Author(s)

Yingchun Zeng, Samantha Pang

1Department of Health and Physical Education, The Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong, China.
School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China.

This review aimed to analyze the trends and contributions of nursing doctoral theses produced in Hong Kong. A total of 56 nursing doctoral theses were included in this review. The most often studied topic was cardiovascular rehabilitation care (n = 9, 16%). More recently, the most often studied topics has been health technology advancements in nursing care (n = 6, 10.7%). The common trend of study methods was to be quantitative in nature. Of the total, 35 out of 56 were quantitative studies. Half were experimental/ quasi-experimental research studies (n = 28, 50%). For theoretical foundations or applications, the majority (n = 21, 36%) of doctoral theses had no specific theoretical/conceptual models as study frameworks. This trend indicates that there is space for improving the theoretical and philosophical foundation of nursing research in Hong Kong. For the contributions of doctoral thesis research, Hong Kong nursing scholars place more emphasis on direct enhancement of clinical practice or the improvement of patient outcomes. This review provides concrete evidence of the status of nursing research and knowledge development in Hong Kong nursing.

Nursing; Doctoral Education; Doctoral Thesis; Hong Kong

Zeng, Y. and Pang, S. (2012) Reviewing the trends of nursing doctoral thesis research in Hong Kong. Open Journal of Nursing, 2, 346-350. doi: 10.4236/ojn.2012.24051.