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ARTICLE: Problem Statement Development: How to Write a Problem Statement in A Dissertation

Profile image of D. Anthony  Miles

Most researchers and doctoral students have considerable trouble writing a problem statement with their research projects dissertations, and theses. We have to ask ourselves, why that is? Why are we encountering doctoral students and researchers that have trouble writing the problem statement? Why the disconnect? This is a common occurrence with doctoral students. We would think the required research methods course would address this. However, that is not case. Thus, this article addresses, discusses and illustrates how to develop a problem statement. This article will provide a model and template for developing a problem statement. As basis for a research study, it is important the researcher and doctoral student know how to construct a problem statement. First, this article discusses the problem statement. Second, this article provides a model as a for developing a problem statement. Last, the article provides examples of problem statements using the conceptual template. Doctoral Student Workshop: Problem Statement Development and Strategies

Related Papers

International Journal of Doctoral Studies

shardul pandya

Aim/Purpose: Provide methodology suggesting steps to doctoral mentors to work with students in constructing their research problem statement in their dissertation. Background: Doctoral students face difficulties writing their dissertation and they begin by writing the research problem statement. Methodology: This paper uses a framework widely used to describe student adjustment to graduate studies in general and to doctoral program in particular. Contribution: This study provides a framework to mentors/advisors that is helpful in guiding the students to writing their research problem statement. Findings: Writing a research problem statement is difficult by itself. Following a methodological approach suggested in this study could help with writing it. Recommendations for Practitioners: A methodological approach in writing the dissertation is helpful to mitigate the difficulties of writing the dissertation. Our study tackles difficulties with writing the research problem statement. Re...

phd nursing problem statement

InSITE Conference

Aim/Purpose: Develop instructional rubrics that help in writing and evaluating the doctoral dissertation research problem statement. Background: This is a follow-up study. In the first paper, we introduced a model for writing a research problem statement that takes the students through four phases to complete their writing. In this paper, we introduce an instructional rubric to be used for helping to write the research problem statement. Methodology: This paper builds on the previous model and adds Socratic questions to trigger critical thinking to help with writing the research problem statement. Contribution: Developing the instructional rubrics is the contribution of this study. The instructional rubrics can help with writing the research problem statement. Findings: Writing a research problem statement is difficult by itself. Following the methodological approach suggested in this study will help students with the task of writing their own. Following this instructional rubric wi...

A publication of the Department of Public Administration, Federal University Wukari, Taraba State. April 2024, 7(2), 35-46

Dr. Usman Bappi

This research aims to investigate the challenges encountered in formulating effective problem statements in research and proposes strategies for improvement. The statement of the problem is a critical component of any research study, and its quality influences the overall success of the research. The study will identify common problems, such as lack of clarity, scope issues, and insufficient justification, observed in existing research problem statements. Through a detailed analysis of literature and case studies, the research will explore the impact of these problems on the research process and outcomes. Additionally, the study will propose practical and theoretical frameworks to guide researchers in crafting more effective and impactful problem statements. The findings will contribute to enhancing the quality of research by providing actionable insights for researchers, educators, and practitioners to overcome challenges in formulating problem statements and improve the overall rigor of their studies.

Journal of Physics: Conference Series

Mahyuddin K. M. Nasution

This paper aims to provide an understanding of designing a problem statement that must be present in every research proposal or other scientific work. A study, from proposals to scientific papers, requires a problem statement. The design of the program statement is basically always present from research interests. Objectives as a translation of the problem statement will be described through a methodology that matches the answers to be given to the interests. In the industry 4.0 era, problem statement in research prioritize innovation or change to improve welfare.

Leo Andrew B . Diego

Borrowed materials (i.e., songs, stories, poems, pictures, photos, brand names, trademarks, etc.) included in this module are owned by their respective copyright holders. Every effort has been exerted to locate and seek permission to use these materials from their respective copyright owners. The publisher and authors do not represent nor claim ownership over them.

Manu Mathew

Dr. Md Inaam Akhtar

Aptisi Transactions on Management (ATM)

Eka Purnama Harahap

Basically in conducting a study there are problems that can be used as a means toachieve a goal or goal in the study. Everyone who conducts research must have their ownmethod, concept, or method in formulating the problem that is the object of the research. In thispaper will explain the techniques or ways that can be done in relation to formulating problems inresearch including determining a topic to be discussed in research, making backgroundproblems, explaining problem identification, limiting the scope of research, determiningproblems that are worthy of research, making questions in research, and determine the goals,benefits, and uses of the research. With the concept of planning and mature thinking toformulate and determine the formulation of the problem, it is expected that the research that willbe conducted will be focused and directed so that it does not extend to the discussion that is notthe topic of his research. With the formulation of this problem also the reader becomes...

Princy Jain

Edupedia Publications

Research is an investigation or experimentation that is aimed at a discovery and interpretation of facts, revision of theories or laws or practical application of the new or revised theories or laws. Identification of research problem leads in conducting a research. To initiate a research, the necessity for the research, to be carried out should be generated.The ideas and topics are developed while consulting literatures, discussions with experts and continuation of activities related to the subject matter. These ideas/topics generally called research problems and are statements about areas of concern, a condition to be improved, a difficulty to be eliminated, or a troubling question that exists in scholarly literature, in theory, or in practice that points to the need for meaningful understanding and deliberate investigation. A research problem does not state how to do something, offer a vague or broad proposition, or present a value question. The problem must be significant researchable lead to further research and suitable for the researcher. Formulation of the problem should lead to empirical investigation. Formulation of research problem should depict what is to be determined and scope of the study.It also involves key concept definitions questions to be asked. The objective of the present paper highlights the above stated issues.

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PhD Courses and Curriculum

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Ways to Study

Course offerings, required courses.

NURS 903 Scientific Reasoning I: Defining and Articulating a Researchable Nursing Problem

This course introduces scientific reasoning, methods and ethical principles guiding scientific inquiry. Includes an introductory review of the literature and formulation of a researchable problem and purpose statement within a focused area of nursing inquiry. Corequisite: All first semester core courses in PhD program; offered every fall semester, 2 credits.

NURS 904 Scientific Reasoning II: Creating and Articulating Specific Aims

This course explores the structure and scientific premise of investigation through construction of Specific Aims using the National Institutes of Health guidelines for a grant application. Prerequisite: All first semester core courses in PhD program; Corequisite: All second semester core courses in PhD program; offered every spring semester, 1 credit.

NURS 905 Scientific Reasoning III: Articulating Significance and Innovation

This course provides foundational knowledge and methods needed to situate a particular scientific question within the current state of the science and create an argument for scientific innovation. Prerequisite: All first-semester core courses in PhD program; Scientific Reasoning II; Corequisite: All second semester core courses in PhD program; offered every spring semester, 1 credit.

NURS 906 Scientific Reasoning IV: Crafting Methods and Analysis to Meet Specific Aims

This course focuses on knowledge and application of foundational scientific theory, design, methods and analysis to the creation of a research proposal within the National Institutes of Health proposal model. Prerequisite: All first semester, and 10-week second semester core courses in PhD program; Corequisite: PhD Seminar II; offered every spring semester, 2 credits.

NURS 908 Carolina PhD Seminar I: Introduction to Nursing Science and Syndemics

This course introduces the ontological and epistemological basis of nursing science and the application of syndemic thinking as a lens for conducting nursing science. Prerequisite: Enrollment in the SON PhD program; Corequisite: All first semester core courses in PhD program; offered every fall semester; 2 credits.

NURS 909  Carolina PhD Seminar II: Biological, Physiological, Psychological, and Behavioral Determinants of Health

This course examines the biological, physiological, psychological, and behavioral determinants of health and their interactions. Prerequisite: All first semester core courses in PhD program; Corequisite: All second semester core courses in PhD program; offered every spring, 2 credits.

NURS 910 Carolina PhD Seminar III: Social Determinants of Health

This course examines social determinants of health at multiple levels, and their interactions, and characteristics that differentiate structural from non-structural social determinants. Prerequisite: All first semester core courses in PhD program; offered every fall, 2 credits.

NURS 911 Carolina PhD Seminar IV: Synthesizing Multiple Determinants of Health, Syndemics, and Nursing Science

This course evaluates the interplay among biological, physiological, psychological, behavioral, and social determinants, whether the relationships are consistent with a syndemics framework, and the potential for novel relationships across determinants in these areas to advance nursing science. Prerequisite: All first-year core courses in PhD program; Carolina Core Seminar III; offered every spring, 2 credits.

NURS 913 Knowledge Synthesis I: Organizing & Evaluating Evidence

This course develops students’ competence in identifying, organizing and critiquing the evidence in a focused area. Prerequisite: Successful completion of Scientific Reasoning I; Corequisite: PhD Lab I; offered every fall semester, 1 credit.

NURS 914 Knowledge Synthesis II: Disseminating Evidence

This course continues to develop the knowledge synthesis with a focus on synthesizing the evidence and writing the review for publication. Prerequisite: Successful completion of Knowledge Synthesis I; Corequisite: PhD Lab II; offered every spring, 1 credit.

NURS 912 Theoretical Foundations of Scientific Inquiry

This course develops student competence in analyzing and applying philosophical and theoretical orientations in the conduct and critique of scientific and scholarly work. Corequisite: All Core Courses in Fall, Y1 of the Program; offered every fall, 2 credits.

NURS 916 Design, Measurement, and Analysis I: Descriptive and Associational Research

This course offers an in-depth examination of quantitative and qualitative descriptive and associational research, including design, sampling, measurement, data collection, data analysis, and interpretation of results. Corequisite: All Core Courses in Fall, Y1 of the Program; offered every fall, 4 credits.

NURS 917 Design, Measurement, and Analysis II: Explanatory and Predictive Research

This course offers an in-depth examination of qualitative and quantitative explanatory and predictive research, including design, sampling, measurement, data collection, data analysis, and interpretation of results. Corequisite: All Core Courses in Fall, Y2 of the Program; offered every spring, 4 credits.

NURS 918 Intermediate Statistics: Regression Analysis

This course focuses on the use of advanced regression techniques to analyze various types of response variables with multiple predictors, interaction terms, or longitudinal data. Prerequisite: Design, Measurement and Analysis I and II; offered every fall, 3 credits.

NURS 924 Experiential Learning I

This course serves as a synthesis hub to guide students in developing the cognitive and psychomotor skills needed to search the scientific literature, develop conceptual models, analyze data, and interpret findings. Corequisite: All first semester core courses in PhD program; offered every fall, 1 credit.

NURS 925 Experiential Learning II

This course serves as a synthesis hub to guide students in developing the cognitive and psychomotor skills needed to complete a knowledge synthesis, hone select grant writing skills, analyze data, and interpret findings. Prerequisite: All first semester core courses in PhD program; Corequisite: All second semester core courses in PhD program; offered every spring, 1 credit.

NURS 985 Research Seminar & Practicum: Guided Individual Research Experience

Directs students to develop research skills related to dissertation and future research. Minimum of 3 credits required; offered every spring and fall semester and both summer sessions; 1-3 credits.

NURS 994 Dissertation

Dissertation credits. Minimum of 6 credits required; offered every spring and fall semester and both summer sessions; 3 credits.

NURS 671  Nursing Inquiry to Advance Evidence-Based Practice and Scholarship

This course is an  i ntroduction to scientific inquiry, evidence-based practice, and nursing/healthcare innovations. Emphasis is on: theory, ethics, problem identification, question development, design selection, data analysis and interpretation, statistical applications, and appraisal of research reports. Prerequisite: admission to an undergraduate BSN program and eligible to take required undergraduate nursing research course; the Hillman Scholars program; or PhD in Nursing Program; 3 credits.

NURS 675 Hillman Scholars in Nursing Innovation: Integrative Seminar

Prerequisite: Admission to the Hillman Scholars Program in Nursing Innovation. This seminar will cultivate personal and professional skills essential for students’ development and socialization as nurse innovators, leaders, researchers, and scholars. Content is iterative and progressive in depth and scope. Offered every fall and spring semester; 1 credit.

NURS 899 Special Topics

Independent study with an authority in the field. Elective; offered every spring and fall semester and both summer sessions. Offered every fall and spring semesters, and both summer sessions; 1-6 credits.

NURS 901   Clinical Scholars in Nursing Innovation I

Prerequisite: Students must be Hillman Scholars; licensed as an RN in North Carolina, and enrolled full-time in the PhD program. The first of two courses designed to enhance scholars’ understanding of nursing practice and care delivery within clinical microsystems. Students engage in individualized, precepted clinical experiences and guided scholarly reflection. Offered every fall semester, 6 credits.

NURS 902 Clinical Scholars in Nursing Innovation II

Prerequisite: NURS 901. Second sequential course for doctoral students designed to extend scholars’ understanding of nursing practice and develop identity as a nurse scientist. Scholars engage in individualized, precepted clinical experiences and guided scholarly reflection. Offered every spring semester; 6 credits.

NURS 915 Health Organization Policy

Examines interrelated changes in nursing, ethical and legal expectations, and the organization of health care and health policy. Ways that nurse leaders in health care organizations adapt to and challenge public policies throughout the policymaking process and consequences for organizations and for health, practice, research and education are explored. Offered as needed; 3 credits.

NURS 928 Organizational Theories

Examines the major theoretical paradigms, perspectives, and issues in organization theory, particularly as applied to organizations providing health care services. Offered as needed; 3 credits.

NURS 930 Children at Risk: Prenatal Period Through Emerging Young Adulthood

This course will apply ecological and developmental perspectives to research with children at risk for conditions that threaten life and quality of life, and resilience under risk. Emphasis is on critically evaluating conceptual models, designs and methods, and responsible conduct of research that aims to understand, prevent or manage risk. Offered as needed; 3 credits.

