Boosting Academic Writing Through Descriptive Paragraphs: Training for Nursing Students

Abstract

The ability to write descriptive paragraphs in English is an important skill for nursing students, especially in the context of medical documentation, reporting patient conditions, and professional communication in an international standard health environment. However, many students still have difficulty in writing descriptive paragraphs systematically, objectively, and in accordance with academic English rules. This community service activity aims to improve students' descriptive writing skills through structured and contextual training. The method used is a Qualitative design through case study approach approach involving 36 students of the Public Health Science Study Program, STIK Bina Husada Palembang as a purposively selected sample. The activity consists of the preparation, implementation, evaluation, and identification of obstacles stages. The results show that this training made a positive contribution to improving participants' understanding and skills in composing descriptive paragraphs. However, some obstacles found include limited vocabulary, sentence structure errors, and limited training time. Therefore, more intensive and sustainable further training is highly recommended to support students' professional readiness. This activity is also a form of implementation of the Tri Dharma of Higher Education in improving the quality of competent graduates who are ready to compete at national and international levels.