Barriers to the completion of bachelor thesis for bachelor nursing students during their internship: A qualitative study from dual student and faculty perspectives

Background: Bachelor thesis are among the most important ways of exercising Chinese nursing students' research skills and developing critical thinking. However, there is a mismatch between the expectations and abilities of clinical nursing teachers and nursing students. Exploring the impediments to nursing students' research skills can provide a basis for developing targeted improvements. Objective: To identify barriers to the completion of research projects among nursing undergraduates during their internships from the dual student and instructor perspectives.Design: Descriptive qualitative design. Setting: Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted this study at a tertiary hospital in Fuzhou, Fujian Province.Participants: The study was conducted using a purposive sample of 16 nursing interns and six instructors.Methods: Data were collected through semi-structured interviews to provide nursing students and instructors with various perspectives. The collected data were analysed using thematic analysis methods. Results: This study included 16 students (two male and 14 female; age 21.75 +/- 0.66 years), six instructors (age 34.33 +/- 1.97 years), which was sufficient to reach data saturation. We identified 126 codes from the interview data and obtained seven subcategories among three categories: a) Lack of scientific research training: lack of clinical instructors' experience, lack of academic training courses, and lack of necessary scientific research re-sources support; b) Poor communication: excessive workload, poor instructor-student relationship, and lack of communication skills; and c) Lack of support systems: lack of support from other disciplines and negative coping patterns.Conclusions: The findings of this study will help nursing interns develop an interest in scientific research throughout their internships. Reducing barriers will also strengthen teacher training programmes, improve the teaching process, promote teacher-student communication, and provide students with necessary social support.