NURS 932 Families and Health

Explores theoretical, methodological, and ethical issues related to research in families and health across the life span. Content includes family research related to health promotion, risk reduction, vulnerability, and health risk, and the family in the context of acute and chronic illness. Cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic issues are included. Offered as needed; 3 credits.

NURS 933 Health Care Quality and Patient Outcomes: Conceptual and Empirical Approaches

Prerequisite: NURS 976 or permission of instructor. Examines literature on quality of care – effectiveness, safety, efficiency, equity, timeliness and patient-centeredness. Critically evaluates conceptual frameworks, research designs, sources of data, analytic approaches, and implications for health care policy. Offered as needed; 3 credits.

NURS 950 Analysis of the Academic Role in Nursing Education

This course examines knowledge, theories and skills necessary for transition into an academic teaching role in university schools of nursing. Particular emphasis on the teaching-learning process as utilized in higher education. Elective; offered every other spring semester, odd years; 3 credits.

NURS 951 Mentored Teaching Practicum

Prerequisite: NURS 875 or NURS 950 or permission of the instructor. Provides doctoral students with a mentored teaching experience through which educational theory and methods can be applied while engaging in teaching activities with the mentor. The practicum will provide opportunities to analyze course design, implement objectives, evaluate student competencies and practice a variety of teaching methods: Offered every fall and spring semester and both summer sessions; 1-3 credits; may be repeated for up to 3 credits in total.

NURS 957 From Theory to Intervention

Prerequisite: NURS 912 or graduate level theory course. In-depth exploration of selected programmatic research in nursing and related fields on prevention and management of chronic conditions in order to generate and evaluate treatment theory and intervention protocol. Offered every fall semester; 3 credits.

NURS 958 Designing Intervention Studies

Prerequisite: NURS 957 or permission of instructor. Examines methodological, ethical, and practical issues in the design and implementation of theory-based intervention studies. Offered every spring semester; 3 credits.

NURS 968 Writing the Pre-/Post-Doctoral Training Plan for a Research-Intensive Career

This course explores components of and rationale for a pre-/post-doctoral training plan and its relevance for planning a research-intensive career. Students will write a personalized training plan following grant criteria. Prerequisite: Graduate status or permission of the instructor; completion of all first semester core courses in PhD program; permission of primary mentor; offered every summer; 2 credits.

NURS 979 Qualitative Analysis

Prerequisite: NURS 977 or equivalent doctoral level qualitative methods course. Emphasizes the work of analysis and interpretation. Students apply relevant qualitative techniques to their own data. Offered as needed; 3 credits.

Updated July 2019

PhD Curriculum Map

phd nursing problem statement

Second Year Specialization

phd nursing problem statement

Third Year (And Beyond) Dissertation

phd nursing problem statement

Course Sequencing

This course sequencing applies to the new curriculum,  beginning fall 2020 . Curriculum Courses for our PhD program will be offered at the following times:

Every Fall + –

NURS 671      Nursing Inquiry to Advance Evidence-Based Practice and Scholarship

NURS 675      Hillman Scholars in Nursing Innovation: Integrative Seminar

NURS 899      Special Topics

NURS 901      Clinical Scholars in Nursing Innovation I

NURS 903      Scientific Reasoning I: Defining and Articulating a Researchable Nursing Problem

NURS 908      Carolina PhD Seminar I: Introduction to Nursing Science and Syndemics

NURS 910      Carolina PhD Seminar III: Social Determinants of Health

NURS 912      Theoretical Foundations of Scientific Inquiry

NURS 913      Knowledge Synthesis I: Organizing & Evaluating Evidence

NURS 916      Design, Measurement, and Analysis I: Descriptive and Associational Research

NURS 918      Intermediate Statistics: Regression Analysis

NURS 924      Experiential Learning I

NURS 951      Mentored Teaching Practicum

NURS 957      From Theory to Intervention

NURS 985      Research Seminar & Practicum: Guided Individual Research Experience

NURS 994      Dissertation

Every Spring + –

NURS 902      Clinical Scholars in Nursing Innovation II

NURS 904      Scientific Reasoning II: Creating and Articulating Specific Aims

NURS 905      Scientific Reasoning III: Articulating Significance and Innovation

NURS 906      Scientific Reasoning IV: Crafting Methods and Analysis to Meet Specific Aims

NURS 909      Carolina PhD Seminar II: Biological, Physiological, Psychological, and Behavioral Determinants of Health

NURS 911      Carolina PhD Seminar IV: Synthesizing Multiple Determinants of Health, Syndemics, and Nursing Science

NURS 914      Knowledge Synthesis II: Disseminating Evidence

NURS 917      Design, Measurement, and Analysis II: Explanatory and Predictive Research

NURS 925      Experiential Learning II

NURS 958      Designing Intervention Studies

Every Summer + –

NURS 968      Writing the Pre-/Post-Doctoral Training Plan for a Research-Intensive Career

Electives Offered as Needed + –

NURS 915      Health Organization Policy

NURS 928      Organizational Theories

NURS 930      Children at Risk: Prenatal Period Through Emerging Young Adulthood

NURS 932      Families and Health

NURS 933      Health Care Quality and Patient Outcomes: Conceptual and Empirical Approaches

NURS 950      Analysis of the Academic Role in Nursing Education (every other spring, odd years)

NURS 979      Qualitative Analysis

Updated July 2019

Carolina Core

The purpose of the Carolina Core is to provide a curricular framework for students to achieve the knowledge, skills, and attitudes essential in a graduate of the UNC School of Nursing. Consisting of 11 tenets, the Carolina Core was developed following rigorous review of national recommendations, analysis of the best available evidence, and consultation with education experts. Each Carolina Core tenet includes a title, a definition, and a narrative designed to apply the definition to the Carolina Nursing graduate.

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Need your questions answered?

Transform the future of health.

Advance the theoretical foundation of nursing practice and healthcare delivery with a Johns Hopkins PhD in nursing. This program will provide you with the knowledge and skills in theoretical, methodological, and analytical approaches that will enable you to conduct research to discover and apply knowledge in nursing science and health care. Most full-time Johns Hopkins Nursing PhD students receive 100% tuition funding and guaranteed compensation for the first four years of study.

The Johns Hopkins School of Nursing specializes in eight Areas of Expertise . With access to world-renowned nursing faculty in these specialties, cutting-edge facilities, and opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration with noted researchers throughout Johns Hopkins University, you’ll build the skills to develop and implement a scientific research program and launch your career. By graduation, most Hopkins nurse scholars have been awarded grants that continue their research and set them well on their way to a successful career.

A DNP Advanced Practice/PHD dual degree is also offered for students who wish to function at the highest level of nursing practice with focuses on both clinical practice and research.

Program Details

Tuition & fees.

Most full-time Johns Hopkins Nursing PhD students receive 100% tuition funding and guaranteed compensation for the first four years of study. Estimated Tuition Cost: $2,430 per credit See Cost of Attendance Details Financial Aid: There are numerous options for financing your education including grants, scholarships, and federal loans.  Learn more.

Upcoming Application Deadlines

Fall entry: November 15

Requirements

Admission criteria.

Graduate of an accredited Bachelor’s or Master’s in Nursing Program ( if applicable. Applicants holding a degree in a non-nursing related discipline will be considered on an individual basis)

A written statement of research goals including reason for interest in Johns Hopkins

Research interests that match faculty expertise and School resources

GRE scores are accepted but not required

A minimum scholastic GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale

Interview with faculty (if moved forward by admissions committee)

Writing sample (publication or graded paper)

Resume or curriculum vitae

Three letters of recommendation (two academic, one professional)*

Official Transcripts (from all previous colleges/universities)

TOEFL or IELTS if English is not your native language

Information for applicants with international education

Prerequisites

No prerequisite courses.

*References should be recent, written for the purpose of your application to this program and from professors who know you as a student or employers who know you as a professional in a job setting preferably in a supervisory role. Personal references from colleagues, friends, or family members do not meet the requirement. For PhD applicants, it is strongly preferred that a least one of your recommenders holds a PhD.

 No. 1 in the nation for its  Doctor of Nursing Practice Program (DNP)

No. 1 (tied) in the nation for its Nursing Master’s Program (MSN)

No. 3 nursing school in the world, according to 2024  QS World University  rankings

Each student completes a core curriculum and works closely with faculty advisors to complete an individualized course of study that fulfills the student’s goals and develops the basis for a program of research.

Full Curriculum

Philosophical Perspectives in Health

Scientific Perspectives in Nursing

Quantitative Research Design and Methods

Qualitative Research Design and Methods

Mixed Methods Research Design

Grant Writing Seminar

Measurement in Health Care Research

Responsibilities and Activities of the Nurse Scientist

Statistical Methods in Public Health I

Statistical Methods in Public Health II

Statistical Methods in Public Health III

Theory and Concepts of Health Behavior

Symptom Evaluation and Management

Special Topics in Violence Research

Advanced Nursing Health Policy

Stress and Stress Response

The Evolving Roles of the Nurse Educator (online)

Statistical Methods in Public Health IV

Writing for Publication (online)

Advanced Seminar in Translational Research

International Health Systems and Research 3

Current Issues and Trends in Cardiovascular Health Promotion Research

Critical Applications of Advanced Statistical Models

Technology and eTools to Conduct, Facilitate, Implement and Manage Research (online)

  • Scholarly Research Portfolio for PhD Students

Dissertation Seminar

Dissertation

Sample Course of Study

Statistical Methods in Public Health I & II

Research Residency – 15 hours per week

Comprehensive Examination

Dissertation Seminar*

Dissertation*

Electives (10 credits)

Research Residency – 20 hours per week

Teaching Residency – 10 hours per week

Activities and Responsibilities of the Nurse Scientist

Electives (9 credits)

Preparation for Doctor of Philosophy Board Examination

*PhD students having successfully completed the written Comprehensive Examination must be registered for at least three credits consisting of two credits dissertation advisement plus one credit dissertation seminar each semester they are progressing toward the degree. *Part-time students who have completed the Comprehensive Examination must register for two credits dissertation advisement plus one credit dissertation seminar each semester they are progressing toward the degree after completing half (10) the required elective credits.  *Up to a maximum of 6 credits can be transferred into the PhD Program. ** Per Doctor of Philosophy Board policy, students must either be registered during fall and spring semesters, or be on an approved leave of absence. ***Transfer of credit is granted on an individual basis. Please see the  transfer of credit policy  and ** complete the form  to make a request.

“Prior to joining the PhD program, I felt like I was spinning my wheels. Now I feel empowered to advocate for what I know will help patients and have the tools and soon will have the credentials to do that.” Emily Hoppe, MS, BSN, RN

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Financial aid.

View the costs for the PhD Program. 2024-2025

Scholarships & Grants: Grants are awards based on financial need that do not have to be repaid. Many students also benefit from scholarships and awards based on merit. Learn more.

Loans: Many students will avail themselves of loans to help finance their School of Nursing education. If necessary, we encourage you to borrow only what is absolutely essential to cover your educational costs. Learn more.

Frequently Asked Questions

The research area in an admission application should be well-defined but not overly rigid. Candidates should demonstrate a clear focus within their field of interest, outlining specific research questions or problems they aim to address. The proposal should show a solid understanding of current literature and gaps in knowledge, indicating how their research could contribute to the field. While applicants may have a general idea of their methodology and potential outcomes, there should be room for refinement and adaptation as they progress in their studies. The research area should align with the program’s strengths and faculty expertise. Overall, the essay should reflect the applicant’s understanding of the issue, and critical thinking skills, and potential for conducting meaningful research, while still allowing for guidance and development throughout the program.

Although contacting a faculty member in your research area is not required, it is an opportunity to become familiar with researchers in your area of interest and to ask questions not addressed on the school’s website. While it can be helpful to have a direct match, students often have great success in the program when a piece of the research overlaps with the advisor.   If there is a particular faculty member whose work interests you, you may discuss this as part of your application essay.   The best place to start is with the PhD Assistant Director of Recruitment , Laura Panozzo at [email protected] and with a review of our most recent PhD virtual information session at https://nursing.jhu.edu/admissions/index.html .

Once you are admitted to the PhD program and decide to matriculate, the PhD Admissions Committee determines who will be your advisor(s). Generally, one advisor is selected, but in some instances-depending on your research area-two advisors are assigned, one of them serving as the primary advisor and the second serving as a co-advisor. One of the faculty would be your primary advisor and the second would serve as a co-advisor. We try to match students with faculty members who have similar research interests.

The PhD program prepares the nurse scholar to develop and conduct scientific research that advances the theoretical foundation of nursing practice and healthcare delivery. The program is designed to prepare nurses for careers as research scientists, often in academic or governmental positions.

The DNP program prepares nurse leaders for evidence-based practice in both direct patient care and executive roles.   View Comparison Chart

View information about a unique opportunity to earn a dual-degree DNP/PhD.

The time needed to complete the program varies, depending on how fast you progress. Some students in our program finish their degree in three years, others take four years or longer.

Students whose native language is not English are required to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Johns Hopkins School of Nursing requires a minimum TOEFL-IBT score of 100 to be eligible for admission. More

The PhD program has a Biostatistics heavy curriculum so previous coursework in Biostatistics is helpful.  We encourage students that have not had previous coursework in this area, or have not taken the coursework in the past five years, to look for ways to strengthen that knowledge base before matriculating into the program.  Please reach out to Laura Panozzo, Assistant Director of Recruitment, at [email protected] for a list of resources to help you prepare while applying and before matriculating into the program. 

GRE scores are accepted but not required.

The PhD program is a full time, onsite program only. 

