APA 7th Edition Guide for Nursing Papers: Everything You Need to Know

APA (American Psychological Association) format is the standard citation and formatting style for nursing papers across BSN, MSN, and DNP programs worldwide. Whether you are writing a nursing essay, a research paper, a care plan discussion, an evidence-based practice assignment, or a capstone project, your paper will almost certainly need to follow APA guidelines.

The 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual, released in October 2019, introduced significant changes from the 6th edition, changes that many students and even some instructors are still catching up on, even to date. If you learned APA formatting before 2019, or if your reference materials are out of date, there is a good chance you are applying rules that no longer apply.

This guide covers everything: paper formatting, title pages, abstracts, headings, in-text citations, reference list formatting, and the citation formats you will use most often in nursing such as in journal articles, books, websites, clinical guidelines, and database sources. At the end, we include a section covering the most common APA mistakes nursing students make and the solutions.

Part 1: Key Changes from APA 6th to 7th Edition

Before getting into the full guide, it helps to understand what actually changed, because the 6th-to-7th transition is where most confusion originates.

Running head was removed for student papers. In APA 6th edition, every paper required a running head: an abbreviated title in capital letters in the page header. APA 7th edition removes this requirement for student papers entirely. You only need page numbers in your header. The running head is still required for professional papers submitted for journal publication, but not for coursework.

Title page was redesigned for students. The student title page now includes the paper title, your name, your institutional affiliation (university and department), the course number and name, your instructor's name, and the assignment due date. This is a more detailed title page than APA 6th edition required, but it is also more straightforward because it removes the author note that appeared on professional papers.

Et al. must be applied from the first citation. In APA 6th edition, you listed all authors up to five on first mention, then used et al. from the second. In APA 7th edition, any work with three or more authors uses "et al." from the very first citation. Two-author works always list both names.

Reference list can list up to 20 authors listed in full. APA 6th edition required you to list only the first six authors before using an ellipsis. APA 7th edition extends this to 20 authors listed in full. Only when a work has 21 or more authors do you list the first 19, insert an ellipsis, and then add the final author.

DOIs must be formatted as URLs. In APA 6th edition, DOIs appeared as: doi:10.xxxx/xxxxx. In APA 7th edition, they appear as hyperlinks: https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx. This is an important formatting change that affects every journal article citation with a DOI.

Font variation allowed more flexibility. APA 6th edition specified 12-point Times New Roman exclusively. APA 7th edition permits a range of fonts, including 11-point Calibri, 11-point Arial, 12-point Times New Roman, or 11-point Georgia. The key requirement is consistency: use one font throughout the entire paper.

Singular "they" was officially endorsed. APA 7th edition formally endorses "they" as a singular, gender-neutral pronoun. In nursing papers discussing patients or hypothetical individuals, this is both grammatically acceptable and preferred in many contexts.

Part 2: General Paper Formatting

These rules apply to the entire document.

Margins: 1 inch on all sides (top, bottom, left, right).

Font: One consistent font throughout. 12-point Times New Roman is the most commonly accepted choice in nursing programs, though check your institution's specific requirements.

Line spacing: Double-spaced throughout the entire paper — including the title page, abstract, body, block quotations, and reference list. Do not add extra spacing between paragraphs.

Paragraph indentation: Indent the first line of each body paragraph 0.5 inches using the tab key. Do not use the space bar to create indentation, and do not indent the abstract, block quotations, headings, or reference list entries (which use hanging indentation instead).

Text alignment: Left-align the body text. Do not use full (justified) alignment.

Page numbers: Insert page numbers in the top-right corner of every page, including the title page (which is page 1). For student papers, the page number is the only element in the header.

Part 3: The Title Page

The APA 7th edition student title page contains the following elements, in this order, centered on the page:

1. Paper title: bold, title case, positioned in the upper half of the page (approximately three to four double-spaced lines from the top)
2. Author name(s): your first name, middle initial if you use one, and last name. Do not include academic credentials (BSN, RN, MSN) on academic coursework title pages
3. Institutional affiliation: your university department and university name on separate lines (e.g., Department of Nursing, University of XYZ)
4. Course number and name: as it appears in your course catalogue (e.g., NURS 402: Evidence-Based Practice)
5. Instructor name: include their preferred title and name (e.g., Jane Parsley)
6. Assignment due date: written in full (e.g., May 21, 2026)
7. Page number: in the top-right header

What to omit: No running head. No author note. No logo or decorative elements unless specifically required by your institution.

