During the course of study graduate nursing students will undertake a dissertation, thesis or research portfolio within the School of Nursing. This gives students the opportunity to research a nursing and healthcare problem using principles and methodologies developed within the postgraduate diploma, bachelor (honours) and masters courses.

By doing a thesis, dissertation or research portfolio students should master skills in:

• developing a research proposal to explore a specific research question
• identifying and accessing the resources necessary to undertake the research
• reviewing and analysing relevant literature
• depending on whether the project is a dissertation, thesis or portfolio, choosing a research methodology appropriate to the problem and rigorously applying that methodology whether it be qualitative, quantitative or conceptual
• reporting the project particularly its purpose, backgrounds, method, findings, conclusions, and recommendations.

For more details please download Postgraduate Research Handbook(576.0KB PDF)

Masters research

The research component of a masters degree varies, but in all cases successful masters research requires demonstration of:

• evidence of independent thought
• an ability to evaluate critically the findings and discussion in the relevant literature
• an ability to engage in rigorous analysis, criticism and problem-solving
• mastery of the conventions of the discipline at a high level.
• confident handling of theoretically sophisticated material.