Students should expect to spend 15 hours a week on campus on their funded research residency in collaboration with their faculty advisor for all three years that they receive full funding.  Students should expect to spend an additional 15-20 hours per week on coursework.

Coursework completed outside the United States must be evaluated and translated into US equivalencies.  Official transcript evaluations must be submitted as part of the application process, and applications will not be considered complete until all evaluations for any work completed outside the United States are received.  The Johns Hopkins School of Nursing recommends WES-ICAP .

Pathway to PhD Nursing Scholars Program

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Digital Commons @ USF > USF Health > College of Nursing > Theses and Dissertations

Nursing Theses and Dissertations

Theses/dissertations from 2023 2023.

Psychological Distress, Resilience, and the Impact on Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Survivors With Taxane-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy , Lauren Schwab

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

Medication-Assisted Treatment Versus 12-Step Group Therapy: A Comparative Analysis of Adherence and Abstinence In Patients With Opioid Use Disorder , Derrick C. Glymph

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

Quality of Life of Older Adults with Complicated Grief Receiving Accelerated Resolution Therapy: A Mixed Methods Study , Tina M. Mason

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

In Post-Extubated Patients What are the Preferred Methods of Communication During Their Experience of Endotracheal Intubation with Mechanical Ventilation , Lanette Dumas

The Effect of Hope on the Relationship between Personal and Disease Characteristics and Anxiety and Depression in Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer , Sharon B. McNeil

Predictors of Nonadherence to Radiation Therapy Schedules Among Head and Neck Cancer Patients , Jennifer Lynn Miller

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

Perceived Discrimination and Cardiovascular Outcomes in Blacks: A Secondary Data Analysis of the Heart SCORE Study , Marilyn Aluoch

Exploration of Gratitude in Cardiovascular Health: Mediators, Medication Adherence and Psychometrics , Lakeshia A. Cousin

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

Fatigue-related Symptom Clusters and their Relationship with Depression, and Functional Status in Older Adults Hospice Patients with Cancer. , Suzan Fouad Abduljawad

Genetic Moderation of Pain and Fatigue Symptoms Resulting from the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Breast Cancer Program , Carissa Bea Alinat

The Moderating Effect of Religion on Death Distress and Quality of Life between Christian Cancer patients in the United States with Muslim cancer patients in Saudi Arabia , Doaa Almostadi

Prevention of Post Intensive Care Syndrome-Family with Sensation Awareness Focused Training Intervention: A Randomized Controlled Trial Pilot Study , Paula L. Cairns

Assessing Abstinence in Infants Greater Than 28 Days Old , Genieveve J. Cline

The Relationship Between Sleep Quality and Motor Function in Hospitalized Older Adult Survivors of Critical Illness , Maya N. Elías

The Role of Migration-Related Stress in Depression Among Haitian Immigrants in Florida: A Mixed Method Sequential Explanatory Approach , Dany Amanda C. Fanfan

The Effect of Depression, Inflammation and Sleep Quality on Risk for Cardiovascular Disease , Catherine L. O'Neil

Adapting SafeMedicate (Medication Dosage Calculation Skills software) For Use In Brazil , Samia Valeria Ozorio Dutra

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

The Relationship Between Total Neuropathy Score-reduced, Neuropathy Symptoms and Function. , Ashraf Abulhaija

Validation of the Electronic Kids Dietary Index (E-KINDEX) Screening Tool for Early Identification of Risk for Overweight/Obesity (OW/OB) in a Pediatric Population: Associations with Quality of Life Perceptions , Patricia A. Hall

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

The Effectiveness of an Intervention Designed to Improve Chlorhexidine (CHG) Bathing Technique in Adults Hospitalized in Medical Surgical Units , Janette Echemendia Denny

Levels of Distress Among Women Veterans Attending a Women’s Health Specialty Clinic in the VA Healthcare System , Debbie T. Devine

Examination of the Use of Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) in the Treatment of Symptoms of PTSD and Sleep Dysfunction in Veterans and Civilians , Marian Jevone Hardwick

Investigating the Mutual Effects of Depression and Spiritual Well-being on Quality of Life in Hospice Patients with Cancer and Family Caregivers Using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model , Li-Ting Huang

The Change in Nutritional Status in Traumatic Brain Injury Patients: A Retrospective Descriptive A Retrospective Descriptive Study , Dina A. Masha'al

Exploring the Relationship Between Severity of Illness and Human Milk Volume in Very Low Birth Weight and Extremely Low Birth Weight Infants Over Six Weeks , Shannon Leigh Morse

Cardiovascular Disease Risk Scores and Novel Risk Factors in Relation to Race and Gender , Johanna Wilson

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

A Comparative Evaluation of the Learner Centered Grading Debriefing Method in Nursing Education , Marisa J. Belote

Sleep, Depressive Symptoms and Cognition in Older Adults and Caregivers of Persons with Dementia , Glenna Shemida Brewster

The Relationship between Hearing Status and Cognitive Performance and the Influence of Depressive Symptoms in the Older Adult , Julie A. Daugherty

Basal Salivary Oxytocin and Skin to Skin Contact among Lactating Mothers of Premature Infants , Jessica Marie Gordon

The Relationship Between Nurses' Emotional Intelligence and Patient Outcomes , Mary Kutash

Sexual Functioning and Body Image in Younger Breast Cancer Survivors , Carly Lynn Paterson

Cognitive Load of Registered Nurses During Medication Administration , Sarah Faith Perron

A Comparison of Quality of Life between Intense and Non-Intense Treatment for Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia and High-Risk Myelodysplastic Syndrome , Sara Marie Tinsley

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

Acculturation, Self-Efficacy and Breastfeeding Behavior in a Sample of Hispanic Women , Ivonne F. Hernandez

Knowledge and Acceptance of HPV and the HPV Vaccine in Young Men and Their Intention to be Vaccinated , Brenda Renee Jasper

The Relationships Between Sleep Disturbances, Depression, Inflammatory Markers, and Sexual Trauma in Female Veterans , Ellen Marcolongo

Examination of Possible Protective Effect of Rhesus D Positive Blood Factor on Toxoplasma-related Depressive Symptoms in Pregnancy , Lisa Lynn Parnell

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practice of Primary Care Nurse Practitioners Regarding Skin Cancer Assessmnets: Validity and Reliability of a New Instrument , Debra Michelle Shelby

Theses/Dissertations from 2013 2013

Knowledge and Practice of Reproductive Health among Mothers and their Impact on Fetal Birth Outcomes: A Case of Eritrea , Winta Negusse Araya

Race/Ethnicity, Subjective and Objective Sleep Quality, Physical and Psychological Symptoms in Breast Cancer Survivors , Pinky H. Budhrani

Factors Predicting Pap Smear Adherence in HIV-infected Women: Using the Health Belief Model , Crystal L. Chapman Lambert

The Relationship Between Socioeconomic Status and Body Mass Index on Vitamin D Levels in African American Women with and without Diabetes Living in Areas with Abundant Sunshine , Shani Vann Davis

Predictors of Quality of Life in Patients with Cutaneous T cell Lymphoma , Darcie Marie Deaver

Relationship between dysphoric moods, risk-taking behaviors, and Toxoplasma gondii antibody titers in female veterans , Allyson Radford Duffy

Prenatal Stress, Depression, and Herpes Viral Titers , Pao-Chu Hsu

Factors Associated with Fear of Breast Cancer Recurrence Among Survivors , Jean Marie Lucas

Sickle Cell Disease: The Role of Self-Care Management , Nadine Matthie

Factors Influencing Vaccination Decisions in African American Mothers of Preschool Age Children , Chauntel Mckenzie Mcnair

The Strong Black Woman, Depression, and Emotional Eating , Michelle Renee Offutt

Development of an Investigator-designed Questionnaire Concerning Childbirth Delivery Options based on the Theory of Planned Behavior , Chun-Yi Tai

Theses/Dissertations from 2012 2012

The Mediating Effect of Distress Caused by Constipation on Predictors of Quality of Life of Hospice Patients with Cancer. , Abdel Alkhalouf

Testing a Model of Bacterial Vaginosis among Black Women , Jessica Brumley

The Effect of Tight Glycemic Control on Surgical Site Infection Rates in Patients Undergoing Open Heart Surgery , Sierra Gower

Development of a Tool for Pressure Ulcer Risk Assessment and Preventive Interventions in Ancillary Services Patients , Monica Shutts Messer

Hospice Nurses- Attitudes and Knowledge about Pain Management , Amie Jacqueline Miller

Theses/Dissertations from 2011 2011

Literacy and Hazard Communication Comprehension of Employees Presenting to an Occupational Health Clinic , Christine Bouchard

A Meta-Analysis of Cultural Competence Education in Professional Nurses and Nursing Students , Ruth Wilmer Gallagher

Relationship Between Cancer-Related Fatigue and Depression: A Pilot Study , Gloria Michelle Guess

A Comparison of Oncology and Non-Oncology Nurses in Their Knowledge of Cancer Pain Management , Nicole Houle

Evaluating Knowledge and Attitudes of Graduate Nursing Students Regarding Pain , Eric Bartholomew Jackson

Bone Marrow Transplant Nurses' Attitudes about Caring for Patients Who are Near the End of Life: A Quality Improvement Project , Leslie Lauersdorf

Translation and Adaptation of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) Scale Into Tigrigna Language for Tigrigna Speaking Eritrean Immigrants in the United States , Mulubrhan Fisseha Mogos

Nurse Manager Emotional Intelligence as a Predictor to Registered Nurse Job Satisfaction and RN Perceptions of the Practice Environment and the Relationship to Patient, Nursing and Hospital Outcomes , Jacqueline Cecilia Munro

The Relationship of Mid-Pregnancy Levels of Cytokines, Stress, and Depression with Gestational Age at Delivery , Melissa Molinari Shelton

Prophylactic, Risk-Reducing Surgery in Unaffected BRCA-Positive Women: Quality Of Life, Sexual Functioning and Psychological Well-Being , Sharon Tollin

Theses/Dissertations from 2010 2010

The Relationship Between FAM5C SNP (rs10920501) Variability, Metabolic Syndrome, and Inflammation, in Women with Coronary Heart Disease , Jennifer L. Cline

Women’s Perceptions of Postpartum Stress: A Narrative Analysis , Nancy Gilbert Crist

Lived Experience: Near-Fatal Adolescent Suicide Attempt , Phyllis Ann Dougherty

Exploring the Relationships among Work-Related Stress, Quality of Life, Job Satisfaction, and Anticipated Turnover on Nursing Units with Clinical Nurse Leaders , Mary Kohler

A Comparative Study of Knowledge of Pain Management in Certified and Non-Certified Oncology Nurses , Sherrie A. LaLande

Evaluating Knowledge and Attitudes of Undergraduate Nursing Students Regarding Pain Management , Jessica Latchman

Evaluation of Oncology Nurses' Knowledge, Practice Behaviors, and Confidence Specific to Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy , Rebecca Denise McAllister

Moderating the Effectiveness of Messages to Promote Physical Activity in Type 2 Diabetes , Rachel E. Myers

Factors Affecting the Process of Clinical Decision-Making in Pediatric Pain Management by Emergency Department Nurses , Teresa A. Russo

The Correlation Between Neuropathy Limitations and Depression in Chemotherapy Patients , Melissa Thebeau

Theses/Dissertations from 2009 2009

Fatigue Symptom Distress and Its Relationship with Quality Of Life in Adult Stem Cell Transplant Survivors , Suzan Fouad Abduljawad R.N., B.S.N.

Nursing Advocacy and the Accuracy of Intravenous to Oral Opioid Conversion at Discharge in the Cancer Patient , Maria L. Gallo R.N., O.C.N.

Transitional Care for Adolescents with HIV: Characteristics and Current Practices of the Adolescent Trials Network Systems of Care , Patricia Gilliam

The Effect of Ethical Ideology and Professional Values on Registered Nurses’ Intentions to Act Accountably , Susan R. Hartranft

Falls in Bone Marrow Transplant Patients: A Retrospective Study , Lura Henderson R.N., B.S.N.

Predictors of cancer caregiver depression symptomatology , Henry R. Rivera

Psychosocial outcomes of weight stigma among college students , Sabrina Joann Robinson

The Experience of Fatigue and Quality of Life in Patients with Advanced Lung Cancer , Andrea Shaffer

The Relationship Between Uncertainty in Illness and Anxiety in Patients With Cancer , Naima Vera

Shifting Paradigms: The Development of Nursing Identity in Foreign-Educated Physicians Retrained as Nurses Practicing in the United States , Liwliwa Reyes Villagomeza

Theses/Dissertations from 2008 2008

Prostate Cancer Screening Intention Among African American Men: An Instrument Development Study , Susan Anita Baker

The Geriatric Cancer Experience in End of Life: Model Adaptation and Testing , Harleah G. Buck

Communication Systems and HIV/AIDS Sexual Decision Making in Older Adolescent and Young Adult Females , Rasheeta D. Chandler MS, ARNP, FNP-BC

Relationship of Anger Trait and Anger Expression to C-Reactive Protein in Post-Menopausal Women , Rosalyn Gross

Identifying Patients with Cancer at Risk of Experiencing a Fall While Hospitalized , Joann M. Heaton

Modulation of Monocyte-Derived Dendritic Cell Maturation and Function by Cigarette Smoke Condensate in a Bronchial Epithelial Cell Co-Culture Model , Alison J. Montpetit

Cancer Patients with Pain: Examination of the Role of the Spouse/Partner Relationship In Mediating Quality of Life Outcomes for the Couple , Mary Ann Morgan

Development of an Ecological Model to Predict Risk for Acquisition of Clostridium difficile -Associated Diarrhea During Acute Care Hospitalization , Susan Elaine Steele

Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Assessment Tool , Cindy S. Tofthagen

Health Decision Behaviors: Appropriateness of Dietary Choice , Daryle Hermelin Wane

Theses/Dissertations from 2007 2007

The Relationship Between Sleep-Wake Disturbance and Pain in Cancer Patients Admitted to Hospice Home Care , Marjorie Acierno

Wheelchair Positioning and Pulmonary Function in Children with Cerebral Palsy , Lee Barks

Structural Equation Model of Exercise in Women Utilizing the Theory of Unpleasant Symptoms and Social Cognitive Variables , Sarah Elizabeth Cobb

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Examples of Research Questions

Phd in nursing science program, examples of broad clinical research questions include:.

