NURSING DISSERTATION TOPICS: HELPFUL GUIDE FOR THE CONCERNED

You’ve done it.

You’ve battled late nights with no sleep, never-ending cups of coffee, and occasional bouts of hair pulling when studying for exams. You ran the race, jumping over each hurtle that passed your way until you came to this: Your Dissertation.

And you died a little bit inside.

But not to worry. Although it is the capstone of your Graduate school career, there is no reason why you can’t enjoy the process of writing your dissertation. Here are some useful tips that will help you navigate your way through picking your topic.

Start thinking about it early

The need to procrastinate is something that every student has to battle. It has become a tradition in many a classroom to wait until the last minute, when the deadline is looming over you, to then realize what a mistake you made. But tears and pleading won’t give you back the hours that you could have been devoting to the task. So start thinking about your dissertation early. Make a list of possible topics that interest you and do some preliminary research to see if it is something that will interest you.

Go with what you know

It is easy to get caught up in all the possible topics to choose from when considering what to write your dissertation about. But one of the main rules of thumb is to pick a topic that you feel strongly about and one that interest you greatly. With the average nursing dissertation peaking at about 150 pages, it is safe to say that you will be writing extensively about the topic you choose. Therefor it will work out best for you if you are genuinely interested in the topic. If it is not something that will keep your attention then there is a chance it won’t catch your readers attention as well. Think about things that you have learned throughout the semester. Look back over notes to see if there was something that you were interested in but forgot to follow-up on.

Explore your topics

Another thing to watch out for is the deceptive dissertation topic. It is a clever topic that masquerades as a brilliant and though provoking topic. It cleverly tricks you into thinking that you could write about the topic until kingdom comes….but then you sit down to write it and after a couple of pages you realize that it’s not going anywhere. Make sure that you explore your topic before you decide that it is the ONE. Window shop a little bit and then decide if it is right for you. Make sure that there is comprehensive research on it that you can add on to with research of your own.

Find out what others are writing

It’s been said that everything has already been written before. Once you have narrowed down a topic list, find out what other nursing students have written in the past. Find out what topics current students are using and use that knowledge to help you form your ideas of what questions and ideas you want to discuss. Be wary of copyrighting other people’s work but feel free to use it as a springboard for the development of your ideas.

Don’t be afraid if your topic changes

With all the exploring and molding that you are doing in preparation for your dissertation, don’t worry if, as you write it, the topic seems to shift away from what you originally intended. Your dissertation is an ugly duckling that, with time and dedication, will transform into a beautiful swan.