Finding (and Pushing) the Boundaries: Writing Assignment Support for Our Nursing Students

Posted by Carolyn Martin on March 4th, 2026 Posted in: Guest Post, Medical Librarians, News from Network Members
Tags: librarian roles, libraries, medical librarian

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NNLM Region 5 is highlighting the medical librarians in our region. We thank Carrie Fry, an Associate Professor and Nursing and Health Science Librarian at the University of San Diego’s Helen K. and James S. Copley Library, for sharing how she supports nursing students in their writing.

What is the role of the academic health-science librarian in improving graduate student writing? Do we simply point students to the campus writing center or a designated writing coach, assuming one is available? In our busy portfolios, do librarians have the capacity to support student writing? To what extent could an academic health-science librarian design, develop, and deliver interventions to help nursing and other allied health students improve their writing?

I am Carrie Fry, the embedded librarian in the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science at the University of San Diego since January 2025. The writing-related questions above are ones I’ve been dwelling on recently, questions informed by my past work as part of a collaborative library and writing center team that developed a Research, Reading, & Writing Studio at my previous institution. We all want to see our students achieve success with their writing assignments. The challenge for librarians is how we define our role and what we can offer to support our student writing while still recognizing the existing academic support structures of our institutions.

As a librarian, I am curious and inspired by everything around me. I seek those moments when my mind expands with questions and new possibilities. Learning something new or discovering something previously unseen in familiar work provides motivation to improve my craft. Observing this behavior in our students is the best part of my work.

A key example of this was my work with a student – an entrepreneur returning to school – who changed their own mind on a deeply held belief while completing a paper. They initially met with me because they were struggling to find evidence to support the position on which the paper was based. We discussed why this might be, and I was able to find some articles that could serve as a starting point. Then they read, and thought, and came back to see me with new and insightful questions. All within the standard librarian-student interaction. Then the student and I pushed beyond that boundary. Together we reviewed the organization of the paper, considered the thesis, discussed which evidence made the best case, talked about ways to introduce that evidence, and finished by looking at overarching grammar and style issues. I saw the promise of writing assignments in this example. Students need to go through that process of curiosity, struggle, and research to clarify their thoughts and grow their understanding. So, within the librarian role, what can we do to encourage it?

My inspiration in reflecting on and researching student writing as a librarian also comes from three areas. First, there are the concerns of my faculty about student writing, substantiated in the literature.  Johnson and Goodman note, from a faculty survey, that 97% of graduate nursing student papers had significant grammar issues and only 13% of papers showed higher level thinking.  Second, the students I work with are hungry to receive feedback on their writing. They frequently check the boundaries of my assistance with questions like, “can you read my whole paper?” I should note, I usually decline to do this but offer to look at any section where they have particular concern. Finally, I draw from my work with the studio model, a space where students receive both research and writing support, which taught me that even minor feedback from librarians can positively impact student success.

If you already help with writing, consider sending me an email. I would love to learn what has worked for you. If you don’t yet, and are ready to push the boundaries, I advocate reassessing how you support writing. Here are five starting points for librarians thinking of engaging with students on their writing:

• Prioritize student agency: offer suggestions that leave students in control of their writing.
• Use the phrase “As a reader”: this approach makes it clear that you are offering one person’s feedback (highlighting student agency) and gives you flexibility if you have concerns about your own writing or grammar knowledge.
• Offer strategies: rather than proofreading or editing student work offer options, for proofreading you can suggest reading with a ruler or reading back backwards (going sentence by sentence from the end of the paper).
• Go from macro to micro: there is no need to point out grammar errors in a section that should be fully reorganized and rewritten.
• Connect with colleagues: moving boundaries for yourself can set new student expectations and impact others.