  • Does the administration of pain medication at time of surgical incision reduce the need for pain medication twenty-four hours after surgery?
  • What maternal factors are associated with obesity in toddlers?
  • What elements of a peer support intervention prevent suicide in high school females?
  • What is the most accurate and comprehensive way to determine men’s experience of physical assault?
  • Is yoga as effective as traditional physical therapy in reducing lymphedema in patients who have had head and neck cancer treatment?
  • In the third stage of labor, what is the effect of cord cutting within the first three minutes on placenta separation?
  • Do teenagers with Type 1 diabetes who receive phone tweet reminders maintain lower blood sugars than those who do not?
  • Do the elderly diagnosed with dementia experience pain?
  •  How can siblings’ risk of depression be predicted after the death of a child?
  •  How can cachexia be prevented in cancer patients receiving aggressive protocols involving radiation and chemotherapy?

Examples of some general health services research questions are:

  • Does the organization of renal transplant nurse coordinators’ responsibilities influence live donor rates?
  • What activities of nurse managers are associated with nurse turnover?  30 day readmission rates?
  • What effect does the Nurse Faculty Loan program have on the nurse researcher workforce?  What effect would a 20% decrease in funds have?
  • How do psychiatric hospital unit designs influence the incidence of patients’ aggression?
  • What are Native American patient preferences regarding the timing, location and costs for weight management counseling and how will meeting these preferences influence participation?
  •  What predicts registered nurse retention in the US Army?
  • How, if at all, are the timing and location of suicide prevention appointments linked to veterans‘ suicide rates?
  • What predicts the sustainability of quality improvement programs in operating rooms?
  • Do integrated computerized nursing records across points of care improve patient outcomes?
  • How many nurse practitioners will the US need in 2020?

PhD Resources

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Dissertation Topics in Nursing

  • PMID: 35583448
  • DOI: 10.1097/NNR.0000000000000604

Background: Few quantitative studies have documented the types of research topics most commonly employed by nursing PhD students and whether they differ by program delivery (in-person vs. online/hybrid programs).

Objectives: We examined a large set of publicly available PhD dissertation abstracts to (a) describe the relative prevalence of different research topics and methods and (b) test whether the primary topics and methods used differed between online or hybrid and in-person PhD programs. A secondary goal was to introduce the reader to modern text-mining approaches to generate insights from a document corpus.

Methods: Our database consisted of 2,027 dissertation abstracts published between 2015 and 2019. We used a structural topic modeling text-mining approach to explore PhD students' research topics and methods in United States-based doctoral nursing programs.

Results: We identified 24 different research topics representing a wide range of research activities. Most of the research topics identified did not differ in prevalence between online/hybrid and in-person programs. However, online/hybrid programs were more likely to engage students in research focused on nursing education, professional development, work environment, simulation, and qualitative analysis. Pediatrics, sleep science, older adults and aging, and chronic disease management were more prevalent topics in in-person-only programs.

Discussion: The range of topics identified highlights the breadth of research nursing PhD students' conduct. Both in-person and online/hybrid programs offer a range of research opportunities, although we did observe some differences in topic prevalence. These differences could be due to the nature of some types of research (e.g., research that requires an in-person presence) or differences in research intensity between programs (e.g., amount of grant funding or proximity to a medical center). Future research should explore why research topic prevalence may vary by program delivery. We hope that this text-mining application serves as an illustrative example for researchers considering how to draw inferences from large sets of text documents. We are particularly interested in seeing future work that might combine traditional qualitative approaches and large-scale text mining to leverage the advantages of each.

Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

Similar articles

  • Supporting dissertation work through a nursing PhD program federal grant writing workshop. Kulage KM, Stone PW, Smaldone AM. Kulage KM, et al. J Prof Nurs. 2020 Mar-Apr;36(2):29-38. doi: 10.1016/j.profnurs.2019.08.001. Epub 2019 Aug 16. J Prof Nurs. 2020. PMID: 32204857 Free PMC article.
  • Support for Doctoral Nursing Students in PhD Programs in the United States. Lee MA, Prevost SS, Scott LD, Zangaro G. Lee MA, et al. J Prof Nurs. 2023 May-Jun;46:223-230. doi: 10.1016/j.profnurs.2023.03.018. Epub 2023 Apr 6. J Prof Nurs. 2023. PMID: 37188415
  • A National Survey Examining Manuscript Dissertation Formats Among Nursing PhD Programs in the United States. Graves JM, Postma J, Katz JR, Kehoe L, Swalling E, Barbosa-Leiker C. Graves JM, et al. J Nurs Scholarsh. 2018 May;50(3):314-323. doi: 10.1111/jnu.12374. Epub 2018 Mar 8. J Nurs Scholarsh. 2018. PMID: 29517152
  • An integrative review of threshold concepts in doctoral education: Implications for PhD nursing programs. Tyndall DE, Firnhaber GC, Kistler KB. Tyndall DE, et al. Nurse Educ Today. 2021 Apr;99:104786. doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2021.104786. Epub 2021 Jan 23. Nurse Educ Today. 2021. PMID: 33549957 Review.
  • A profile of U.S. nursing faculty in research- and practice-focused doctoral education. Smeltzer SC, Sharts-Hopko NC, Cantrell MA, Heverly MA, Nthenge S, Jenkinson A. Smeltzer SC, et al. J Nurs Scholarsh. 2015 Mar;47(2):178-85. doi: 10.1111/jnu.12123. Epub 2015 Jan 30. J Nurs Scholarsh. 2015. PMID: 25641233 Review.
  • American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (n.d.). PhD education . https://www.aacnnursing.org/Nursing-Education-Programs/PhD-Education
  • American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2020). PhD in nursing . https://www.aacnnursing.org/News-Information/Research-Data-Center/PhD
  • Banks G. C., Woznyj H. M., Wesslen R. S., Ross R. L. (2018). A review of best practice recommendations for text analysis in R (and a user-friendly app). Journal of Business and Psychology , 33, 445–459. 10.1007/s10869-017-9528-3 - DOI
  • Black A. G. (2010). At a distance: A comparative study of distance delivery modalities for PhD nursing students [Doctoral dissertation, Capella University]. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/116625
  • Blei D. M. (2012). Probabilistic topic models. Communications of the ACM , 55, 77–84. 10.1145/2133806.2133826 - DOI
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Nurse.org

Best Nursing Research Topics for Students

What is a nursing research paper.

  • What They Include
  • Choosing a Topic
  • Best Nursing Research Topics
  • Research Paper Writing Tips

Best Nursing Research Topics for Students

Writing a research paper is a massive task that involves careful organization, critical analysis, and a lot of time. Some nursing students are natural writers, while others struggle to select a nursing research topic, let alone write about it.

If you're a nursing student who dreads writing research papers, this article may help ease your anxiety. We'll cover everything you need to know about writing nursing school research papers and the top topics for nursing research.  

Continue reading to make your paper-writing jitters a thing of the past.

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A nursing research paper is a work of academic writing composed by a nurse or nursing student. The paper may present information on a specific topic or answer a question.

During LPN/LVN and RN programs, most papers you write focus on learning to use research databases, evaluate appropriate resources, and format your writing with APA style. You'll then synthesize your research information to answer a question or analyze a topic.

BSN , MSN , Ph.D., and DNP programs also write nursing research papers. Students in these programs may also participate in conducting original research studies.

Writing papers during your academic program improves and develops many skills, including the ability to:

  • Select nursing topics for research
  • Conduct effective research
  • Analyze published academic literature
  • Format and cite sources
  • Synthesize data
  • Organize and articulate findings

About Nursing Research Papers

When do nursing students write research papers.

You may need to write a research paper for any of the nursing courses you take. Research papers help develop critical thinking and communication skills. They allow you to learn how to conduct research and critically review publications.

That said, not every class will require in-depth, 10-20-page papers. The more advanced your degree path, the more you can expect to write and conduct research. If you're in an associate or bachelor's program, you'll probably write a few papers each semester or term.

Do Nursing Students Conduct Original Research?

Most of the time, you won't be designing, conducting, and evaluating new research. Instead, your projects will focus on learning the research process and the scientific method. You'll achieve these objectives by evaluating existing nursing literature and sources and defending a thesis.

However, many nursing faculty members do conduct original research. So, you may get opportunities to participate in, and publish, research articles.

Example Research Project Scenario:

In your maternal child nursing class, the professor assigns the class a research paper regarding developmentally appropriate nursing interventions for the pediatric population. While that may sound specific, you have almost endless opportunities to narrow down the focus of your writing. 

You could choose pain intervention measures in toddlers. Conversely, you can research the effects of prolonged hospitalization on adolescents' social-emotional development.

What Does a Nursing Research Paper Include?

Your professor should provide a thorough guideline of the scope of the paper. In general, an undergraduate nursing research paper will consist of:

Introduction : A brief overview of the research question/thesis statement your paper will discuss. You can include why the topic is relevant.

Body : This section presents your research findings and allows you to synthesize the information and data you collected. You'll have a chance to articulate your evaluation and answer your research question. The length of this section depends on your assignment.

Conclusion : A brief review of the information and analysis you presented throughout the body of the paper. This section is a recap of your paper and another chance to reassert your thesis.

The best advice is to follow your instructor's rubric and guidelines. Remember to ask for help whenever needed, and avoid overcomplicating the assignment!

How to Choose a Nursing Research Topic

The sheer volume of prospective nursing research topics can become overwhelming for students. Additionally, you may get the misconception that all the 'good' research ideas are exhausted. However, a personal approach may help you narrow down a research topic and find a unique angle.

Writing your research paper about a topic you value or connect with makes the task easier. Additionally, you should consider the material's breadth. Topics with plenty of existing literature will make developing a research question and thesis smoother.

Finally, feel free to shift gears if necessary, especially if you're still early in the research process. If you start down one path and have trouble finding published information, ask your professor if you can choose another topic.

The Best Research Topics for Nursing Students

You have endless subject choices for nursing research papers. This non-exhaustive list just scratches the surface of some of the best nursing research topics.

1. Clinical Nursing Research Topics

  • Analyze the use of telehealth/virtual nursing to reduce inpatient nurse duties.
  • Discuss the impact of evidence-based respiratory interventions on patient outcomes in critical care settings.
  • Explore the effectiveness of pain management protocols in pediatric patients.

2. Community Health Nursing Research Topics

  • Assess the impact of nurse-led diabetes education in Type II Diabetics.
  • Analyze the relationship between socioeconomic status and access to healthcare services.

3. Nurse Education Research Topics

  • Review the effectiveness of simulation-based learning to improve nursing students' clinical skills.
  • Identify methods that best prepare pre-licensure students for clinical practice.
  • Investigate factors that influence nurses to pursue advanced degrees.
  • Evaluate education methods that enhance cultural competence among nurses.
  • Describe the role of mindfulness interventions in reducing stress and burnout among nurses.

4. Mental Health Nursing Research Topics

  • Explore patient outcomes related to nurse staffing levels in acute behavioral health settings.
  • Assess the effectiveness of mental health education among emergency room nurses .
  • Explore de-escalation techniques that result in improved patient outcomes.
  • Review the effectiveness of therapeutic communication in improving patient outcomes.

5. Pediatric Nursing Research Topics

  • Assess the impact of parental involvement in pediatric asthma treatment adherence.
  • Explore challenges related to chronic illness management in pediatric patients.
  • Review the role of play therapy and other therapeutic interventions that alleviate anxiety among hospitalized children.

6. The Nursing Profession Research Topics

  • Analyze the effects of short staffing on nurse burnout .
  • Evaluate factors that facilitate resiliency among nursing professionals.
  • Examine predictors of nurse dissatisfaction and burnout.
  • Posit how nursing theories influence modern nursing practice.

Tips for Writing a Nursing Research Paper

The best nursing research advice we can provide is to follow your professor's rubric and instructions. However, here are a few study tips for nursing students to make paper writing less painful:

Avoid procrastination: Everyone says it, but few follow this advice. You can significantly lower your stress levels if you avoid procrastinating and start working on your project immediately.

Plan Ahead: Break down the writing process into smaller sections, especially if it seems overwhelming. Give yourself time for each step in the process.

Research: Use your resources and ask for help from the librarian or instructor. The rest should come together quickly once you find high-quality studies to analyze.

Outline: Create an outline to help you organize your thoughts. Then, you can plug in information throughout the research process. 

Clear Language: Use plain language as much as possible to get your point across. Jargon is inevitable when writing academic nursing papers, but keep it to a minimum.

Cite Properly: Accurately cite all sources using the appropriate citation style. Nursing research papers will almost always implement APA style. Check out the resources below for some excellent reference management options.

Revise and Edit: Once you finish your first draft, put it away for one to two hours or, preferably, a whole day. Once you've placed some space between you and your paper, read through and edit for clarity, coherence, and grammatical errors. Reading your essay out loud is an excellent way to check for the 'flow' of the paper.

Helpful Nursing Research Writing Resources:

Purdue OWL (Online writing lab) has a robust APA guide covering everything you need about APA style and rules.

