Aims and theoretical frameworks in nursing students' Bachelor's theses in Sweden: A descriptive study

Background: Nursing students' independent projects in Sweden not only provide an opportunity to receive a professional qualification as a nurse but also gain a Bachelor's degree in nursing. The aim of these projects is to demonstrate knowledge and understanding within the major field of the education. Objectives: This study aimed to describe and analyze the topics as well as theoretical frameworks and concepts in nursing students' independent projects, which lead to a Bachelor's degree, in a Swedish context. Design: A total of 491 independent projects, written by nursing students in Sweden, were included in the study. Methods: Topics together with theoretical frameworks and concepts in the projects were identified. Similar topics and theoretical frameworks and concepts, respectively, were grouped into subcategories, and similar subcategories were then merged into a main category. The number of entries in each category was counted for descriptive statistics in order to allow for the demonstration of magnitude. Results: The most common topics concerned experiences and managing when having an illness, experiences of care and of being a caregiver, and healthcare staff's care and knowledge. The nursing theories/models that were most often used were Eriksson's Theory of Caritative Caring, Travelbee's Human-to-Human Relationship Model, and Orem's Self-care Theory. Among the non-nursing theories/models, perspectives and concepts life world, ethical values and principles, existential concepts and quality of life/health-related quality of life, were most often used by these students. Conclusion: There may be some difficulty in finding a topic for the project that is relevant for both a professional qualification as a nurse, as well as for achieving the requirements of a Bachelor's degree in nursing. The study indicates that there is a need to widen the student's understanding of different nursing theories/perspectives/models/concepts during nursing education so that students are familiar with a broad range of these when conducting their independent project. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.