APA is the default style in most nursing programs, from BSN coursework to DNP scholarly projects. This guide covers the rules you will use most: in-text citations, journal articles, textbooks, web pages, guidelines, dissertations and the reference list itself.
APA style comes from the American Psychological Association. Its Publication Manual (7th edition, 2020) sets rules for how you cite sources, format headings, and lay out a paper. Nursing schools favour it because it puts the author and year up front, which makes it easy for a reader to see how current your evidence is. A few programs and medical journals use AMA or Vancouver instead, so always confirm with your syllabus.
About the examples. Examples on this page are illustrative. Fictional authors and placeholder DOIs (such as 10.xxxx/xxxxx) are used so you never copy a false detail. Always take the details from your own sources, and follow your program's style requirements if they differ.
If you learned APA from an older handout, these are the updates that catch students most often.
| Topic | APA 6th (older) | APA 7th (current) |
|---|---|---|
| DOIs | doi:10.1000/xyz | Written as a link: https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx |
| Retrieval phrase | "Retrieved from URL" on every web source | Just the URL. "Retrieved Month Day, Year, from URL" only for content designed to change |
| Publisher location | City and state required | Dropped |
| Authors in the reference list | Up to 7 listed | Up to 20 listed. For 21 or more, first 19, an ellipsis, then the final author |
| Three or more authors in text | List all on first citation | First author plus "et al." from the first citation |
| Running head | Required | Not needed for student papers unless your instructor asks |
Every idea, statistic or quotation from a source needs a brief in-text citation that points to a full entry in your reference list. Use the author's surname and the year of publication. The table shows the standard patterns; the APA in-text guide covers the tricky cases in depth.
| Situation | Parenthetical | Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| One author | (Okafor, 2022) | Okafor (2022) |
| Two authors | (Nguyen & Okafor, 2022) | Nguyen and Okafor (2022) |
| Three or more authors | (Lindqvist et al., 2021) | Lindqvist et al. (2021) |
| Group author with abbreviation | First: (Regional Nursing Safety Council [RNSC], 2023). Later: (RNSC, 2023) | Regional Nursing Safety Council (RNSC, 2023) |
| No date | (Okafor, n.d.) | Okafor (n.d.) |
| Direct quotation | (Okafor, 2022, p. 14) | Okafor (2022) noted that "..." (p. 14) |
The ProNursingWriters team can format your references and in-text citations to APA 7 for your nursing paper.
Most of your nursing sources will be journal articles, so this is the pattern to memorise. Article titles use sentence case; the journal name uses title case; the journal name and volume number are italic; the issue number is in parentheses and is not italic. See the full journal article guide for variations.
Cite the journal, never the database. CINAHL, PubMed and similar tools are just where you found the article, so they do not appear in the reference. If an article has no DOI and is only reachable behind your library login, end the entry after the pages or article number.
Book titles are italic and in sentence case. Add the edition in parentheses after the title when it is not the first, and leave out the publisher's city. Drop words such as "Inc." from the publisher name, but keep "Press" and "Books." Guidance for more cases is in the book citation guide.
For a page on a site run by an organisation such as CDC, WHO or AHRQ, the organisation is the author. If the author and the site name are the same, you leave out the site name. For a report, italicise the title and add the report number in parentheses if there is one. Clinical practice guidelines are handled like reports; see the guideline citation guide, and the website and government report guides for more.
The title is italic. A description of the work and the university go in square brackets after it. APA's standard wording is "Doctoral dissertation" or "Master's thesis"; for a DNP scholarly project or capstone, use the label your program uses. Add the name of the repository or database after the brackets, then the URL if the work is freely available. See the dissertation guide.
| Mistake | Fix |
|---|---|
| Title Case For Article Titles | Use sentence case: capitalise the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns |
| Writing "doi:10..." or "DOI:" labels | Use the full https://doi.org/ link |
| Naming CINAHL or PubMed in the reference | Cite the journal only |
| Listing all authors in text for 3 or more | Use the first author plus et al. |
| Skipping the hanging indent | Set it with the paragraph settings, never with the space bar |
| Reference entries missing from the text (or the reverse) | Cross-check both lists before you submit |
| Using "&" in narrative text | Use "and" in narrative; "&" only inside parentheses and in reference entries |
Academic integrity. Cite every source you draw on and follow your institution's academic-integrity policy. See how to avoid plagiarism. For official guidance, the APA Style website is the authoritative source.
No. Include one when the article has it. If it does not, use the URL when the article is freely accessible, or end the entry after the pages when it is only available through a library database.
APA 7 does not require one for student papers, but your instructor may still ask. Check your assignment guidelines.
APA 7 accepts several readable fonts, including 12-point Times New Roman and 11-point Calibri or Arial. Your program's template overrides the general rule if it names a font.
Yes. The ProNursingWriters team can format and check APA 7 references as part of a project; place an order or ask for an instant quote on the order page.