Grammarly helps you edit grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Upgrading to a paid plan will get you plagiarism detection, formatting, and engagement suggestions. This tool is excellent to help you simplify complicated sentences.

Mendeley is a free reference management software. It stores, organizes, and cites references. It has a Microsoft plug-in that inserts and correctly formats APA citations.

Don't let nursing research papers scare you away from starting nursing school or furthering your education. Their purpose is to develop skills you'll need to be an effective nurse: critical thinking, communication, and the ability to review published information critically.

Choose a great topic and follow your teacher's instructions; you'll finish that paper in no time.

Joleen Sams

Joleen Sams is a certified Family Nurse Practitioner based in the Kansas City metro area. During her 10-year RN career, Joleen worked in NICU, inpatient pediatrics, and regulatory compliance. Since graduating with her MSN-FNP in 2019, she has worked in urgent care and nursing administration. Connect with Joleen on LinkedIn or see more of her writing on her website.

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Home > MAHE Student Work > MCON

Manipal College of Nursing, Manipal Theses and Dissertations

Theses/dissertations from 2021 2021.

Effectiveness of Comprehensive Hemophilia Education Program (CHEP) on health related Quality of Life and Clinical outcomes of children and young people with hemophilia in selected hemophila clinics of Karnataka. , Anjalin D’Souza

Effectiveness of a Preterm Home Care Program (PHCP) on parent infant interaction among mothers of preterms and the developmental outcomes of the preterms in Kasturba Hospital, Manipal Karnataka. , E. Binu Margaret

A study on Child Abuse, and its relationship with the attitude of adults and Socio – Demographic variables in Udupi Dist. , Sangeetha Priyadarshini

Effectiveness of Developmental Supportive Care Program (DSCP) on the health status of preterm infants, knowledge, and practice of care providers in a selected Neonatal unit of tertiary care hospital. , Yashoda Sathish

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

“ Life Style Factors Associated With Elevated Blood Pressure Among Working Women Of Selected Institutions Of Udupi Taluk: A Case Control Study.” , PRIYA LAVEENA ALVA

Prevalance, Risk factors for Malnutrition and effectiveness of need-based intervention on nutritional status and cognitive development of preschool children in Anganwadi centers of Udupi Dist. , Ansuya .

Effectiveness of a comprehensive educational program for Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHAs) to identify individuals with bleeding disorders in udupi District: A community –based study , Sulochana B

“A study to assess the knowledge on post Exposure prophylaxis and adherence to Needle stick injury prevention measures among nurses in selected hospitals of Udupi taluk, Karnataka” , KUSUMAVATHI .

" “A Study to Assess the Pattern of Smartphone Usage, Smartphone Addiction and Associated Subjective Health Problems Among Nursing Students of Selected Colleges of Udupi District” " , JOYCE MACHADO

“A Study to Assess The perception towards Tobacco Consumption And Its Usage Among The Auto Rickshaw Drivers Of Udupi District, Karnataka” , SHAKEEL MOHAN

"“A cross-sectional study to assess the body Mechanics, perceived musculoskeletal problems and health-seeking behaviour among Construction workers of Udupi district.” " , RAGHAVENDRA NAYAK

Oral Care Protocol for Chemotherapy and Radiation therapy included oral complications in Cancer Patients. , Radhika R Pai

“A Comparative Study To Assess The Attitude And Self-Reported Practices Of Self- Medication Among The Healthcare And Non- Healthcare Undergraduate Students Of Selected Institutions Of A University In Udupi District, Karnataka” , ILAKKIYA P

"“A descriptive study to assess the Knowledge and attitude towards global Warming and perceived impacts of Regional climate change on health among the health science students of Udupi District, Karnataka” " , BADAPLIN RYNJAH

“A Study To Assess The Correlation Between Level Of Critical Thinking Ability And Competency In Performing Neurological Assessment Among Nursing Students Of Selected Nursing Colleges Of Udupi District, Karnataka” , PIYALI SAHA

“Awareness about rights of older adults, attitude and perception towards ageism among the college students of Udupi district: A descriptive cross-sectional study” , ANGEL THOMAS

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

A study to assess the knowledge regarding endometriosis and wellbeing of women diagnosed with endometriosis in selected hospitals of Udupi Taluk, Karnataka , ANNIE NIRMALA A

“Effect of Mandala Art Therapy on attention and functional social skill among intellectually disabled children in a selected special school of Udupi, Karnataka.” , POOJA BAKSHI

A study to assess the symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), dietary habits and stress among employees working in selected institutes of Udupi district, Karnataka , SANGEETA BSR

Effectiveness of Pulmonary Interventions (PI) on Health-Related Quality Of Life (HRQL) and Clinical Outcomes (CO) among Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients. , Flavia Castelino

Effectiveness of E-Surveillance by the Infection Control Competent Nurses (ICCN) in selected hospitals of Udupi and DK Dist. Karnataka , Soumya Christabel

A comparative study to assess the life satisfaction, self-esteem, depression and health related behaviour among pensioners and non- pensioners elderly population of selected villages of Udupi taluk, Karnataka , ROSHINI DSOUZA

A case control study to assess the risk factors associated with fetal and neonatal death in Kasturba Hospital (KH), Manipal, Karnataka , RITU KUMARI

Efficacy of Acupressure on contributing factors of fatigue, severity of fatigue, Oxidative Stress Markers (OSM) and other blood parameters of patients with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) on Maintenance Hemodialysis (MHD) in a selected tertiary hospital of Udupi Dist. Karnataka , Daisy Josphine Lobo

A study to assess the post-menopausal symptoms, stress and coping strategies among women in selected villages of Udupi taluk, Karnataka , SOWMYA NAIK

A correlational study to assess the emotional intelligence, self-esteem and assertiveness among youth studying in selected undergraduate higher educational institutions of Udupi district. , JAGRITI NIYOGI

A study to assess the determinants and outcomes of acute kidney injury among patients admitted to critical care units of a tertiary care hospital of Udupi district , CAROLINE LIYAN NORONHA

A retrospective survey on clinic epidemiological profile of venomous snake bite patients in Kasturba Hospital, Manipal , TANUSREE PRADHAN

A descriptive study to assess non suicidal self-injury (NSSI) behaviour and emotional dysregulation among college students of selected colleges in Udupi district, Karnataka , MANISHA SAMANTA

A study to assess the functional abilities and quality of life (QOL) among the adult patients with hearing loss and their perspective towards use of hearing aid in selected hospitals of Udupi district, Karnataka , SHALINI .

A study to assess the awareness and attitude on gamete donation in Kasturba Hospital, Manipal, Udupi district, Karnataka in a view of developing a information booklet , HEMA SHANKAR

A retrospective cohort study on perinatal outcomes of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy among women hospitalized to a tertiary referral hospital of Udupi Taluk, Karnataka , BINITA SHARMA

A study to assess information needs and risk of venous thromboembolism in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy with a view to develop and validate an information guide in a tertiary care centre, Udupi district , SMITA D VARGHESE

Multidimensional Intervention on Self-Management and Quality of Life of type 2 Diabetes patients , Aldrin Vas

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

A study to assess the peer influence and the behavior among adolescents of pre-university colleges of Udupi taluk , JISHA MARY ALEXANDER

A descriptive study to assess the knowledge and perception regarding menopause among married women and their spouses in selected villages of Udupi Districts. , AMITHA .

A descriptive study to assess treatment nonadherence among people diagnosed with stroke and burden among their caregivers in Kasturba Hospital Manipal , ASHWINI .

A descriptive study to assess the prevalence of stress urinary incontinence among middle aged women who are working under MIS in selected institutions of Manipal Academy of Higher Education in view of providing health teaching on pelvic floor exercise. , LIBY BABY

A retrospective study to assess the prevalence, determinants and outcome of sepsis in a tertiary care hospital, Udupi district. , DRAGO MELBA BAZEL

A correlational study on physical activity, energy expenditure and body weight among secondary school children in selected schools of Udupi district, Karnataka. , KALYANI BISWAS

A study to assess the pain level of the critically ill patients admitted in ICUs and the nurse’s perception on pain of critically ill patients in selected tertiary care hospital, Udupi district. , CHHANDA CHAKRABORTY

A Randomized Controlled Trial to Evaluate the Impact of Nurse Navigator Programme (NNP) on Anxiety, Psychological Distress and Quality of Life of Breast Cancer Patients in a Tertiary Care Hospital, Karnataka” , Shejila C H

A study to assess the health literacy and barriers to health literacy among health sciences and non-health science members of selected institutes of Udupi district, Karnataka. , FELCITA LAVINA CUTHINO

A study to assess the knowledge on stroke and health seeking behaviour among hypertensive patients in selected tertiary care hospital, Udupi district, Karnataka. , DIVYA DAVIS

A study to compare the quality of life, child adjustment and social support of only child and child with siblings in selected schools of Udupi district. , ARLINE TENCY DSOUZA

A descriptive study to assess the knowledge on mental health and mental illness among students of selected health professional colleges of Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Udupi district. , HENSHAW NSA EKANEM

A case control study to compare the factors influencing early onset of menarche among school children in selected schools of Udupi district. , JESNA JOSEPH

A study to assess the effectiveness of nutritional enhancement programme on knowledge and micronutrient deficiency assessment skills among mothers of anganwadi children and dietary intake of micronutrients of anganwadi children in selected anganwadi centres of Udupi district, Karnataka. , SHRADDHA S KANCHAN

A Comparative study to determine The effectiveness of Antepartum breathing exercises on outcome of labor between Primigravid and Multigravid Women in selected hospital Of Udupi District, Karnataka , Sushmitha Ramona Karkada

A study to assess the effectiveness of Prenatal Training Module (PTM) on knowledge and skill of newborn care among mothers in the selected Hospitals of Udupi District. , KAVYA .

A study to assess the awareness of Gestational diabetes mellitus and identify compliance to management among Gestational Diabetes mellitus in selected hospital of Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Udupi District, Karnataka. , MEENA KONSAM

A case- control study to assess the knowledge and risk factors of urolithiasis among patients attending urology outpatient department (OPD) in selected hospital of Udupi district, Karnataka. , MERLIN K KUNJUMON

A study to assess the effectiveness of mindfulness meditation on anxiety and sleeping pattern among the nursing students in selected nursing colleges of udupi district" , UMA LAMICHANEY

A study to assess the knowledge of type II diabetes mellitus patients on diabetic neuropathy and to identify the people at risk for the development of upper extremity diabetic neuropathy among type II diabetes mellitus patients with a view to develop an information pamphlet in a selected hospital of Udupi district, Karnataka. , CLARITA SHYNAL MARTIS

A study to assess the effectiveness of an educational intervention on knowledge and practice of peripheral intravenous catheterization by healthcare professionals (Nurses) among neonates of NICU’s in selected hospitals of Udupi district, Karnataka. , JIJI MATHEW

A comparative study to assess the Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) and perception of body image among normal and overweight/obese adolescents in selected English Medium Schools of Udupi District, Karnataka. , JANE JYOTHI MATHIAS

A case control study to identify the biopsychosocial risk factors that may contribute to intellectual disability among children attending selected special school of Udupi district, Karnataka. , HENITA JOSHNA MENEZES

A descriptive study to assess the symptoms and risk factors of carpal tunnel syndrome among the computer users in selected workplaces of Udupi district, Karnataka , KEERTHI NAIK

A study to assess the depressive symptoms and bio-psychosocial problems among postmenopausal women living in selected villages of Udupi district, Karnataka , SHWETHA NAYAK

A study to assess the effectiveness of an educational intervention on knowledge and practice of staff nurses on prevention of Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP) in neonates of a selected Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of a tertiary care hospital. , DIPANJALI ROY

A correlative study on social media addiction and self-esteem among students of selected degree colleges of Udupi Taluk, Karnataka. , SRIPARNA SARKAR

A study to determine the influence of caesarean births on perinatal outcomes - A hospital based cohort study. , ANJANA SHARMA

A study to assess the functional outcome and the perceived benefit among the patients undergone total knee arthroplasty , SABINA SHARMA

Antihypertensive Treatment: Impact of Multimodal Interventions on Medication Non-Adherence , Melita Sheilini

A study to assess the effectiveness of Motivational Enhancement Therapy on relapse prevention among adults with Alcohol Dependence Syndrome in selected hospitals of Udupi District, Karnataka , PRATHIMA SHERIGARTHY

A descriptive study to assess the knowledge, attitude, utilization of contraceptives and barriers for non-utilization among the married women residing in the selected slums of Udupi district , SOWMYA .