Nursing Title Page Example

The Effect of Hand Hygiene Interventions on Hospital-Acquired

Infection Rates in Pediatric Wards: A Literature Review

 

Brandon Lippincott

Duke University School of Nursing

NURS 305: Nursing Research Methods

 

Dr. Peter Walnut

May 21, 2026

Part 4: The Abstract

Under APA 7th edition, student papers do not require an abstract unless the instructor specifically requests one. When an abstract is required, format it as follows:

• Starts on a new page immediately after the title page
• The heading Abstract is centered and bolded (no italics, no additional formatting)
• The abstract itself begins on the very next line — no indentation
• Length: 150 to 250 words
• Written as a single paragraph with no indentation
• Summarizes the paper's purpose, methods (if applicable), key findings or arguments, and conclusions
• Do not cite sources in the abstract

Some nursing programs and specific assignment types (particularly research papers, literature reviews, and capstone projects) routinely require abstracts even when APA 7th edition does not mandate them. Always check your assignment rubric.

Keywords: If required, add a keywords line after the abstract. Indent it, write Keywords: in italics followed by a colon, then list 3 to 5 keywords in lowercase separated by commas.

Keywords: hand hygiene, hospital-acquired infections, pediatric nursing, evidence-based practice

Part 5: Headings

APA 7th edition uses five levels of headings to organize papers. The level you use depends on the complexity and depth of your paper. Most nursing coursework papers use Levels 1 and 2 only. Longer research papers and literature reviews may require Levels 1 through 3.

Important: Never begin a paper with the heading "Introduction." APA style assumes the first section is the introduction. Begin your text directly after the title (which appears again, bolded and centered, at the top of the first body page). Use Level 1 headings for all main sections that follow.

Part 6: In-Text Citations

APA uses the author-date citation system. Every idea, finding, statistic, or claim that is not your own original thought requires an in-text citation. There are two forms: parenthetical and narrative.

Parenthetical citation: the author and year appear in parentheses at the end of the sentence:

Hand hygiene compliance rates among nurses in acute care settings remain significantly below recommended targets (Pittet et al., 2022).

Narrative citation: the author's name is part of the sentence, with the year in parentheses immediately after:

Pittet et al. (2022) found that hand hygiene compliance rates among nurses in acute care settings remain significantly below recommended targets.

Author Rules for In-Text Citations

One author:

(Powell, 2021)… for the parenthetical citation.

Powell (2021)… for a narrative citation.

Two authors: Always list both names, connected by an ampersand in parenthetical citations and "and" in narrative citations:

(Powell & Kevin, 2023)….  (Parenthetical).

 Powell and Kevin (2023)…  (Narrative).

Three or more authors: Use only the first author's surname followed by "et al." from the very first citation:

(Johnson et al., 2020) … parenthetical

Johnson et al. (2020)… narrative

Corporate or organizational author: Use the organization’s name. If the name is long and the abbreviation is well known, spell it out in full on first use, then use the abbreviation subsequently:

First use: (World Health Organization [WHO], 2023)

Subsequent uses: (WHO, 2023)

Direct Quotations

Direct quotations require the author, year, and page number (or paragraph number for sources without pages):

"Nurses who receive structured hand hygiene training demonstrate significantly higher compliance rates in clinical settings" (Pittet et al., 2022, p. 47).

For quotations of 40 words or more, use a block quotation: start on a new line, indent the entire quotation 0.5 inches from the left margin, do not use quotation marks, and place the citation after the final punctuation.

A note on direct quoting in nursing papers: Paraphrasing is strongly preferred in nursing academic writing. Note that you should sparingly use the direct quotations, especially when the original wording is clinically or technically significant enough that changing it would alter the meaning. Paraphrasing demonstrates comprehension and is a higher-order academic skill.

Secondary Citations

A secondary citation is when you cite a source based on another author's description of it (e.g., you read that Smith (2018) found something, but you are reading it in Jones (2022), not in Smith's original work). APA 7th edition discourages secondary citations; use them only when the original source is genuinely inaccessible.

Format: (Smith, 2018, as cited in Jones, 2022)

Only Jones (2022) appears in your reference list.

