Nursing research: A marriage of theoretical influences

Abstract

Aim The aim is to examine PhD theses in nursing science, their purpose or aim and the theoretical approaches and methods employed. The study seeks to examine how such theses may be categorized, what they study, what theoretical approaches they employ and, in particular, to what degree nursing theory is employed as a current theoretical approach. Design This study has a descriptive qualitative design. Method This study complied with the Standard for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR). Data were collected from 61 PhD theses in nursing science published from 1994–2015, at University of Edinburgh. Results Twenty of the PhD theses used theoretical approaches with a sociological perspective and 12 used a psychological perspective. Eighteen of the PhD theses were based on theoretical approaches from philosophy, ethics, pedagogy, medicine or biology as a primary perspective. Nursing theories, in their conventional definition, have a limited presence in the theses examined.

Doctoral programmes in the nursing discipline: a scoping review

“…As reported in Table 1 , the included articles mainly represent four continents: North America ( n =27) [ 2 , 3 , 8 , 10 – 13 , 15 – 20 , 27 , 28 , 30 , 33 , 36 , 37 , 44 , 49 – 54 ]; Europe ( n =8). [ 5 , 7 , 24 , 25 , 35 , 38 , 48 , 57 ], Asia ( n =4) [ 14 , 46 , 47 , 55 ], and Australia [ 21 ]. Two are multi-country studies [ 5 , 45 ], and most studies originated in the USA ( n =26; [ 2 , 3 , 8 , 10 – 13 , 15 – 18 , 20 , 27 , 28 , 30 , 33 , 36 , 37 , 44 , 49 – 54 ]).…”

“…An urgent need to change these programs to support the advancement of nursing science has been stated [ 10 ]. Moreover, the need to enrich nursing doctorate education with knowledge of other disciplines, e.g., humanistic, social or biological sciences [ 34 , 35 ], as well as in quantitative methods [ 8 ], have been solicited. Given that research findings must be published to inform developments of the nursing discipline, different methods are under discussion regarding the dissemination of doctoral dissertations [ 36 ] and increased popularity has been achieved by using the manuscript dissertation format [ 37 ].…”

A concept analysis of self‐leadership: The “bleeding edge” in nursing leadership

“…56 As such, concept analysis has the potential to inform the development of a mid-range nursing theory with the goal of developing disciplinary knowledge where there is a low prevalence of nursing theories in nursing science. 57,58 To be of use to nursing science, a concept such as self-leadership needs to be evaluated through concept analysis, as described in this paper using Walker and Avant's adapted method.…”

Examining progression and degeneration of nursing science using Imre Lakatos’s methodology of scientific research programs

“…The decrease in the use of nursing theories is evident from a recent review of doctoral nursing dissertations. This review noted that of 61 dissertations, only one used the nursing theory as the guiding framework, and the remainder used theories from sociology, linguistics, philosophy and ethics (Jensen, 2019). The degeneration of this SRP can be attributed to the loss of protective belt owing to limited inquiries, rejection from scholars and dominance of other SRPs.…”