Spotlight on Information Literacy and Nursing
In addition to supporting first term students in multiple ways, librarians have also been actively engaged with many of the college's baccalaureate programs. Here Elena Soltau shares her experience in teaching "Scholarly Resources for Nursing," a new, one-credit course that is part of the Bachelor's of Science in Nursing program.
NUR 3161
Narrative by Dr. Elena Soltau, Research and Instruction Librarian, Altamonte campus 
Scholarly Resources for Nursing (NUR 3161) is a course offered in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program, created through the collaboration of nursing and library faculty. BSN students must take this course during their first semester in the program, and this course aims for BSN students to improve their research, writing, and citation skills.
Before offering this course, BSN faculty spent much of their grading time correcting students' use of American Psychological Association (APA) style in research papers, instead of focusing on the paper's content. This led to faculty frustration, not only in having to spend the time to address style issues, but also with the quality of the students' references in their assignments. However, when the faculty librarian liaison to the Nursing Department began working with a group of students, BSN faculty noticed that the quality of these students' assignments improved. The Health Sciences Department had previously started a librarian-led research course for their bachelor’s degree, and the BSN faculty decided to follow suit. The new course started in Fall 2021, and after receiving feedback each term, the librarian regularly updates the course.
After the third semester of NUR 3161, the nursing faculty reported that the quality of student references and citations using APA style in assignments had improved. In addition, nursing faculty were pleased to report that they were now spending most of their time grading the content of student papers, rather than focusing disproportionately on style concerns.
The liaison librarian to nursing and BSN faculty are committed to continue offering the course, and are presenting on the results to peers at the college.