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Cailyn Lish
Rebecca Agosta
UWRT 1103
24 November 2014
Discourse Community of Students Interested in Nursing
One area can be filled with so many discourse communities. This goes from occupation
groups, social groups, and academic groups. For this project, I chose to look at pre-nursing
majors and nursing majors and how they both go into discourse communities. They also fit into
one big discourse community, which is of people interested in being nurses. These two
subgroups are compared and researched to find out more information about how they think.
I wanted to find out more about these groups. Some things I wanted to learn about these
groups are how the members think, what their main focuses are, and what is most important to
them right now in their life. All together I wanted to compare the traits and attitudes of both
people in the nursing program and those in pre-nursing still. Most importantly, from this I found
out how these groups are a discourse community.
To begin my research, I interviewed Riley who is a pre-nursing major and Rasmussen
who is a nursing major. I asked both of these participants the same questions so I could compare
the two levels of knowledge. I had the opportunity to observe a group of pre-nursing majors
during a Prospect for Success class. This class is for pre-nursing majors and other majors
similar. This day in class, we were divided by majors. I observed this group for about 45
minutes. This helped me see how this group interacts with each other. During the observation,
students were asked to talk about their major. They were asked to discuss the 3 main things that
were most important to them so this added to my research. I also used a secondary source that

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talked about discourse communities. With this, I was able to use these groups to see what they
entail to be a discourse community
One method I chose to conduct my research was a piece by Swales that talks about what
a discourse community is. A discourse community is a group of people that share 6 different
characteristics. These characteristics include sharing common goals, having certain
intercommunications among members, using participating mechanisms to provide information,
possessing one or more genres, having their own specific lexis, and having members with
different levels of knowledge (Swales). For this project, two genres are looked at that go into
one discourse community which is students in college interested in becoming a nurse. These two
subgroups include pre-nursing students and students already accepted into the nursing program.
During the observation of students in pre-nursing, their biggest focus was GPAs and
talking to others about how he or she is doing in chemistry and his or her other classes. Only
around 60 students are accepted into the nursing program so out of the hundred plus people
applying not even half is accepted. They are all competing against each other. Many of the
members were making comments of what it takes to get into nursing and how worried they are
about how competitive it is. They also made it clear that it is important to have a good
relationship with their advisor and to learn good study habits now before they get into their
harder classes. The biggest worry amongst this group is Chemistry. This seems to be the biggest
struggle in this group. One comment someone made was, Im switching my major because I
cannot do Chemistry. With the doubts of getting into the program, some people are changing
their minds and giving up. This is not always a bad thing because this opens more of an
opportunity for someone that really wants the spot and is trying their best to get it.

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The third method I used was interviewing someone in the nursing program. He said that
the most important thing for him right now is, passing classes with high grades (Rasmussen). I
also asked why he chose this field and what his main focus is. He answered them, I chose this
field in medicine because it is highly involved with patients and also because it offers a lot of
Master Degree programs specifically Nurse Anesthesia and My main focus is learning and
retaining the basic assessment skills a nurse needs to take care of their patient, also fundamental
skills like injections and care procedures (Rasmussen). This shows how far someone can go
with this field and it is very important to some people to get here in order to live their dream. He
is very specific in what he wants to do in his life when not everyone in this stage is completely
sure what they want to do yet. When I asked him what traits he believes are important in this
field he said, It is important to be competent in your nursing skills. Its also important to be a
caring and patient person with others (Rasmussen). This shows that a person cannot be in this
field for the money. In order to be happy, you have to care and love the position.
Finally, I interviewed someone in pre-nursing. I asked her the same questions that I
asked Rasmussen. I asked what the most important thing for her is and she said, Getting good
grades and getting the highest GPA possible so I can fulfill my dream of becoming a nurse
(Riley). Pre-nursing majors are not as specific and students already in the nursing program.
When I asked her why she chose this field she said, Ive always been interested in the nursing in
the medical field since I was little and high school just made me realize that nursing was the way
to go (Riley). She said her main focus is, to get into the upper division and get a job at a local
hospital and work in the emergency room first then hopefully the delivery room (Riley). It
seems that pre-nursing majors are just focusing on getting into the nursing program before they
decide what they will do with it. This is the main focus because many things about their future

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depend on this acceptance. I also asked her what traits she thinks are important for this field.
She said I believe you have to be kind and considerate along with be real and honest. You have
to think what is best for the person you are taking care of and give each person the care they
deserve (Riley). This is similar between both levels of knowledge. Someones heart and mind
must be in this field in order to be successful. The patient and other people always come first in
the medical field.
Both of these subgroups, pre-nursing majors and nursing majors, share one common goal.
This goal includes becoming a nurse. Many of these people want to go further than that and go
to graduate school but most will stick with basic nursing. Everyone will go in different areas of
nursing since there are many different genres of nursing. These groups both focus on getting the
best grades they can to make it to the next chapter in their lives. The requirements to get into the
nursing program are also very specific. One girl was telling me that she was accepted but if she
did not get one of her class grades from a C to a B than she was going to be kicked out and her
spot was going to be given to someone else. They are serious about this and the common goal
for everyone is to get the grades that they have to have in order to be where they want to be.
With this discourse community, there are different levels of knowledge. Everyone knows
more about one subject than others and that goes into what everyone will do with nursing. Some
may know more about working in geriatrics, neonatal or even getting their doctorate and
becoming a nurse anesthetist. Students in the nursing program already have had more years and
experience and therefore more knowledge than the students still in pre-nursing. The common
goal for the students in pre-nursing is to someday have the position and knowledge of the
students in the nursing program already.

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After studying these two groups, I have more knowledge about how they interact and
think even though I am a pre-nursing major right now. This did not change the way I think about
this field or change my mind but it does add more worry and stress about getting in. I now have
more knowledge about how competitive it is and I did not know that at the beginning of this
program. More people are applying for these 60 positions than I knew at the beginning. This is
one of the most competitive fields at University of North Carolina at Charlotte. This made me to
begin to think about a backup plan for just in case but also continue to try as hard as I can to
pursue my dream. I realized that the most important thing is to figure out study skills that work
best for me as soon as possible. The earlier someone figures those out, the more they will learn
and be successful in their classes. The earlier these are figured out is better because that means a
higher GPA and a better chance of getting accepted into the nursing program.

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Works Cited
Prospect for Success. Observation. 27 Oct. 2014.
Rasmussen, L.J. Pre-Nursing vs. Nursing Majors. Personal interview. 6 Nov. 2014.
Riley, Maddie. Pre-Nursing vs. Nursing Majors. Personal interview. 6 Nov. 2014.
Swales, John. ''The Concept of Discourse Community." Genre Analysis: English in Academic
and Research Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990.21-32. Print.