A Master’s Thesis (Nursing 599 – 9 credits) is the written report of a formal, systematic scholarly inquiry following accepted methodology to answer questions relevant to the discipline of nursing or the broader field of health sciences scholarship. Such a research project can take a number of forms including:
- A project which includes collecting primary (newly created) data, or conducting a secondary analysis of data from a larger research study, which are both common in quantitative or qualitative studies in order to answer questions relevant to nursing or health care.
- Projects in which you analyze existing data or evidence, such as a policy analysis, a historical analysis, or a discourse analysis in order to critique or question established assumptions, add to policy development, or to explain events or occurrences in context and time. Such data could include archival data, existing documents, or reports.
- Projects which involve a systematic, critical, substantial analysis and synthesis of the literature to answer questions relevant to nursing or health care. This could take the form of a formal systematic review of a number of published research reports or studies or other form of systematic review of the literature based on accepted standards. A meta-analysis could also be conducted although such a project is not common at the MSN level.
- Projects which involve philosophical or ethical inquiry to address key practice issues in nursing and health care.
- Projects which involve concept development, for example a concept analysis, or another form of theory development serving to expand theory relevant to nursing and health.
The student completing a master’s thesis will have engaged in the phases of the research process, including problem identification, review of existing knowledge, methods determination, analysis and interpretation in an original project or in an agreed‐upon component of a project conducted with other researchers. The research question(s) must be derived from the current state of nursing knowledge in the identified substantive field and these must include a discussion about the contributions or implications of the findings for nursing or health care (including implications for practice, education, policy, administrative management, research, or knowledge as appropriate).
In addition to a written report of the study, completion of the thesis requires a public oral defence of the project.
Learn more about Thesis Guidelines
Learn more about Thesis Oral Defence Procedure and Guidelines.
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