How do you get your first article published?

Having articles published is a definite boost to a legal nurse consultant’s career. Get your first article published to stimulate your writing career and establish more credibility with your clients.

My first article published after graduate school

The following information is my story of how I got involved in writing. I always enjoyed reading books and creative writing classes I took in high school. When I was in graduate school, I took a course that involved bringing people with various psychological disturbances into the classroom. The students interviewed the person and got a life story. One of the people who came in was a battered wife who had been paralyzed by her spouse. I was intrigued by why she stayed in that relationship and decided to do my paper for the course on the subject of domestic violence.

My nursing professor said to me, “This is a great paper. You ought to turn it into an article.” I said, “How do I do that?” The professor explained a little bit of the process.

Unrecognizable article

After my article was submitted and accepted, it was copyedited to the point that I couldn’t find a single sentence that I had written. I was surprised by that and found out later that was the style of that particular journal, although, not a universal practice. It was published in 1980. The experience of having my first article published encouraged me to keep writing.

Additional articles

The second article that I wrote flowed from a paper that I presented at the American Diabetes Association Annual Conference on pregnancy and diabetes which was based on work I did in graduate school. The Association’s editor said she wanted me to take the abstract and turn it into an article for the journal. The article was published.

The third article that I wrote was on my experiences having a premature baby. I explained the circumstances of my first son’s birth and included advice to parents who were going through a similar experience. I also provided advice to nurses who were taking care of such patients, and that article was accepted for publication. I have continued to write ever since.

Legal nurse consultants are in an ideal position to write articles. After you research a topic, what can you say about it to an audience other than your client? After you prepare a sample report, how can you turn that information into an article? How can you develop blog posts from the material for your website? Think creatively.

Pat Iyer is the editor or author of more than 800 articles, chapters, books, case studies and online courses. Along with Dana Jolly and Angela Duke Haynes, she presented a course of how to polish your writing skills. Watch the on demand digital downloads. Get details here. Do you want fame and fortune? Invest in your writing career with How to Get Published.

Watch our free webinar, Get More Clients with Your Top Notch Writing Skills. Get the replay here.