A study to assess the perceived stress and eating behaviour among undergraduate students in selected professional and non-professional colleges of Udupi district. , RINTU THOMAS

A descriptive study to assess the adjustment and self esteem among the first year B.Sc. Nursing students of selected nursing colleges of Udupi district. , ANKUR TIWARI

Effectiveness of extended infection control measures on MRSA infection among orthopedic surgery patients. , Latha T

A study on the psychosocial maladjustment and personality of children of alcoholics among graduates studying in affiliated colleges of Manipal Academy of General Education. , REEMA SUSAN VARGHESE

Effect of aggression management and violence prevention training among nursing personnel working in psychiatric and emergency settings of selected hospitals of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi Dist. , Binil V

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

“A descriptive study to assess the immunization compliance, common health problems of immunized under five children and perceived maternal barriers for immunization in selected rural areas of Udupi district”. , ANUSHA C A

Effectiveness of Comprehensive Nursing Intervention Programme (CNIP) on Anxiety, Fatigue, Self- Efficacy and Quality of Life among patients undergoing Coronary Artery bypass graft surgery in a tertiary care hospital- A randomized controlled trial. , Ramesh C C

A study to assess the knowledge on practice of urinary catheter care and compliance to urinary catheter care guidelines by the staff nurses working in a tertiary care hospital, Udupi district , MARYL CANDIDA CUTINHO

A study to assess the knowledge and practice on Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) infection and the carrier status among healthcare professionals of a tertiary care hospital, Udupi District. , DIANA DMELLO

“A study to assess the knowledge, stress and coping patterns of grandmothers involved in child-rearing practices of children of employed mothers in selected areas of Udupi district, Karnataka. , REENA M DSILVA

“A study to assess the effectiveness of puppet show on knowledge about child safety based on learning styles among 5th and 6th standard students of selected Kannada medium schools in the rural areas of Udupi district” , JOSVITA SANDRA FERNANDES

“A study to assess the relationship between psychological well-being and perceived parenting style among selected high school students of Udupi district”. , ANSU FRANCIS

A retrospective study to assess the incidence and factors predisposing to surgical site infection (SSI) in patients who have undergone Caesarean Section in tertiary care hospital of Udupi district, Karnataka. , DEBALINA GHOSH

Effectiveness of video assisted teaching program on knowledge and preventive practices of Catheter Related Blood Stream Infections (CRBSIs) among health care professionals in selected Intensive Care Units (ICUs) of a tertiary care hospital Udupi , JEFFIN THOMAS JACOB

“A study to assess the sleep quality and academic performance among the undergraduate students of selected Nursing Colleges of Udupi District, Karnataka”. , SALLY JANE J K

“A comparative study on academic performance, anthropometric measurements, cognitive development, reaction time and self-defence mechanism among Karate and non-Karate performers of selected schools in Udupi district, Karnataka”. , JILU SALY JOSE

A study on gender stereotype, self-esteem and their determinants among adolescents of selected English medium secondary school of Udupi district. , BHANU CHHETRI KARKI

Study to evaluate the infection control practices to prevent transmission of Pulmonary Tuberculosis (TB) among health care personnel working in selected units of a tertiary care hospital at Udupi district Karnataka. , KARISHMA KHAUND

A study to determine the infection control practices by the Health Care Workers (HCWs) and facilities in the labor theatre (LT) of a selected tertiary referral hospital of Udupi District , Karnataka , MITCHELLE S LEWIS

An observational study to assess the practice of infection control measures on patients undergoing Transvaginal sonography and Pap smear procedure , among health care professionals in Obstetrical and Gynecological outpatient department of a tertiary hospital in Udupi District, Karnataka , PRIYANKA REKHA MONDAL

A study to assess the existing practices of intravenous (IV) medication management and barriers for safe practices among healthcare professionals in a selected hospital of Udupi district, Karnataka. , MADHURIKRANTA MUKHERJEE

A study to assess the level of anger, coping and factors influencing anger amongst adolescents of selected schools, Udupi district Karnataka. , PUSAHOLE NATSO

Effect of perceived barriers to symptom management on Quality Of Life (QOL) and the effectiveness of a multicomponent intervention among cancer patients in selected cancer hospitals of Karnataka State. , Malathi G Nayak

Effect of Yoga therapy on Antenatal stress and pregnancy outcome , Maria Pais

"A study to assess the practice and perceived barriers towards infection control measures among Health Care Workers (HCWs) in dialysis unit of a tertiary hospital, Udupi District, Karnataka " , JACKLINE PRATHIBHA

A correlational study to assess the intergenerational ambivalence and psychological wellbeing among mothers of young adults of selected areas of Udupi district, Karnataka , STEFFI JENIFER QUADRAS

A study to explore bullying and its impact on the psychosocial wellbeing among the selected high school students of Udupi district, Karnataka. , REEMA RAI

A Randomized controlled trial on effectiveness of a multicomponent intervention on migraine. , Vishnu Renjith

“A study to assess students adjustment to their professional course and academic performance among undergraduate nursing students studying in selected institutions of Udupi District, Karnataka.” , BIJOYLAKSHMI SAHOO

"A study to assess the knowledge, perception, psycho social preparedness for menarche and the problems experienced by the adolescent girls in selected schools of Udupi district”. , CHARMAINE CRYSTAL SALINS

Effectiveness of Trainning Programme on prevention of Ventilator Associated Events (VAE) in terms of Knowledge and practice among health care professionals of selected Intensive Care Units (ICU) of a tertiary care hospital udupi , ARJUN S

Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR) for Indians and effectiveness of a Disease Management Program (DMP) in controlling the progression of chronic kidney disease. , Leena Sequira

A study to assess the practices of postoperative surgical site dressing among the health care professionals in a tertiary hospital of Udupi district , SIJIMOL S

A study to assess the knowledge and practices of cleaning and disinfection among Health Care Workers (HCWs) in the Intensive Care Units (ICUs) of a tertiary care Hospital in Udupi district, Karnataka. , TINCY VARGHESE

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PhD Statements of Purpose

Some of these samples have been accepted by top programs. They have been graciously shared by past applicants for educational purposes. We hope they inspire you to write your own.

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Statement of Purpose for PhD in Computer Science (MIT Accepted)

We analyse three SOP samples, two accepted at MIT and one at the University of Washington.

Statement of Purpose for PhD in Biomedical Engineering (MIT Accepted)

In this article, we analyse a Biomedical Engineering SOP that was accepted at MIT, Stanford, and Georgia Tech

Letters of Recommendation: A Guide and Sample for your Recommenders

Statement of Purpose Sample for Nursing (Undergraduate) (Highly rated)

Description: We describe in detail how to write a statement of purpose for nursing. In the SOP, the applicant underscores the areas of nursing she’d focus on and how she was suited for the school.

Statement of Purpose Sample for Ph. D Nursing (Compelling)

Description: In this Statement of Purpose Sample for Nursing Ph. D, the applicant identifies the field of interest and specialization that he’s interested in early, details professional and research work, then points out the skills he would like to gain from this program and how the university will help in this endeavor.

Statement of Purpose for MBA (Ivy school)

Description: We start by providing a step by step guide that should help with generating ideas for your MBA SOP and then crafting one while adhering to certain tips. We then provide 3 ivy school samples.

Statement of Purpose Sample for Computer Science  (Highly rated)

Description: In this Statement of Purpose Sample for Computer Science, the applicant describes how a local mobile money sending application in rural parts of Africa inspired his love for computing.  The applicant explains a clear career path after graduating. You can get a similar SOP by ORDERING HERE

Statement of purpose sample for computer science 2 (Recommended)

Description: In this SOP, we provide the blueprint of writing a SOP for computer science. We follow it with two highly rated samples.

Statement of Purpose Sample for Cognitive Science (Good)

Description: In this SOP, the applicant describes how personal struggles with Dyslexia, and the inspiring story of  Akeelah in the Akeelah and the Bee film, motivated a desire to understand how the human brain works and how it can be trained to optimize the good while negating the bad.

MBA Statement of Purpose Example  (Excellent)

Description: In this Statement of Purpose Sample for MBA, the applicant evokes the loss of family business and a business degree that didn’t equip him with practical skills as the motivation for applying for an MBA. The applicant brings out the steps that he has taken to remedy this lack of practical experience and the skills that he looked forward to getting from the MBA program.

Statement of Purpose Sample for MBA with Engineering Background (Compelling)

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Statement of Purpose Sample for Masters in Public Health Science (Good)

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Statement of Purpose Sample for  Psychology Graduate School (Great)

Description: In this SOP, the applicant explains how growing up in a crime-ridden neighborhood with a police father informed her early views on crime prevention and the place of psychology. She places this early observations in their proper context by profiling the background of teenage offenders thereby underling the place of early trauma on future behavior.

Statement of Purpose Sample for Mathematics (Highly rated)

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Statement of Purpose Sample for Business Management (Highly rated)

Description: The SOP demonstrates how professional experience not deemed relevant to business management may be captured as an example of work ethics

Statement of Purpose Sample for Nursing

Statement of Purpose sample for nursing

Statement of Purpose Sample for Nursing PhD

Statement of purpose sample for nursing Phd

Statement of Purpose sample for MBA

Statement of Purpose sample for MBA

Statement of purpose sample for computer science 2

A statement of purpose sample for computer science 2 that earned acceptance to multiple universities

Statement of Purpose Sample in Cognitive Science

Statement of Purpose sample in cognitive science

Statement of Purpose sample for mathematics

Statement of Purpose sample for mathematics

Statement of Purpose sample for MBA with Engineering Background

Statement of Purpose sample for MBA with Engineering Background

Statement of Purpose sample for Masters in Pyschology

Statement of Purpose sample for Masters in Psychology

Statement of Purpose Sample for Computer Science

Statement of Purpose sample in computer science

Statement of Purpose sample for Business Management

Statement of Purpose sample for business management

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Statement of Purpose Sample for Masters in Public Health

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  • Int J Qual Stud Health Well-being
  • v.17(1); 2022

The influencing factors of clinical nurses’ problem solving dilemma: a qualitative study

a Department of Nursing, Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

b Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China

c Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

Problem solving has been defined as “a goal-directed sequence of cognitive and affective operations as well as behavioural responses to adapting to internal or external demands or challenges. Studies have shown that some nurses lack rational thinking and decision-making ability to identify patients’ health problems and make clinical judgements, and have poor cognition and response to some clinical problems, easy to fall into problem-solving dilemma. This study aimed to understand the influencing factors of clinical nurses’ problem solving dilemma, to provide a basis for developing training strategies and improving the ability of clinical nurses in problem solving.

A qualitative research was conducted using in-depth interviews from August 2020 to December 2020. A total of 14 participants from a tertiary hospital in Shanghai, China were recruited through purposive sampling combined with a maximum variation strategy. Data were analysed with the conventional content analysis method.

Three themes and seven subthemes were extracted: nurse’s own factors (differences in knowledge structure and thinking, differences in professional values, poor strain capacity); improper nursing management (low sense of organizational support, contradiction between large workload and insufficient manpower allocation); patient factors (the concept of emphasizing medicine and neglecting to nurse, individual differences of patients).

The influencing factors of clinical nurses’ problem-solving dilemma are diverse. Hospital managers and nursing educators should pay attention to the problem-solving of clinical nurses, carry out a series of training and counselling of nurses by using the method of situational simulation, optimize the nursing management mode, learn to use new media technology to improve the credibility of nurses to provide guarantee for effective problem-solving of clinical nurses.

Introduction

Nursing education in China can be divided into two main levels: vocational education and higher education. Vocational education includes technical secondary schools and junior colleges, while higher education includes undergraduate, master’s and doctoral education. Vocational education aims at training students to master basic nursing service skills and to be able to take the post to engage in daily nursing work (Sun & Zong, 2017 ). Higher nursing education started late, and undergraduate education has always followed the “three-stage” education model of clinical medicine (basic medical courses, specialized courses and clinical practice). Most courses are centred on subject knowledge, and all clinical practice takes the form of centralized practice (Li, 2012 ). The training goal of nursing postgraduates is gradually expanding from academic master to professional master. The curriculum mainly includes classroom teaching and clinical practice. The classroom teaching contents include public courses (political theory, foreign languages, etc.), professional basic courses (advanced health assessment, pharmacotherapy, pathophysiology, evidence-based nursing, medical statistics or clinical epidemiology), specialized courses (advanced nursing practice theory) and Academic activities . The goal of nursing doctoral training is to cultivate high-level nursing research talents, focusing on the cultivation of scientific research ability rather than clinical practice ability. The curriculum includes ideology and politics, basic theory, research methods, specialized courses, development frontier, scientific writing, etc (Luo et al., 2018 ). There are some problems in the training mode and curriculum, such as theory and practice are out of touch, traditional lecture-based classroom teaching makes students passively accept knowledge, students attach importance to theory over practice, knowledge input to ability output, professional study to humanities knowledge. Nursing students receive no theoretical and/or practical training in problem solving before entering the clinical setting, so there is not a starting point for these nurses to clinical dilemmas in their professional life.

With the development of medicine, people pay more attention to health and have higher requirements for nursing service ability (Yang, Ning, et al., 2018). The National Nursing Development Plan (National Development and Reform Commission, 2017 ) points out that it is necessary to strengthen the construction of nurse teams, establish nurse training mechanisms and improve the professional quality and service ability of nurses. However, in the face of increasingly complex and changeable clinical environment, nurses are still lacking in problem-solving thinking and ability, and often fall into the dilemma of problem solving (Li et al., 2020 ).

Typical decision theory approaches to the identification of problem solving in nursing have viewed the process as a series of decision formulations that include: decisions about what observations should be made in the patient situation; decisions about deriving meaning from the data observed (clinical inferences); and decisions regarding the selection of action to be taken that will be of optimal benefit to the patient (McGuire, 1985 ). Information processing theory describes problem solving as an interaction between the information processing system (the problem-solver) and a task environment, which can be analysed as two simultaneously occurring sub-processes of “understanding” and “search” (VanLehn, 1989 ). Individuals collect the stimulus that poses the problem in the understanding process, forming the internal representation of the problem, transforming the problem stimulus into the initial information needed in the search process, and then producing mental information structures for the understanding of the problem, which making individuals distinguish the nature of the problem and clarify the goal of the problem. The mental information structures drive the search process that enables the individual to find or calculate the solution to the problem. This process starts with the nurse identifying the clinical problem and continues until the decision is made to resolve the problem (Taylor, 2000 ). Clinical problem solving requires nurses to have a variety of cognitive strategies, which involves nurses’ knowledge, experience, and memory process. Nurses must recognize the current problem and use all available knowledge and experience to transform the problem into their internal problem representation, and then set goals and search for strategies that can achieve the goal (Mayer & Wittrock, 1992 ). In today’s complex clinical environment, nurses need to be able to solve problems accurately, thoroughly, and quickly. Nurses who can solve problems efficiently have fewer medical errors (Babaei et al., 2018 ), and the level of nursing skills and empathy are higher (Ay et al., 2020 ; Bayindir Çevik & Olgun, 2015 ). To cultivate nurses’ problem solving thinking and ability, it is necessary to better understand the influencing factors of problem solving dilemma. However, these cannot be obtained by observing nurses’ behaviour in their work, and cannot be obtained through quantitative research either. Exploring the thinking process involved in nurses’ work through qualitative interviews is an effective way to understand the influencing factors of nurses’ problem solving. Given this, this study used qualitative research methods to deeply analyse the influencing factors of clinical front-line nurses’ problem solving dilemma, to provide a basis for making relevant strategies to cultivate nurses’ thinking and ability of problem solving.

