Instructor Perspectives on APA Style in Nursing Education: Implicit and Explicit Value

OBJECTIVE: Disparities in how nursing faculty teach APA Style can confuse students and the librarians who help them. To clarify faculty expectations of and approaches to APA 
Style, this study seeks to answer the following questions: (1) What do nursing faculty perceive as the impact or value of APA Style? (2) How do nursing faculty teach and grade APA Style? By revealing the unspoken assumptions about APA Style and the value it adds to nursing education, it is hoped that health sciences librarians can more intentionally and effectively support this aspect of the nursing curriculum.
METHODS: A mixed-methods study was designed to investigate potential gaps between nursing instructors' expectations for APA and their teaching/grading practices. The study incorporated an online survey of 75 nursing faculty at 14 Carnegie institutions with nursing programs, as well as qualitative interviews with 12 faculty at those institutions. A grounded theory approach was used to uncover salient themes.
RESULTS: Nursing instructors consistently emphasized the importance of APA for referencing/in-text citations in both the survey and the interviews. When discussing the value of APA Style in nursing education, interviewees stressed APA Style as essential in developing professional nursing communication skills and evidence-based practice. However, faculty expectations for students' APA skills were not in line with their teaching and grading practices.
CONCLUSION: Given the wide range of reporting teaching and grading practices for APA Style, nursing programs should work to clarify expectations for APA Style, and standardize how it is taught.