Research proposals the journey of a group of Masters degree students

Transcription

1 Research proposals the journey of a group of Masters degree students Drs Sue Armstrong and Gayle Langley Senior Lecturers, Department of Nursing Education, University of the Witwatersrand

2 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND The development of a research proposal is a requirement for all postgraduate students. Despite guidance on how to develop a proposal, the reality of applying the advice to student s own proposals often causes them anxiety and many take longer than the required amount of time to complete them. The Department of Nursing Education has, on average 26 Master s students required to complete a research report each year We commenced a system of group supervision to assist students to develop proposals, after which they are allocated to supervisors once they commence their research. The facilitators of the group wished to establish the value of this type of supervision with a view to improving it for future groups of Master s students.

3 PROBLEM STATEMENT Many post graduate students in the Department of Nursing Education take more than the required 6 months maximum period to develop a proposal for a research report which in itself is a small component of their total studies. This results in frustration of staff and students and a low throughput rate. If the quality and speed of proposal development could be improved this would make it more likely for students to complete their research reports timeously.

4 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY To assess the effectiveness of running an intensive, group based proposal writing workshop for post graduate nurses required to complete research reports in fulfilment of the requirements for the Masters Degrees.

5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS Do students following the MSc Nursing Course who are required to complete research reports, believe the group- based guided proposal writing workshop is effective?

6 RESEARCH DESIGN A qualitative study using reflective diaries as a data collection tool. The methodology is well described by Kenten (2010) who refers to the keeping of solicited diaries where participants are asked to keep diaries and are tailored to solicit specific information.

7 POPULATION & SAMPLE The population for this study is the students registered on a MSc programme (course work) in Nursing at the University of the Witwatersrand A cohort of all 26 students from the 2013 intake of Masters Students in Nursing was invited to take part in the study.

8 DATA COLLECTION & ANALYSIS Participants were asked to write a diary entry at least once a week during the 7 week, part time course (One 3 hour session per week). Contents of diaries were coded using Tesch s method. 13 students submitted diaries. One was excluded as there was too little written to be useful.

9 FINDINGS THEMES THE RESEARCH JOURNEY THE GROUP EXPERIENCE ORGANIZATION OF THE COURSE FACILITATORS CATEGORIES Technical issues / methodology Personal issues Challenges experienced Sharing of knowledge & insights Feelings Group dynamics Universality Scheduling issues Timing issues Availability of support Guidance & support given Positive & negative personal characteristics

10 THEME 1 THE RESEARCH JOURNEY Technical issues / methodology Students used the diaries for planning their next steps / week Choosing a topic and structuring the title was an all consuming pre-occupation Many struggled with the actual writing of the proposals Excluding the topic and title, there were 57 individual references to the actual methodology as shown on the next slide:

11 THEME 1 THE RESEARCH JOURNEY Technical issues / methodology Number Task % No. Task % 12 Introduction, background & literature study Population & sampling Problem statement Data collection Purpose & significance 14 2 Data analysis Research questions and objectives 2 Research strategy/methodology Validity & reliability Ethical issues 5.3

12 THEME 1 THE RESEARCH JOURNEY Personal issues Intrinsic issues Social issues Academic issues Success issues Battling the inner woman/man - motivation Family, work & especially night duty problems Additional burden of other subjects & pressure of deadlines The struggles made achievements so great!

13 THEME 1 THE RESEARCH JOURNEY Challenges Accessing people & information Lack of time & effort Supervision Uncertainty & insecurity Most often related to finding validated tools and stats re population & sampling Closely related to personal work commitments Differences in access & ideas of facilitators & supervisors Research is hard!

14 THEME 2 THE GROUP EXPERIENCE Sharing knowledge and insights Gained knowledge from one another by sharing their progress in developing the proposals it helped them avoid mistakes and learned how to apply knowledge of research theory to real life Gained insights from one another through listening, discussion and critique

15 THEME 2 THE GROUP EXPERIENCE Feelings Optimism Despair Confusion Anticipation Enthusiasm Apprehension Confidence

16 THEME 2 THE GROUP EXPERIENCE Group dynamics Everyone is different in terms of commitment and ability and personal situation but group valuable I just do not like that my colleagues come late to attend tutorials, and this is taking our time. Sharing my topic with the group helped me in that my colleagues gave me ideas on how I can approach my topic.

17 THEME 2 THE GROUP EXPERIENCE Universality It is good to know I am not the only one having some issues. It also motivated me knowing that I was not the only one struggling and left behind. It also gave me the impression that we as nurses can do more to improve our care in providing services!!

18 THEME 3 ORGANIZATION OF THE COURSE Scheduling Timing Availability of support Direction, pressures and disruptions All wanted proposal writing course to start earlier in the year Positive but wanted more!

19 THEME 4 THE FACILITATORS Guidance and support Direction & clarification Structure and support What has pleased me is the interaction with the lecturer. Guidance on a one to one on how to do it. She had time to listen to everyone s title, background, problem statement and purpose. Thank you for all the effort of running research tutorials and putting pressure on us, structuring the timeline for keeping us up to date with working some portion at a time towards our research

20 THEME 4 THE FACILITATORS Positive & negative characteristics of the facilitators Availability Encouragement Helpfulness Adaptability Patience Partisan Confusing Inadequate guidance Unreliable I liked that the lecturer asked us not to write anything listen because she had notes already printed for us. Later gave us some notes not related to what she presented. How I wish I had written something. I al(ways) write / take notes in class.

21 DISCUSSION Group facilitation assisted the students to complete on time all handed in although most had corrections to do. Most positive about experience. On recommendation of students, brought research component forward this year. Topics agreed upon before groups start. Biggest challenge is bridging the gap between facilitators and formal supervisors Whatever we do, research is very challenging for the students and they can never get enough support.

22 CONCLUSION Diaries really are the truth! Well facilitated group work is invaluable to students and lecturers.

23 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Masters Class of 2013 for their generosity in terms of time and sharing their inner thoughts. The staff of the nursing department and particularly Hilary Thurling for assisting us with the ethical issues of gaining informed consent and anonymity.