Part 7: The Reference List

The reference list appears at the end of the paper on a new page. The heading References is centered and bolded. Entries are:

• Listed in alphabetical order by the first author's surname
• Double-spaced throughout, with no extra space between entries
• Formatted with a hanging indent (first line flush left, subsequent lines indented 0.5 inches)

Journal Article with DOI

This is the most common reference type in nursing papers. The format is:

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article in sentence case. Title of Journal in Title Case and Italics, Volume (Issue), page–page. https://doi.org/xxxxx

Example:

Allegranzi, B., Gayet-Ageron, A., Damani, N., Bengaly, L., McLaws, M. L., Moro, M. L., Rawaf, S., Sax, H., Bischoff, P., Pittet, D., & WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge Core Group of Experts. (2013). Global implementation of WHO's multimodal strategy for improvement of hand hygiene: A quasi-experimental study. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 13(10), 843–851. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(13)70163-4

Key details to note:

• Article title in sentence case only (capitalize only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns)
• Journal name and volume number in italics
• Issue number in parentheses, not italicized
• DOI formatted as a URL beginning with https://doi.org/

Journal Article without DOI (accessed from a database)

If a journal article does not have a DOI and you retrieved it from a database, do not include the database URL. End the reference after the page numbers.

De Micco, F., Di Palma, G., Ferorelli, D., De Benedictis, A., Tomassini, L., Tambone, V., ... & Scendoni, R. (2025). Artificial intelligence in healthcare: transforming patient safety with intelligent systems—A systematic review. Frontiers in medicine, 11, 1522554.

Book

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of book in sentence case and italics (edition, if not the first). Publisher.

Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2021). Nursing research: Generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice (11th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.

Book Chapter in an Edited Book

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of chapter in sentence case. In A. A. Editor & B. B. Editor (Eds.), Title of book in italics (pp. page–page). Publisher. https://doi.org/xxxxx

Website or Webpage

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of page in italics. Website Name. URL

World Health Organization. (2021, August 3). Hand hygiene: Why, how & when? WHO. https://www.who.int/gpsc/tools/Five_moments/en/

If no individual author is listed, the organization name serves as the author. If no date is available, use (n.d.) in place of the year.

Clinical Practice Guidelines

Clinical guidelines are a source type specific to nursing and healthcare papers, and one that many students format incorrectly. Treat the issuing organization as the author.

American Nurses Association. (2022). Nursing: Scope and standards of practice (4th ed.). American Nurses Association.

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2020). COVID-19 rapid guideline: Managing COVID-19. NICE. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng191

Government and Health Organization Reports

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023). Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) data. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://www.cdc.gov/hai/data/index.html

Citing CINAHL, PubMed, and Other Nursing Databases

When you access a journal article through CINAHL, PubMed, MEDLINE, or the Cochrane Library, you do not include the database name in your reference, only the DOI (if one exists) or nothing at all if there is no DOI. The database is considered a retrieval tool, not a publisher.

Exception: Some reference works (like the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews) are the publication themselves, not just a retrieval database. In those cases, include the database as the source.

Gould, D., Moralejo, D., Drey, N., Chudleigh, J. H., & Taljaard, M. (2017). Interventions to improve hand hygiene compliance in patient care. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 9, CD005186. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD005186.pub4

Part 8: Numbers, Statistics, and Abbreviations

Nursing papers frequently involve statistics and clinical data. APA 7th edition has specific rules for how these are presented.

Numbers: Spell out numbers one through nine; use numerals for 10 and above. However, always use numerals when the number precedes a unit of measurement (e.g., 5 mg, 3 cm, 2 hours), when reporting statistics, percentages, or scores, and in a series where some numbers are 10 or above.

Percentages: Use the percentage symbol with numerals (e.g., 68% compliance rate, not sixty-eight percent compliance rate).

Statistics: Report statistical results using numerals and the appropriate symbols:

Hand hygiene compliance increased significantly following the intervention (p < .001).

Note: p, t, F, r, and n are italicized. Numbers alone are not.

Abbreviations: Define all abbreviations on first use, even common ones in nursing, unless the abbreviation is used fewer than three times in the paper:

Evidence-based practice (EBP) underpins modern nursing...

Part 9: Common APA Mistakes in Nursing Papers, and How to Fix Them

NurseMyGrade’s writers review thousands of nursing papers each year. These formatting errors appear most consistently and cost students the most marks.

