdue, 2008)

Looking at this brainstorming example, the following might be an outline for this article (Table 2). This outline helps establish the beginning, middle, and end of the manuscript.

TABLE 2 Sample Outline From Mindmap

Resources

There are some resources that can help with the various aspects of writing an article. One free resource can be found at Purdue University's, OWL Online Writing Lab. Visit this robust Internet site at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/to find everything you ever wanted to know about the basics of writing. There are also tips for APA style, but you might consider making a small investment in formatting software to do much of the reference and citation formatting. Several are listed in the Information for Authors, which can be found in this issue or online at http://edmgr.ovid.com/psn/accounts/ifauth.htm. You can even research your topic easily with the search function of the journal online. If you are a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgical Nurses (ASPSN), just follow these steps:

* Go to http://www.aspsn.org.

* Login or follow the simple steps to join (register).

* Scroll down to the Members Only section and click on PSN Journal Online.

* Click on the PSN Journal link.

There you are!! This may seem like a long way to get there, but this route recognizes you as an ASPSN member and allows access to all the full-text articles back to 1984. If not a member, you can go directly to http://www.psnjournal.com. Searches are free and you have to pay a small fee for only those articles you wish to view their full text.

Ready, Set, Write

Is your imagination sparked yet? For more inspiration, see this issue's articles and departments. You will find articles about a very interesting summer camp program for craniofacial patients, a time and motion study in a cosmetic office setting, the nurse's role relative to Botox, and a thoughtful discussion about propofol. The departments bring information about the need for wound debridement, making sense out of the National Patient Safety Goals, a primer on suicide, and a new practice guideline for browlifts.

Now, it is your turn to share your observations and expertise with your colleagues by writing an article for Plastic Surgical Nursing. Submissions are conveniently accepted online at http://www.editorialmanager.com and I am very happy to mentor authors.

Please feel free to forward your comments to me and the editorial board by writing us at Plastic Surgical Nursing, American Society of Plastic Surgical Nurses, 7794 Grow Drive, Pensacola, FL 32514, or send an e-mail to Candise Flippin at [email protected].

REFERENCES