Article published in:
Language, Context and Text
Vol. 1:1 (2019) ► pp. 39–64

An exploratory account of the register of nursing textbooks

Can you nurse from them?

| The University of Sydney
Given the pressing issues that affect nursing education (e.g. higher attrition and plagiarism rates), this study aims to obtain initial insight on whether nursing textbooks meet the demands of their context of situation. These demands could be listed as: construing biomedical knowledge, establishing a pattern of evidence-based nursing practice and promoting the values of person-centred care. For this analysis, I draw on aspects of parameters of context developed by Hasan (2004), Butt (2004) and Matthiessen (2015), and relate them to their semantic and lexicogrammatical realisation across different metafunctions using corpus-based techniques and detailed manual analysis of short extracts. The results may suggest that nursing textbooks may be meeting the demands of nursing as a research-based discipline but failing to model empathetic communication.
Keywords: nursing textbooks, context of situation, register, generic structure, technicality, a research-based discipline, empathetic communication, construal of knowledge, epistemological stance, narrative
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Why focus on nursing?
  • 3.What is this discipline called nursing?
  • 4.A note on the modelling of context in SFL
  • 5.The construal of biomedical knowledge in nursing textbooks
  • 6.Epistemological stance in nursing textbooks
  • 7.Care, compassion and communication
  • 8.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References


This article is currently available as a sample article.

