You are about to start a care plan or a research paper, and one thought comes first. Did I use the APA format correctly? In nursing schools, the APA 7th edition is extremely important. Professors can tell mistakes fast. The text is non-indented. No running head when one’s needed. A reference with no DOI. Little things, but they cost real points.
This guide provides an example APA 7th edition nursing paper. We will go step by step, so you can just copy the pattern instead of guessing.
Why do nursing schools use APA 7?
APA style is methodical. Nursing writing is founded on research, clinical guidelines, and real patient data. APA citations allow the reader, or the professor grading 30 papers on a Sunday night, to quickly trace each of your claims back to its source.
Most nursing schools want APA 7, not the old APA 6. Examples: Maryville, Capella. The two look almost identical, with little change. APA 7 has removed the running head for student papers. You can also have up to twenty authors before you need to use “et al.” Ignore those little edits, and your paper will look dated, even if the writing is good in itself.
If you’re new to APA formatting, start with our complete APA 7th Edition Formatting Tips for BSN Students guide.
What goes on the title page?
There are four parts to a student title page. Center and pile them in the upper half of the page.
Title of your paper. Bold.
Title case. Something like: Lifestyle Management of Hypertension in Adult Patients.
Your complete name. No bold.
Name of your school. For nursing students: Write the name of the program in full. Capella University or something like that. School of Nursing and Health Sciences.
Then the course name and number, the instructor’s name, and the due date. Each has its own queue.
Skip the running head. Student papers don’t need one anymore unless your instructor still wants it put in. This is one that trips up a lot of students because old templates online still have a running head on every single page.
In-Text Citations: You’ll Use These A Lot
Every time you pull a claim from a source, you need a quick citation right where you use it. In brackets, the author’s last name, then the year.
Example: Chen (2022) notes that the risk of stroke within five years is increased in individuals with poorly controlled hypertension.
If you mention the author in your sentence, you only need to include the year in brackets afterwards.
Example: Chen (2022) found that, on average, lifestyle changes reduced systolic pressure by twelve points.
” Quoting a source in its entirety? Add a page number too. It looks like this: (Chen, 2022, p. 45). Most nursing papers use paraphrasing, not quoting anyway. In a clinical write-up, your own words usually read more cleanly than a pasted quote.
Two authors with and between their names: (Chen and Roberts, 2022). Three or more authors are abbreviated at once. Only the first author + et al.: (Chen et al., 2022).
Reference Page: Where Points Go Missing
Your reference list is on a separate page at the end. Title it “References,” bold and centered at the top. All entries should have a hanging indent. This means the first line is left justified and every other line is indented half an inch.
Here is the full journal article in the right format:
Chen, L., & Roberts, M. (2022). Lifestyle intervention outcomes in adults with stage 2 hypertension. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 31(4), 512 to 524. https://doi.org/10.1234/jcn.2022.03145
See the journal name and volume number in italics? See the DOI at the end as a full clickable link, not just plain text? The most common way students lose points is by not including a DOI, right up there with the hanging indent.
Textbook citation looks a little different:
Taylor, C., Lynn, P., & Bartlett, J. (2023). Fundamentals of nursing: The art and science of person-centered care (10th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
Every source in your reference list must have an in-text citation somewhere in the paper. And each in-text citation needs a corresponding entry back on the reference page. Professors check this both ways; don’t be lazy here.
Rules Everyone Always Forgets
Double-space the entire paper. This includes your reference page, not just your body paragraphs.
Choose a font that people can actually read. Times New Roman 12pt is the most common and safest choice. You can also use Calibri 11pt if you prefer; APA 7 allows for that.
Set one-inch margins on all four sides. No quick fix here.
Put page numbers in the top right corner of every single page, starting right from the title page.
APA 7 has a set order for headings. Level 1 headings are bold and centred. Level 2 headings are also bold, but they are left-aligned. Nursing papers that have sections such as Introduction, Literature Review, and Discussion almost always just use Level 1 headings throughout.
A Quick way to check your own paper
Before you submit anything, run through this short checklist. Did you skip the running head unless your instructor told you to include it anyway? Do you have a corresponding reference page for every in-text citation you made? Does every single reference entry have a hanging indent? Do the journal articles have a working DOI link? Is it double-spaced all the way, margins and all?
If you catch these five things, you will avoid most of the formatting point loss that appears in nursing papers long before a professor even gets to grading your actual argument.
Review the DNP Assessments Sample for doctoral nursing project examples.
