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How to write a nursing dissertation

Choosing a Topic
Before you begin the dissertation research process, it is important that you find a suitable topic. Find out the research interests of the faculty members of your department. The optimal solution is to pick something that interests you where suitable supervision is available. Furthermore, finding a supervisor with you whom you work well will benefit you immensely throughout the dissertation research process. Often supervisors will offer projects that are in line with and extensions of active research programmes. If you are a particularly autonomous worker with your own ideas, then this may not appeal to you, whatever the case; pick your supervisor and topic area carefully.

Once you are ready to write up your dissertation, the following format should be adhered to:

• Title
  

• Introduction
  

• Method
  

• Results
  

• Discussion
  

• References

Title
The title should be a succinct summation of the research project made in 10 to 12 words. The research title should contain the relevant dependent and independent variables used in the project. A particularly good example comes from the title of a paper by Dickson-Swift et al:

‘Risks to Researchers in Qualitative Research on Sensitive Topics: Issues and Strategies.’

The topic of the paper is instantly recognisable. Researchers can rapidly identify whether the research paper is relevant to their aims, and the title demonstrates that both problems and solutions will be delineated. Essentially, the aim is for a researcher to be able to readily identify whether the topic is of interest to them.

Introduction
A good way to approach the introduction of your paper is to picture it as an inverted triangle with the base at the top, pointing downwards. The introduction should begin with a general summation of the literature which is refined down to the specific research question. For example, a study examining length of hospital stay when cardiac patients have either been assigned to an inpatient relaxation programme or to a control group would begin with a general summation of theories regarding the relationship between stress, heart disease and immune response before narrowing down to pose the specific research question.

Aims/Hypothesis
The introduction should end with a paragraph that sums up the aims and hypothesis of the dissertation. The summation of the aims will vary slightly dependant upon whether you have chosen to use quantitative or qualitative approaches. Using the example above, the aims and hypothesis would sound something like: ‘the current study aimed to investigate the rehabilitative role of relaxation in cardiac patients. It was hypothesised that cardiac patients assigned to the relaxation group would require significantly shorter inpatient hospital stays relative to the control group’.

Method
The purpose of the method section is to set out exactly how the experiment occurred so that other researchers may follow the procedures to replicate your results. If a research finding is not replicable, it is often dismissed. It is therefore good practice to get into the habit of writing clear method sections. A method section will generally follow the below structure:

Participants
When describing the participants recruited for the study, it is good practice to note down the key demographics, for example, the number of males and females, the mean ages, and the age ranges of the groups of the study. It is also worth mentioning how and where the participants were recruited e.g. ‘by advertisement at the University Hospital’. Be sure to mention any key demographic points that relate to the nature of the study. For example, a study on the impact of social marketing of health behaviours to a group of adolescents with obesity will also require details of participants’ body mass index. 

Materials
The materials section requires details of all equipment used to conduct experimental procedures. If participants complete questionnaires then state which questionnaires were used, whether they were completed on paper or at a computer, and where they were completed, for example, in a small room. Try to supply as much detail as possible so that the reader has a clear idea of what was used to conduct the study.

Procedure
The procedure should be a full account of the experimental procedures from start to finish. Begin with the participant signing informed consent and continue step by step to the debriefing. Again, be as clear and concise as possible.

Results
The structure of your results section will vary according to whether you employed quantitative or qualitative approaches. Quantitative results sections will begin with descriptive statistics which summarise the participant groups and the mean scores of the conditions of the experiment. Following this, the report of inferential statistics will be used to specifically address the research hypothesis. Do not report inferential statistics that do not specifically address the predictions as set out by your research question. Use graphs and tables to illustrate your results, particularly when interactions and main effects have been found. This will enable the reader to clearly see what you have found.

Qualitative results sections can be more variable in their structure. Generally, the section will begin with a summation of the key categories and concepts found, and will then explicate each category or concept in turn. In order to demonstrate validity, analysis and findings should be exemplified with quotations from the analysed text.

Discussion
The discussion should be viewed as the opposite shape as the introduction, i.e. a triangle pointing upwards with its flat base at the bottom. The first paragraphs of the discussion should explain what the key findings of the paper mean in relation to the predictions set out be the research question. Following this, comparisons and references to the wider literature should be made. Have similar findings been presented elsewhere? If research studies in the literature have found something different to you, then why is this? What do your findings add to existing theory? These are all questions that should be answered in your discussion. Also, spend a couple of paragraphs identifying how readers may offer alternative interpretations of your results, and explain why your interpretation is preferable. The final paragraph of your discussion should sum up the findings of the study in a concise way.  

References
Make sure that each citation in the text is referenced in the section at the end. A particularly thorough guide to referencing styles can be found in Bosworth (2004).