Published online: 04 February 2019
https://doi.org/10.1075/langct.00003.gar
References
Australian Nursing Federation
2012 Fact sheet 2: A snapshot of nursing in Australia. http://​anf​.org​.au​/documents​/reports​/Fact​_Sheet​_Snap​_Shot​_Nursing​.pdf (7 November, 2018)Google Scholar
Baillie, Louise
2009 Developing practical nursing skills (3rd edition). London: Hodder Arnold.Google Scholar
Benner, Patricia
1982 From novice to expert. The American Journal of Nursing 82(3). 402–407.Google Scholar
Björnsdottir, Kristin
2001 Language, research and nursing practice. Journal of Advanced Nursing 33(2). 159–166. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bloomfield, Jacqueline & Anne Pegram
2015 Care, compassion and communication. Nursing Standard 29(25). 45–50. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bluhm, Robyn L.
2014 The (dis)unity of nursing science. Nursing Philosophy 151. 250–260. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bond, Loretta
2012 A Foucauldian discourse analysis of health disparities in nursing textbooks. Chicago, IL: Rush University PhD Thesis.Google Scholar
Bowles, Nick, Carolyn Mackintosh & Alison Torn
2001 Nurses’ communication skills: An evaluation of the impact of solution-focused communication training. Journal of Advanced Nursing 36(3). 347–354. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Brodie, David A., Gavin J. Andrews, Justin P. Andrews, Gail B. Thomas, Josephine Wong & Lorna Rixon
2004 Perceptions of nursing: Confirmation, change and the student experience. International Journal of Nursing Studies 41(7). 721–733. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Diane, Helen Edwards, Leslie Seaton & Thomas Buckley
2016 Lewis’s medical-surgical nursing: Assessment and management of clinical problems (4th edition.). London: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Buchan, James & Lynn Calman
2004 The global shortage of registered nurses: An overview of issues and actions. International Council of Nurses, Geneva.Google Scholar
Butt, David
2004 Parameters of context: On establishing the similarities and differences between social processes. Unpublished mimeo, Macquarie University.Google Scholar
Carper, Barbara A.
1978 Fundamental patterns of knowing in nursing. Advances in Nursing Science (1)11. 13–23. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Chant, Simon, Tim Jenkinson, Jacqueline Randle & Graham Russell
2002 Communication skills: Some problems in nursing education and practice. Journal of Clinical Nursing 11(1). 12–21. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Choi, Liza L. S.
2005 Literature review: Issues surrounding education of English-as-a-second language (ESL) nursing students. Journal of Transcultural Nursing 16(3). 263–268. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
CRICO Strategies
2015 Malpractice risk in communication failures: 2015 annual benchmarking report. Boston, Massachusetts: The Risk Management Foundation of the Harvard Medical Institutions.Google Scholar
Dante, Angelo, Sónia Ferrão, Darja Jarosova, Loreto Lancia, Carla Nascimento, Venetia Notara, Andrea Pokorna, Lubica Rybarova, Brigita Skela-Savič & Alvisa Palese
2016 Nursing student profiles and occurrence of early academic failure: Findings from an explorative European study. Nurse Education Today 381. 74–81. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Davies, Mark
2012 Word and phrase. Info. https://​www​.wordandphrase​.info​/academic​/analyzeText​.asp (3 July 2018).
Donaldson, Sue K. & Dorothy M. Crowley
1978 The discipline of nursing. Nursing Outlook 26(2). 113–120.Google Scholar
Edwards, Deborah, Philip Burnard, Kim Bennett & Una Hebden
2010 A longitudinal study of stress and self-esteem in student nurses. Nurse Education Today 30 (1). 78–84. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Eick, Susan A., Graham R. Williamson & Val Heath
2012 A systematic review of placement-related attrition in nurse education. International Journal of Nursing Studies 49(10). 1299–1309. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fairus Nor Mohamad, Alif & Ng Yu Jin
2013 Corpus-based studies on nursing textbooks. Advances in Language and Literary Studies 4(2). 21–28. Crossref.Google Scholar
Freddi, Maria
2005 Arguing linguistics: Corpus investigation of one functional variety of academic discourse. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 4(1). 5–26. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, Dee & Mark Davies
2013 A new academic vocabulary list. Applied Linguistics 35(3). 305–327. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Glossop, Christine
2001 Student nurse attrition from pre-registration courses: investigating methodological issues. Nurse Education Today 21(3). 170–180. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K.
1998 Language and knowledge: The ‘unpacking’ of text. In Desmond Allison, Lionel Wee, Bao Zhiming & Sunita Anne Abraham (eds.), Text in education and society, 157–178. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Company.Google Scholar
2003 On language and linguistics, volume 31 in the collected works of M. A. K. Halliday. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
2016 Aspects of language and learning. Edited by Jonathan J. Webster. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K. & James R. Martin
1993 Writing science: Literacy and discursive power. London: The Falmer Press.Google Scholar
Hasan, Ruqaiya
1985 The structure of a text. In Michael A. K. Halliday & Ruqaiya Hasan. Language, context and text: Aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective, 52–68. Geelong, Victoria: Deakin University Press.Google Scholar
2004 Analysing discursive variation. In Lynn Young & Claire Harrison (eds.), Systemic functional linguistics and critical discourse analysis: Studies in social change, 15‒52. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
2009 The place of context in a systemic functional model. In Michael A. K. Halliday & Jonathan J. Webster. Continuum companion to systemic functional linguistics, 166–189. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Hoogewerf, Cornelis J., Margriet E. van Baar, Jenda M. Hop, Marianne K. Nieuwenhuis, Irma M. M. H. Oen & Esther Middelkoop
2011 Topical treatment for facial burns. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (1): 371 (Suppl 1). 18–S19; CD008058.Google Scholar
House, Sharon L.
2015 Psychological distress and its impact on wound healing: An integrative review. Journal of Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Nursing: Official Publication of the Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurses Society 42 (1). 38–41. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Hyland, Ken
2000 Disciplinary discourses: Social interactions in academic writing. New York & Harlow: Longman.Google Scholar
Lai, Chinyuan
2016 Training nursing students’ communication skills with online video peer assessment. Computers & Education 971. 21–30. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Leufer, Therese & Joanne Cleary-Holdforth
2009 Evidence-based practice: Improving patient outcomes. Nursing Standard 23(2). 35–39. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Love, Alison
2014 Introductory concepts and ‘cutting edge’ theories: Can the genre of the textbook accommodate both? In John Flowerdew (ed.), Academic discourse, 86–102. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Lynch, Joan, Bronwyn Everett, Lucie M. Ramjan, Renee Callins, Paul Glew & Yenna Salamonson
2017 Plagiarism in nursing education: An integrative review. Journal of Clinical Nursing 261. 2845–2864. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Martin, James R.
1986 Intervening in the process of writing development. In Claire Painter & James R. Martin (eds.), Writing to mean: Teaching genres across the curriculum (9), 11–43. Wollongong, NSW: University of Wollongong.Google Scholar
1991 Critical literacy: The role of a functional model of language. Australian Journal of Reading 14(2). 117–132.Google Scholar
1993 Literacy in science: Learning to handle text as technology. In Michael A. K. Halliday & James R. Martin. Writing science: Literacy and discursive power, 166–202. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Martin, James R. & David Rose
2008 Genre relations: Mapping culture. London: Equinox.Google Scholar
Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M.
2015 Register in the round: Registerial cartography. Functional Linguistics 21. 1–48. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Moore, Tim
2002 Knowledge and agency: A study of ‘metaphenomenal discourse’ in textbooks from three disciplines. English for Specific Purposes 21(4). 347–366. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mukundan, Jayakaran & Ng Yu Jin
2012 Development of a technical nursing education word list (NEWL). International Journal of Innovation in English Language Teaching and Research 1(2). 105–124.Google Scholar
Nightingale, Florence
2012[1860] Notes on nursing: What it is, and what it is not. Newbury Port: Dover Publication.Google Scholar
Parodi, Giovanni
2014 Genre organization in specialized discourse: Disciplinary variation across university textbooks. Discourse Studies 16(1). 65–87. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Price-Glynn, Kim & Stacy Missari
2017 Perspectives on violence against women: A study of United States nursing textbooks. Journal of Nursing Education 56(3). 164–169. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Shea, Nina
1988 The language of junior secondary science textbooks. Sydney, NSW: The University of Sydney BA Hons Thesis.Google Scholar
Tarrier, Nicholas, Lynsey Gregg, Jackie Edwards & Ken Dunn
2005 The influence of pre-existing psychiatric illness on recovery in burn injury patients: The impact of psychosis and depression. Burns 31(1). 45–49. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Charles
1979 The English of high school textbooks. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
Watson, Roger
2005 Editorial: The global shortage of registered nurses. Journal of Clinical Nursing 14(4). 409–409. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Wignell, Peter, James R. Martin & Susan Eggins
1989 The discourse of geography: Ordering and explaining the experiential world. Linguistics and Education 1(4). 359–391. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Yang, Xinzhang
2017 The linguistic features of knowledge construction in chemistry textbooks. In Jonathan J. Webster & Xuan wei Peng (eds.), Applying systemic functional linguistics: The state of the art in China today, 337–350. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.Google Scholar

Full-text

An exploratory account of the register of nursing textbooks
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Bednarek, Monika, Peter Crosthwaite & Alexandra I. García
2020. Corpus linguistics and education in Australia. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 43:2 ► pp. 105 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 23 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.