1. Still using a running head on student papers. This is the most common carry-over error from APA 6th edition. Student papers in APA 7th edition do not require a running head. Delete it. Your header should contain only the page number, right-aligned.
2. Listing all authors in-text for works with three or more authors. From the very first citation, three-or-more author works use "et al." Only write all names when there are exactly two authors.
3. Formatting DOIs without the https://doi.org/ prefix. Older resources show DOIs as doi:10.xxxx. APA 7th edition requires the full URL format: https://doi.org/10.xxxx. Update every DOI in your reference list.
4. Using title case for article titles in the reference list. Article and chapter titles in the reference list use sentence case (only the first word, first word after a colon, and proper nouns capitalized). Journal names use title case. These are frequently confused.
5. Not using a hanging indent on the reference list. Every reference entry should have a hanging indent: the first line flush left, subsequent lines indented 0.5 inches. In Microsoft Word, select the reference list, go to Format > Paragraph > Indentation > Special > Hanging.
6. Missing page numbers on direct quotations. Every direct quotation needs the page number (or paragraph number) in the in-text citation. (Pittet et al., 2022) is insufficient for a quote; it must be (Pittet et al., 2022, p. 47).
7. Including the database name in reference list entries. You do not cite CINAHL, PubMed, or MEDLINE as part of your reference. If the article has a DOI, use it. If it does not, end the entry after the page numbers.
8. Writing "Introduction" as a Level 1 heading. APA 7th edition does not use the heading "Introduction." The reader assumes the paper begins with an introduction. Repeat your paper's title, bolded and centered, at the top of the first body page, then begin writing.
9. Inconsistent capitalization in headings. Heading levels 1–3 use title case. Levels 4 and 5 also use title case but follow a different format (indented, ending with a period, with the text continuing on the same line). Check each heading against the correct level format before submitting.
10. Using "Retrieved from" before database URLs. APA 7th edition removed the "Retrieved from" phrase before URLs and DOIs in most cases. Simply provide the URL or DOI directly.

For a deeper look at these and other formatting pitfalls, read our article on the 7 most common APA formatting mistakes in nursing assignments — it includes specific examples and corrections for each one.

Part 10: APA 7th Edition Quick-Reference Checklist

Before submitting any nursing paper, run through this checklist.

Document setup

• [ ] 1-inch margins on all sides
• [ ] Consistent font throughout (12-point Times New Roman recommended)
• [ ] Double-spaced throughout — no exceptions
• [ ] Page numbers in top-right header on every page
• [ ] No running head (student papers)

Title page

• [ ] Paper title bold and centred
• [ ] Author name (no credentials)
• [ ] Department and university name
• [ ] Course number and name
• [ ] Instructor name
• [ ] Assignment due date

Abstract (if required)

• [ ] Heading "Abstract" centered and bolded
• [ ] 150–250 words
• [ ] No indentation on the opening line
• [ ] Single paragraph
• [ ] Keywords formatted correctly (if required)

Body

• [ ] Paper title repeated, bolded and centered, at top of first body page
• [ ] No "Introduction" heading
• [ ] Correct heading levels used consistently
• [ ] First line of each paragraph indented 0.5 inches
• [ ] All ideas from external sources cited with author and year
• [ ] Direct quotations include page numbers
• [ ] Three-or-more-author works use "et al." from first citation

Reference list

• [ ] "References" heading centered and bolded on new page
• [ ] Alphabetical by first author's surname
• [ ] Double-spaced throughout
• [ ] Hanging indent on every entry
• [ ] Article titles in sentence case
• [ ] Journal names in title case and italicized
• [ ] DOIs formatted as https://doi.org/xxxxx
• [ ] No database names included for standard journal articles
• [ ] Every in-text citation has a corresponding reference entry
• [ ] Every reference entry is cited somewhere in the body

Getting Help with APA Formatting

APA formatting is a skill that develops with practice, but it can feel overwhelming when you are also managing clinical hours, coursework, and a full academic load. If you are struggling with a paper that needs to meet strict APA 7th edition standards, or if you want a model paper to see how formatting, citations, and argument are integrated at a professional level, our team at NurseMyGrade can help.

Our nursing writers are experts in APA 7th edition and produce papers across all nursing assignment types, including research papers, literature reviews, care plan discussions, EBP papers, capstone projects, and reflective essays. Every paper we produce has the guarantee of being properly formatted, correctly cited, and delivered with a plagiarism report.

• Need a nursing research paper written to APA 7th edition standards?
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We are here to help at every stage of your nursing academic journey.