Nurse academics perceived responsibilities and expectations from nursing students during research supervision

Abstract

Globally, research supervision has become a significant part of the job of an academic thereby placing higher demands on nurse lecturers as they are obligated to supervise nursing students research projects. This study explored the perceived responsibilities and expectations of nurse academics regarding nursing students research supervision at Universities in Southeast Nigeria. A validated semi-structured in-depth interview guide, served as qualitative research instrument for data collection. Data generated from one-onone interview sessions exploring the viewpoints of nineteen research supervisors were subjected to Colaizzi’s qualitative content analysis. Three emergent themes were identified from the results of this study: research role perception; students should aim at becoming independent researchers; gratification. Result showed that nurse academics juggle through the roles of teaching, guiding, motivating to discouraging any form of plagiarism and malpractice. They also encourage continuity of research and look forward to seeing a permanent change of behaviour in their supervisees. Nurse academics expect active participation plus genuine interest from their students towards their research project and majority see supervision as a rewarding experience. The findings suggest that a cordial relationship between supervisors and supervisees is essential for a successful research project. Awareness of these elements will enable institutional heads and academic union bodies to develop a better approach to research supervision.