Study design

A qualitative study based on in-depth interviews was conducted to obtain influencing factors of nurses’ problem-solving dilemma.

Settings and participants

Purposive sampling combined with a maximum variation strategy was used to identify and select information-rich participants related to the research phenomenon. Maximum variation was achieved in terms of participants’ gender, education level, professional title, marital status, seniority, and administrative office, respectively. The study was conducted between August 2020 to December 2020 in a tertiary hospital in Shanghai, China. The inclusion criteria were a nurse practicing certificate of the People’s Republic of China and within the valid registration period; having been engaged in clinical nursing work for at least 1 year and still engaged in clinical nursing work; clear language expression, able to clearly describe the solution and feelings of clinical problem solving; informed consent to this study and voluntary participation. The exclusion criterion were on leave during the study period (personal leave, maternity leave, sick leave, etc.); out for further study or came to the hospital for further study; confirmed or suspected mental illness and psychotropic medicine users. Purposive sampling continued until thematic saturation was reached during data analysis.

Data collection

Face-to-face, a semi-structured interview was used to collect information. All interviews were conducted in the lounge to ensure quiet and undisturbed by a female postgraduate nursing student with the guidance of her master tutor. Initially, an interview guide was developed based on literature review and expert consultation including about five predetermined questions: What thorny problems have you encountered in clinical work or have a great impact on you? How did you solve it? Why take such a solution? What is the biggest difficulty encountered in the process of problem solving? How does it affect you? How do you feel in the process of problem solving? Before the interview, the consent of the interviewee was obtained and then the researcher fully explains to the interviewees and starts with a friendly chat to allay the interviewees’ worries. During the interview, the researcher listened carefully and responded in time, always maintaining a neutral attitude, without any inducement or hint, if necessary, giving encouragement and praise to support the expression of the interviewees, and to record the interviewees’ facial expressions, physical movements and emotional responses in time. At the same time, a recording pen was used to ensure that the interview content was recorded accurately and without omission. The interview time for each person was 30 to 40 minutes.

Data analysis

After each interview, the researcher wrote an interview diary in time to reflect on the interview process and transcribed the interview content into words within 24 hours, then the researcher made a return visit by phone the next day to confirm that the information is correct. The seven-step method of Colaizzi’s phenomenological analysis method ( Table I ) was adopted to analyse the collected data(Colaizzi, 1978 ). Two researchers collated the original data, independently coded, summarized this information as themes, and organized a research group meeting once a week to discuss and reach a consensus.

7 steps of Colaizzi’s phenomenological analysis method.

StepDescription
1.FamiliarizationThe researcher familiarizes him or herself with the data, by reading through all the participant accounts several times.
2.Identifying
significant statements
The researcher identifies all statements in the accounts that are of direct relevance to the phenomenon under investigation.
3.Formulating
meanings
The researcher identifies meanings relevant to the phenomenon that arise from a careful consideration of the significant statements. The researcher must reflexively “bracket” his or her pre-suppositions to stick closely to the phenomenon as experienced (though Colaizzi recognizes that complete bracketing is never possible).
4.Clustering themesThe researcher clusters the identified meanings into themes that are common across all accounts. Again bracketing of pre-suppositions is crucial, especially to avoid any potential influence of existing theory.
5.Developing an
exhaustive
description
The researcher writes a full and inclusive description of the phenomenon, incorporating all the themes produced at step 4.
6.Producing the
fundamental
structure
The researcher condenses the exhaustive description down to a short, dense statement that captures just those aspects deemed to be essential to the structure of the phenomenon.
7.Seeking verification
of the fundamental
structure
The researcher returns the fundamental structure statement to all participants (or sometimes a subsample in larger studies) to ask whether it captures their experience. He or she may go back and modify earlier steps in the analysis in the light of this feedback.

Ethical considerations

This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, Affiliated to Tongji University, project number: K16-252. Before the interview, the researcher explained the purpose and significance of the study to each interviewee in detail and obtained the informed consent of them on a voluntary basis and all of the interviewees signed informed consent forms. To protect the privacy of each interviewee, their names are replaced by numbers (e.g., N1, N2), and the original materials and transcribed text materials involved are kept by the first author himself, and all materials are destroyed after the completion of the study.

There was no new point of view when the 13th nurse was interviewed, and there was still no new point of view when one more nurse was interviewed, the interview was over, 14 nurses were interviewed. Three themes and seven subthemes were extracted. The characteristics of the participants ( N = 14) are provided in Table II .

Participant characteristics (N = 14).

Characteristics  (%) or M ± SD; range
Age (years) 30.29 ± 8.49;22 ~ 48
Working years 9.71 ± 9.25; 1 ~ 29
Gender  
 Male1(7.14%)
 Female13 (92.86%)
Educational level  
 Junior college student4 (28.57)
 Undergraduate student10 (71.43%)
Professional title  
 Junior nurse8 (57.14%)
 Nurse Practitioner1 (7.14%)
 Nurse-in-charge4 (28.57%)
 Associate Professor of nursing1 (7.14%)
Marital status  
 Married6 (42.86%)
 Unmarried8 (57.14%)
Department  
 Department of infectious diseases3 (21.43%)
 Medical department6 (42.86%)
 Intensive care unit3(21.43%)
 Surgical department2 ()14.29%

Nurses’ own factors

Differences in knowledge structure and thinking.

Differences in the structure of prior knowledge and way of thinking will affect nurses’ processing of clinical data, thus affecting their clinical decision-making. The nurses made a wrong judgement of the condition because of the solidified thinking that postoperative nausea and vomiting symptoms were side effects of narcotic drugs and the lack of overall control and understanding of the patient’s condition.

There was a patient who came back after surgery with nausea and vomiting, the first thing that went through my mind, is the drug side effects, so I didn’t pay much attention, as is often the case, the most common cause of postoperative nausea and vomiting is anesthetic drug side effects, but later found to be cerebral infarction, this kind of situation I find it hard to recognize.

Differences in professional values

Professional values of nurses are accepted codes of conduct internalized by nursing professionals through training and learning (Pan, 2016 ). Negative professional values are easy to lead to problem solving dilemma. Some nurses think nursing is just a service.

The work is difficult to do, everything is the nurse’s fault, the nurse must apologize and put up with the patient’s scolding, nursing is a service industry, sometimes I am really wronged.” There are also nurses who believe that nursing work can reflect their personal value, and solving problems successfully will bring them a sense of achievement.
Although the nursing work is very intense, I live a full life every day. I feel a sense of accomplishment and pride that I can solve the problems of patients and discharge them smoothly through my work.

Poor strain capacity

Nursing work is patient-centred holistic nursing, the current clinical situation is complex and changeable, requiring nurses must have good strain capacity, and can “be anxious about what the patient needs, think what the patient thinks, and solve the patient’s difficulties.”

All patients are self-centered, and they don’t care whether you (the nurse) are busy or not. For example, once I gave oral medicine to a patient, a patient in the same ward was in a hurry and asked me to help him call his son. I was busy handing out the medicine and did not help. As a result, the patient was very dissatisfied and complained to the head nurse.
The 20-bed patient went through the discharge formalities but was still lying in the hospital bed. when the new patient arrived and she didn’t leave, I went to urge her to leave the hospital, she suddenly got angry and scolded me, I don’t know what to do.

Improper nursing management

Low sense of organizational support.

Organizational support is an important resource for clinical nurses in the process of problem solving (Poghosyan et al., 2020 ). Low sense of organizational support will hinder nurses’ problem solving.

The style of leadership and the atmosphere of the department are very important. in a department I rotated before, the leader was too strict to listen to your explanation, and the atmosphere of the department was not good. I couldn’t find help when I encountered problems. When I have a conflict with a patient, the leader will only criticize me, which makes me feel helpless.
Sometimes there will be a conflict with patients due to the bed turnover problem, and the patient will not listen to your explanation and turn around to complain, the nurse will be responsible for such things. In severe cases, even violent incidents will be encountered and the personal safety can not be guaranteed.

Insufficient allocation of manpower

Although the total number of nurses has increased substantially, there is still a shortage of human resources under the rapidly increasing workload (Guo et al., 2021 ).

When I was on the night shift and I encountered the critical moment of rescuing patients, I had to call an anesthesiologist, a doctor on duty, a nurse on duty simultaneously, an observation of the patient’s condition to prevent accidents was needed, I also have to race against time to give the patient ECG monitoring and oxygen inhalation. When the doctor came, he also criticized me that the first-aid equipment was not in place (crying).
According to the normal nurse-patient ratio, each nurse takes care of eight patients, and now there are not only eight patients, but also with extra beds and a fast turnover, and sometimes a nurse is responsible for more than 12 patients

Patient factors

The concept of emphasizing medicine and neglecting to nurse.

There is a deviation in society’s cognition of the profession of nurses, which believes that nurses are the “legs” of doctors, and nurses’ work is to help doctors run errands, give injections and give fluids. This concept not only leads to nurses’ lack of due respect, but also hinders nurses’ professional identity, and has a great negative impact on nurses’ problem-solving (Gao et al., 2015 ).

The patient did not dare to tell the doctor something he was not satisfied with, but complained directly to the nurse. For example, if the patient did not want to do some tests, he would scold the nurse. The nurse explained to him that he would not listen. But when the doctor came, he smiled and refused to admit that he cursed nurses, and he would frame the nurse. 90% of the patients would be willing to listen to the doctor.
Sometimes the patient says he was not feeling well, and I know the patient’s condition. I will give her some reasonable explanations, but the patient does not accept it. She is satisfied only when the doctor come to see her. In the final analysis, the patient just don’t believe us. No matter how much I explain to her, it is not as effective as the doctor’s glance at her.

Individual differences of patients

There are differences in patients’ personality characteristics, cultural background, views on nurses and state of an illness, these individual differences are also the reasons for nurses’ problem-solving dilemma (Chan et al., 2018 ).

Some cancer patients are in a period of anger, and it is very difficult to communicate with him. When I see him angry and lose his temper, I will not talk to him and just leave.”
Patients have different cultural levels and different social backgrounds. Sometimes I can’t talk too deeply. If patients are a little more educated, it will be easier for us to communicate with them, and some patients can’t understand anything we say.”

Multiple factors affecting clinical nurses’ problem-solving dilemma

The reasons for nurses’ failure in problem solving are mainly in the process of understanding the problem, the search process driven by the psychological information structure, and the problem or loss of balance in the process of implementing the plan. In the process, the three factors of nurses, management and patients all played an important role. Nurses’ knowledge structure and thinking loopholes led to the deviation of nurses’ internal representation of the problem (Jonassen, 2005 ). Poor professional values and low sense of organizational support can lead to nurses’ negative orientation and attitude towards problems (Poghosyan et al., 2020 ; X. Wang et al., 2018 ). The manpower allocation of nurses, patients’ emphasis on medical treatment over nursing care, and individual differences mainly increase the complexity and difficulty of nurses’ problem-solving task environment as external factors. The three factors work together on the problem-solving of clinical nurses, which leads to the dilemma of problem-solving.

Implementing situational simulation training to improve the comprehensive quality of nurses

At present, the overall quality and ability of nurses cannot meet the requirements of systematic, effective and rapid problem-solving. It is necessary to strengthen the construction of nurses to improve nurses’ problem-solving ability. Some studies have shown that situational simulation class can improve students’ knowledge, experience, psychological quality and other abilities (Mohammad, 2020 ). It is suggested that nursing educators should explore targeted situational simulation teaching and strengthen the relationship between classroom teaching and clinical practice through situational simulation, and to build a novel, perfect and clinical knowledge network for nurses. Secondly, emergency situational simulation teaching should be carried out to enable nurses to experience emergency situations from different angles, so as to improve their thinking, skills and timeliness in dealing with emergencies (Zhang et al., 2019 ). The content of professional values training should also be added to the situational simulation class in order to cultivate nurses’ positive, accessible and stable professional values and promote their positive orientation and attitude when facing problems (Skeriene, 2019 ).

Optimize nursing management and improve nurses’ working experience

Through interviews, it is found that nursing management factors have caused nurses’ problem-solving dilemma to a certain extent, which needs to be optimized according to the specific problems existing in nursing management to help nurses deal with the problems and solve the dilemma effectively. The total number of registered nurses in China exceeded 4.7 million in 2021, an increase of 1.46 million from 3.24 million in 2015, an increase of 45% (Deng et al., 2019 ]. However, there is still a large workload and underallocation of manpower, which may be due to the unreasonable distribution of human resources between time periods and departments. Hospitals and nursing managers can use the hospital information system to evaluate the nursing workload, and allocate nursing human resources reasonably according to the evaluation results (H. Yang et al., 2019 ), so as to avoid nurses falling into the dilemma of problem solving due to long-term overloaded work. In addition, it is necessary to create a harmonious departmental atmosphere for nurses, create a supportive departmental environment (Aghaei et al., 2020 ), and strictly ensure the safety of nurses’ practice and put an end to the occurrence of violence. Timely and strong organizational support can reduce the painful feelings of nurses caused by adverse events (Stone, 2020 ). and help them to solve problems actively.

