Academic Skills for Nurses

The purpose of this section is to:

• enable you to gain an understanding of your current aptitude for academic skills and target areas for development
• explore some tools and techniques for time management
• consider the language and requirements of assessments.

The pre-session activities should take about an hour to complete in total. The links below are to independent study activities and resources that will help you develop academic skills. The self assessment quiz will help you to understand the areas where you have confidence and sign-post you to resources to help you develop. There are also links to referencing, time management and understanding assignment briefs.

• Know your study style: what do I need to develop to succeed in my studies? (estimated time 15 minutes)
• Review 'How do I access support (Find the link in the Pre-Reg Nursing workbook for your year.)
• Read Harvard quick guide (estimated reading time 5 minutes) 
• Read Nursing Introduction to Academic Sources (estimated time 10 minutes)
• Do 'University of Northampton plagiarism Avoidance Course' ( 40 minutes. Allow yourself to do this a section at a time as there is some really important information)
• Read 'What is good time management for studying?'(estimated reading time 5 minutes)
• Read 'How to understand my essay titles' (estimated reading time 5 minutes)
• Read 'Key words of academic assignments' (estimated reading time 5 minutes)
• Read Notetaking (estimated time 20 minutes.)

The session presentation is available here for anyone who may wish to review it before or after the session.  The session is based around activities, and you will get the most benefit from participating in the sessions.

• Learning in Higher Education Padlet

Now that you have completed the session you should have a better idea of your strengths and weaknesses. This action plan template will enable you to make an action plan to develop your academic skills. It should take you 15-30 minutes to complete.

You may wish to review some of the session content. Remember the session is activity based you will get the most benefit from the session from participating in the activities but these videos can act as a reminder.

Deep Learning Versus Surface Learning (video 5 minutes 29 Seconds)

Understanding your Learning Outcomes Using Topic, Focus, Instruction (video 5 minutes 31 seconds)

Note-taking (video 8 minutes 44 seconds)

Smarter Working 'How do I stop from getting overwhelmed?' (video 1 minute 17 seconds)