BSc (Hons) Nursing
Dissertation
Aims of module
To develop skills of critical analysis and apply those skills to the professional and public world;
To critically review current literature, research and practice to pursue and document a line of inquiry to produce a fully substantiated discussion which demonstrates the ability to develop professional knowledge.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
Explore their own attitudes and beliefs by undertaking a review of literature in relation to a chosen topic, blended with their own professional knowledge, to produce a focused and original study;
Critically analyze research perspectives and methodologies;
Confidently, critically review research and other literature/media on the basis of appropriately selected conceptual/theoretical frameworks;
Integrate prior learning and where appropriate apply that knowledge to novel situations;
Apply the methods and techniques that they have learned to review, consolidate, extend and apply their knowledge and understanding, particularly in the development of cohesive and supported arguments.
Content
Further development of skills of critical analysis and their application to professional intervention, patient care and broader issues of health care delivery and provision;
Literature searching skills;
Review of research methodologies;
Critiquing skills for non-research based literature;
Strategies and models of research evaluation;
Development of skills for creating critical arguments;
Dissemination of findings for practice.
Supervisors
Supervisors provide the equivalent of eight hours of individual dissertation support. This time includes review of plan/draft chapters prior to meetings. They facilitate your development at each stage of the process: literature search; decision regarding inclusion/exclusion criteria; emerging themes; frameworks for critical analysis; development of arguments; completion of chapters and methodology section.
Additional information
Normal guidelines Caveats
It is ideal and recommended that at least 50% of students included literature (which may be empirical (qualitative and quantitative), theoretical, and can include literature reviews) should be primary, and recent (within 10 years) or seminal (may be considerably older).
For the remainder, secondary literature will include, for example, literature reviews, expert opinion, conference papers, unpublished PhD theses (and other appropriate forms of grey literature).
Exceptions to this normal guideline includes topics where only seminal, empirical or theoretical work is found that may not be recent. This can happen when scholarly work in a particular area is discontinued, not because of its quality or worth, but because, for example, of the politics of scholarship. Sometimes work is marginalised because it does not fit with economic or policy agendas that drive normal research.
It is not mandatory to include grey literature, but if this is found and is relevant to the students question then it may be included.
It is recommended as helpful, but not mandatory, that the word nursing should be in the title of the dissertation. Regardless of question, the dissertation must firmly link to the students field of study, ie mental health nursing, childrens or adult nursing.
Whether or not nursing is included in the title is a matter for discussion between student and supervisor. If future publication of the work in nursing journals is aspired to, it may be appropriate for the word to be included.
Module teachers will help students begin to explore possible research questions, from broad topic to specific focus, but the final decision about the definitive focus for the dissertation and the research question is a matter for supervisor and student. Both parties need to be in clear agreement about this.
It is not recommended that students frequently change their minds about the research question as this will compromise the dissertation writing process.
Students are entitled to one reading and comprehensive feedback of each completed chapter, which should be submitted chronologically, by their supervisor. The exception to this is the discussion chapter, which should be the students own work entirely. However, the discussion chapter can be talked about between student and supervisor in abstract terms, re direction, focus, future-directedness, etc.
If a student chooses not to work in partnership with their supervisor, they should not expect detailed feedback on the draft of a complete dissertation.
Students are entitled to 8 hours supervision contact time.
The study should take the form of a literature review that identifies, analyses and synthesises existing evidence in relation to a chosen nursing issue which should be field specific( Mental Health Nursing)
From your Literature search you must draw up three themes which you can focus on.
Within the study you should:
oidentify a clear focus for your study. This is normally provided in the form a clear, researchable question; what are the challenges for mental health nursing dealing with mental health service users with sexual issues and what interventions are effective.
oprovide a detailed and rationalised account of the processes involved in searching for and obtaining relevant literature
odefine the scope of the literature review and provide clear a rationale for this decision;
ostate and rationalise the choice of 5 framework(s) Must be employed to critically analyse the literature;
oThis frameworks Must be critiqued and evaluated
oevaluate the evidence (from research/literature) with regard to its credibility and relevance to the chosen issue; To inform the literature search, inclusion and exclusion criteria using the population, intervention, comparison and outcome (PICO) formula (Sackett et al 1997). The work Must be presented in a graphs or tables form
oYou Must add summary of your data searched presented appropriately
oExamples of data based are:
Nursing Medline, CINAHL Plus, British Nursing Index and PsycINFO.
Reviews Cochrane Library and Campbell Collaboration.
Grey literature British Library Ethos search, Nursing and Midwifery Council (nurses
Department of Health website and Dissertation Abstracts Online and many more. All in an appendix All must be UK base datas
Your methodology is also an important aspect of this dissertation
oFormulate a conclusion and propose recommendations for nursing practice, education and/or research as applicable.
oYou must add definitions of different processes of research and its elements in your work.
You are required to critique as part of this dissertation we would expect you to undertake as many literatures search then critiques of evidence (articles, policy documents, guidelines etc Uk base) and the final number you select should be a minimum 8 you Must Show why you choose those 8 Literature from the rest using frameworks to support this of will be agreed with your supervisor to be able to successfully justify the selections made and, to support your arguments in your dissertation.
Level 6 marking criteria will be used to mark your work and can be found in your course handbook.
When reflecting on practice experience, you must maintain anonymity with regard to patients/ clients/significant others/staff/Trusts. You can reference Trust policies which may be relevant to your argument but do not identify specific patients/clients or placements.