Using new media to improve the image and credibility of nurses

There is a bias in social cognition of the profession of nurses, and some negative media reports mislead patients, resulting in social stereotypes of nurses (L. Q. Wang et al., 2021 ). It is necessary to make full use of new media to objectively introduce the nursing profession to the public, publicize outstanding nursing figures and typical deeds, make the public realize the important role of nurses in health care, and create an atmosphere of understanding and supporting nurses in the whole society to enhance the image and credibility of nurses and help nurses deal with problems and solve difficulties effectively (Falkenstrom, 2017 ).

Limitations and strengths of the study

The limitation is that the transferability of this study’s results may be limited as a result of including a small number of participants and the participants all worked in the same hospital in Shanghai. More participants in different cities and hospitals could have increased the variety of the descriptions and experiences. The strength is that the use of purposive sampling facilitated inclusion of participants from a range of demographic groups. The use of maximum variation strategy facilitated that the participants covered different gender, education level, professional title, marital status, seniority and department, which helped to increase the representativeness of sample.

Implications for practice

This study provides an in-depth exploration of the problem solving dilemmas of clinical nurses in China and provides valuable insights into the continuing education of nurses. These insights shine a light on areas that warrant further investigation and need to be improved in continuing education of nurses. It is of great significance to improve nurses’ problem-solving ability, improve nurses’ professional quality, effectively solve patients’ medical treatment and health problems, and improve patients’ experience of seeking medical treatment.

Through the semi-structured interview, it is found that the problem-solving dilemma of clinical nurses is affected by many factors. Nurses themselves should be confident, self-improvement, constantly learning and enterprising to improve their own ability, and be good at using new media to improve nurses’ image and credibility. Hospitals, nursing administrators and nursing educators should take corresponding measures to improve the knowledge structure of nurses, cultivate nurses’ positive professional values and adaptability, and give full organizational support to nurses. optimize the allocation of nursing human resources to provide a strong guarantee for nurses to deal with problems solving dilemma.

Biographies

Yu Mei Li : associate chief nurse, master degree, master supervisor, engaged in nursing of tumor patients.

Yifan Luo : nurse, master degree, engaged in clinical nursing.

Funding Statement

This work was supported by the Graduate Education Research and Reform Education Management program of Tongji University [2021YXGL09].

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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III. Graduate Student Policies and Responsibilities

A. minimum computer requirements.

Students will need the following at minimum:

  • Either a Microsoft Windows or Apple Computer (desktop or laptop allowed)
  • 13-inch screen
  • Microphone and videocam (headset or integrated into laptop)

B. Statistics Prerequisite Course Required

Each program has specific prerequisite courses outlined in the General Catalog.

C. Guidelines for Graduate Transfer Courses

PhD students: Also see the section specific to PhD students for transfer criteria and documentation.

Graduate students should have all transfer courses approved by the College of Nursing Felton Student Success Center prior to enrolling in transfer coursework. Course descriptions or syllabi may be submitted for review. (Please note that the syllabus should include the following: the name of the college or university, the name and number of the course, the name of the textbook which accompanies the course, a topical outline of the course content, objectives, credit hours, any prerequisite courses, and the name of the instructor.) Credit for courses taken outside the University of Iowa prior to admission to the graduate program and/or during the graduate program must also be approved by the University of Iowa Graduate Admissions Office. If taking a course during your program of study, get the course approved by the staff in the College of Nursing Felton Student Success Center before registering for the course. Approval will be entered on the student’s permanent record.

The following guidelines apply to graduate transfer courses:

  • The course must be graduate-level according to the issuing institution’s course-numbering system, and the institution must be accredited. The University will not accept transfer credits from a non-accredited institution.
  • The student must enroll as a graduate student and pay graduate tuition.
  • Upon completion of the course, the course number, name, credits, and grade must appear on an official graduate transcript from the issuing institution.
  • A course taken for undergraduate credit may not be applied to a graduate degree. Courses from 2-year and 4-year schools without graduate offerings may not be applied to a graduate degree.
  • Courses that are offered for undergraduate credit only (e.g., courses numbered 0000-2999 at the University of Iowa) may not be counted as graduate credit.
  • Students must meet the Academic Registration Requirement for graduation from the Graduate College at the University of Iowa. Non-resident credit would include credit earned for transfer courses, correspondence courses, and credit earned under special student status. See Graduate College Rules and Regulations for more information. [MSN students, see Section X.D.1; DNP and PhD students, see Section XII.C]

D. Coursework Over 10 Years Old

Students can request courses over 10 years old to be counted toward their final semester hours. The letter will be prepared by the College of Nursing Felton Student Success Center and submitted to the Dean of the Graduate College for approval.

E. Nursing Licensure

All DNP, MSN: CNL and NSA, and PGC students in the College of Nursing must hold a current and valid nursing license and must provide proof of this licensure. Students will upload their license into CastleBranch.

A student will not be admitted to our program or permitted to engage in a clinical course if the student:

  • Has been denied licensure by the board, and/or
  • Whose license is currently suspended, surrendered, or revoked in any United States jurisdiction, and/or
  • Whose license/registration is currently suspended, surrendered, or revoked in another country due to disciplinary action

F. Insurance

All students, except for those listed below, in the College of Nursing must show annual verification that they have obtained and currently hold professional liability insurance with coverage of at least $1,000,000 single occurrence limit and $3,000,000 aggregate. Students will upload their proof of liability into CastleBranch. This requirement serves both as an act of professionalism and to protect students’ personal assets. Professional liability insurance covers error, negligence, or omission that may occur during the practice of nursing. It pays for court costs and legal fees whether individuals are liable for the charges made against them.

Exception: Post-MSN-DNP and PhD students. Upon further counsel with the University of Iowa Legal Services and Risk Management, we have determined that personal professional liability insurance can be waived IF, as a student, you have NO clinical engagement.

Post-MSN-DNP students: Please note that clinical engagement could include your capstone project. Please consult with your advisor prior to beginning any work on your project.

G. Mandatory Health Insurance

All students in the College of Nursing must show annual verification of valid health insurance coverage. Proof of insurance must be provided to the University of Iowa Benefits Office to avoid being charged for student insurance. For more information, visit the Grad Students and Health Science Majors Benefits webpage.

H. Health and Clinical Requirements

The University of Iowa requires all health science students to provide documentation of specific immunizations. In addition, College of Nursing students participate in many clinical experiences and must comply with the standards agreed upon by our clinical partners. Students are expected to provide documented proof of the health requirements found through the website links below upon acceptance into the College. Documented proof must be sent to Student Health as well as uploaded into CastleBranch. The College of Nursing contracts with CastleBranch, for students to order their own background checks and Iowa Child and Adult Abuse registries online.  Failure to have current information in the tracker system will result in blocking or voiding your registration as well as blocking you from beginning your clinical hours.

Please see the following links for Health and Clinical Requirements:

  • DNP and PGC: DNP-Health & Clinical Requirements
  • MSN: MSN-Health & Clinical Requirements
  • PhD: PhD- Health & Clinical Requirements

For any questions regarding clinical requirements, please call the Graduate Programs Student Services Office at 319-467-1910 or the Clinical Program Coordinator 319-335-7069.

I. Requirements for Human Subjects Research

All externally funded research projects by Iowa faculty and staff and all student research projects are reviewed for protection of human subjects by the appropriate University of Iowa Institutional Review Board (IRB 01) and are certified as acceptable to NIH under FWA00003007. Each funded or non-funded project receives an IRB Review number or is designated as exempt, after appropriate IRB screening. This IRB approval must be received prior to initiation of data collection.

The College of Nursing requires that all graduate students submit proof that the IRB review was completed and what the determination was (i.e., exempt). This documentation must be submitted to the College of Nursing Felton Student Success Center prior to beginning the project or dissertation process.

All proposals are submitted to the Human Subjects Office using the Hawk IRB tool, which can be found on the HSO website .

NOTE: Graduate students must have their proposals approved by their project or dissertation committee before submitting a HawkIRB application.

Agency Approval

For each research project, the appropriate agency approval must be obtained.

  • If research is based at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC), agency approval must be obtained from the UIHC Nursing Service through its Nursing Research Committee (NRC). NRC approval must be granted before Committee A will give final approval.
  • If funded or non-funded research is conducted off-campus, agency approval must be obtained before Committees 01 or 02 will grant final Human Subjects approval. An agency approval form may be used, or this can be indicated by an agency letter.

Special Situations

  • VAMC (Iowa City): Approval for research involving nursing service and/or nursing care delivery must be obtained from the Associate Director, Patient Care Services, 338-0581, Ext. 6104, or VAMC Patient Care Services 002.
  • School systems: If research is to be conducted in Iowa public/private schools (K-12), consent must be obtained from the Cooperating Schools Program before final IRB approval. More information is at the CSP website.

All necessary forms for submissions to Committees 01 or 02, NRC, and VA R&D Office are available on the Human Subjects Office website. If you have any questions, feel free to talk to the Office for Nursing Research and Scholarship (ONRS) staff on the 4th floor of the College of Nursing Building.

DNP Students: Refer to the Doctor of Nursing Practice Project course sites for directions and appropriate forms.

University of Iowa College of Nursing Graduate Student Handbook Copyright © 2024 by University of Iowa College of Nursing. All Rights Reserved.

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Walz VP selection spurs flurry of misinformation online

Vice President Kamala Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate at an Aug. 6 rally in Philadelphia, sparking a flurry of online discussion about Walz and his background.

It wasn't all accurate.

Walz, formerly unknown by a majority of Americans, is now preparing to take the stage as the keynote speaker for tonight's Democratic National Convention. Here's a roundup of fact checks about Walz from the USA TODAY Fact-Check team.

More from the Fact-Check Team: How we pick and research claims | Email newsletter | Facebook page

Claim: Tim Walz has $138 million net worth, daughter with $82,000 in forgiven student loans

Our rating: False

The claims are fabrications, according to the publisher of the satirical Facebook account where they originated. Walz's actual net worth is far lower.

Full fact check: Tim Walz has $138 million net worth? No, that started as satire

Claim: Walz 'let Minnesota burn' during 2020 protests

This claim oversimplifies Walz's reaction to the 2020 protests. After witnessing the escalating violence in Minneapolis, Walz discussed the activation of the National Guard with the city's mayor, calling on the Guard three days after the murder of George Floyd. As the protests grew more violent, Walz increased the number of mobilized Guardsmen.

Full fact check explainer: GOP critics say Tim Walz 'let Minnesota burn' in 2020 protests. Here's what happened

Claim: Tim Walz signed a bill redefining ‘sexual orientation’ to include pedophiles

The bill Walz signed into law does no such thing. The state's definition of sexual orientation does not include pedophilia.

Full fact check: No, Tim Walz did not sign bill including pedophilia as 'sexual orientation'

Claim: Walz received nine different military awards and Vance only had two

Our rating: Partly false

The list for Walz is correct, but the post understates the number of awards and medals Vance earned during his military career.

Full fact check: JD Vance's military achievements misrepresented in viral post

Claim: Tim Walz said he wanted to invest in a ladder factory to help migrants get over border wall

The full context of this clip shows Walz's ladder factory reference was part of an argument that a wall is an ineffective way to secure a border. Walz didn't reference or say he supports helping anyone enter the U.S. illegally.

Full fact check: Walz ladder factory comment was argument border wall is ineffective

Claim: Tim Walz lied about coaching high school football team to state championship

Walz was a coach for a Minnesota high school football team when it won a state championship in 1999, according to local news reporting.

Full fact check: Tim Walz coached for high school football team that won state championship

Claim: Biden opposing SAVE Act is 'cheating'; Walz is allowing 'illegals' to vote in Minnesota

The post misrepresents two legislative actions. Noncitizens aren't allowed to vote, and vetoing the SAVE bill would not change that or violate any laws to constitute "cheating." Minnesota's automatic voter registration bill, signed by Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, does not allow noncitizens of any status to vote in state or federal elections.

Full fact check: Walz, Biden actions don't allow noncitizens to vote

Claim: Image shows Kamala Harris and Tim Walz posing with a communist sign

Our rating: Altered

Images and videos from the event pictured show the background included a sign that said, “Kamala and the Coach,” not "Revolutionary Communists of America."

Full fact check: Harris and Walz posing with a communist sign? No, image is altered

Claim: 'No one' attended Aug. 7 Harris and Walz rally in Michigan

Images and videos from the Aug. 7 event show a large crowd was present to greet Harris and Walz.

Full fact check: Images and videos show thousands attended Harris rally in Michigan

Claim: Image shows Fox Business graphic about Tim Walz's 'communist agenda'

The image doesn't show a real graphic broadcast on Fox Business, a spokesperson said. It was created as satire and is now being misrepresented as being authentic.

Full fact check: No, Fox Business didn't air graphic about Tim Walz's 'communist agenda'

Claim: Peggy Flanagan replaced Tim Walz as Minnesota governor after VP selection

Walz has not stepped down as Minnesota's governor, and Flanagan has not become the state's governor. Walz is also not required to leave office to run with Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

Full fact check: Gov. Walz does not need to resign after VP selection

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here .

USA TODAY is a verified signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network, which requires a demonstrated commitment to nonpartisanship, fairness and transparency. Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Meta .

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  25. III. Graduate Student Policies and Responsibilities

    The letter will be prepared by the College of Nursing Felton Student Success Center and submitted to the Dean of the Graduate College for approval. E. Nursing Licensure. All DNP, MSN: CNL and NSA, and PGC students in the College of Nursing must hold a current and valid nursing license and must provide proof of this licensure.

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