The Bachelor's Thesis in Nursing Education and its impact on evidence-based practice. Perspectives from students and supervisors

Abstract

The bachelor’s thesis (BT) in nursing education is both a summative assignment with the possibility to assess the students’ accumulated knowledge and a pedagogical assignment with the intention to bridge theory and practice and with separate related learning outcomes. It is often one of the last courses in education before graduation and before the students start to work as nurses, expected to contribute to an evidence-based healthcare system. The overall aim of the PhD project is to explore nursing students’ and teachers’ expectations and experiences of writing a bachelor’s thesis, with evidence-based practice as an overarching concept. The project also intends to provide evidence about the bachelor’s thesis in nursing education and contribute to an evidence-based nursing education. The project includes three sub-studies with separate aims and study designs. Study I explores the nursing students’ experience of being in the process of writing their BT. Through individual interviews, the students elaborate on their struggles, coping, and how they organise their writing process. Through qualitative content analysis, the main findings show how they have both an individual and social approach to the process, even if the BT is written as an individual autonomous task. The students further expressed that they did not feel prepared for the BT regarding previous research knowledge and found the search and appraisal of relevant literature difficult and time-consuming. The students used self-regulated strategies in the BT writing process. Communication and collaboration with supervisors and peers were highlighted as important in the writing process. Study II explores what the teachers emphasise as important regarding their supervision of nursing students writing their bachelor’s thesis. Individual interviews were conducted, and the material was analysed through reflexive thematic analysis. The findings show that the teachers balanced different roles during the supervision process; they both role-modelled critical thinking and incorporated critical thinking as a pedagogical tool. Further, they found the combination of learning outcomes from the BT related to academic literacy and clinical relevance crucial for future nurses to develop nursing as a profession. Study III investigated whether the BT influences nursing students’ practice, skills, and attitudes towards EBP and explored whether there are differences between students writing the BT as a literature study and students conducting empirical studies. 314 nursing students from nearly all nursing educations in Norway answered a questionnaire about evidence-based practice before and after writing their BT during spring 2021. Data were analysed with paired t-tests and multiple linear regression analyses. The results indicate that the BT is a good tool for learning EBP and that writing a literature study or an empirical study does not differ in learning about EBP. The three studies’ results show how learning outcomes from the BT, related to research knowledge, critical thinking, and academic writing, are important for EBP competence and indicate that writing a BT leads to increased learning about evidence-based practice. The social context for the BT and EBP is also highlighted, as are the BT and EBP as methods for life-long learning. The knowledge developed from this project will strengthen evidence-based teaching about research and the BT in nursing education.