Writing a bachelor's thesis in nursing education : a tool for the future

Abstract

Writing a bachelor’s thesis is associated with the demonstration of generic, scientific, and transferable knowledge and skills in the main area of studies in their first cycle of higher education. The many goals are challenging for nursing students on the threshold of working life, for whom a bachelor’s thesis is a prerequisite for completion of a three-year academic education. The overall aim of this doctoral thesis is to contribute to the systematic knowledge of students’ and nurses’ expectations and experiences of the process of writing a bachelor’s thesis in nursing education.

Specific aims and methods: Study I describe nursing students’ expectations of the upcoming process of writing a bachelor’s thesis. A single-question questionnaire was completed by 93 nursing students. Study II explored nursing students’ ways of experiencing the process of writing a bachelor’s thesis at the halfway stage and 15 nursing students were interviewed face-to-face using a semi-structured interview. The latter was used in Study III to explore the role of a bachelor thesis as a learning tool in nursing among 15 nursing students. Study IV aimed to investigate registered nurses’ experiences of the professional utility of having written a bachelor’s thesis in nursing. Ten registered nurses were interviewed face-to-face.

Analysis and results: Study I was anlaysed using qualitative content analysis. Three generic categories of expectations were generated: gaining professional knowledge and competence, planning and organizing the work, and taking stock of personal resources. In Study II, a phenomenographic approach was used and an outcome space describes four categories of meaning with focus on the writing: structure, comparison, shift, and relation. Furthermore, the study describes a structure of awareness of solitary writing, sharing, perspective change and transformation underscoring that writing a bachelor’s thesis is also writing for others. Study III used thematic analysis and applied the activity theoretical concept of tool to the findings. Two sets of themes showed firstly, a personal tool in terms of preparation for patient encounters in working life and discovering bodily mechanism of disease or health. Second, the writing of a bachelor’s thesis was a systemic tool in learning nursing by enabling to impact on the organization of work and stakeholders and facilitating knowledge of the links between patient groups and common diseases. Study IV used thematic analysis and described two main themes in having written a bachelor’s thesis: professional knowing and professional agency. Professional knowing concerned the application of findings from the thesis to patient care, viewing patients as subjects and identifying gaps in professional knowing. The second main theme, Professional agency, constituted of research dissemination, critical knowing and innovative professional agency.

The results of the studies in this thesis suggest that the processes and knowledge domains attributed to writing a bachelor’s thesis target working life with patients. In this way, writing a bachelor’s thesis transcends its educational role as a mere pedagogical tool to a distinctive form of disciplinary expression within nursing science. Writing a bachelor’s thesis involves professional knowledge forming a tool for the future. Consequently, to support the integration of skills and knowledge, an earlier integration of academic writing would facilitate transition between theoretical-academic and applied vocational domains. Moreover, it becomes imperative to establish infrastructures that support the knowledge work of nursing professionals.