Article Sidebar
Published:
Nov 9, 2016Article Details
Copyright remains in the Author’s name. The work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial Works License. Authors are required to complete and sign an Author Agreement form that outlines Author and Publisher rights and terms of publication. The Agreement form should be uploaded along with other submissions files and any submission will be considered incomplete without it [forthcoming].
Material submitted for publication in the AJHPE is accepted provided it has not been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. Please inform the editorial team if the main findings of your paper have been presented at a conference and published in abstract form, to avoid copyright infringement. The AJHPE does not hold itself responsible for statements made by the authors. The corresponding author should also indicate if the research forms part of a postgraduate short report, dissertation or thesis.
Previously published images
If an image/figure has been previously published, permission to reproduce or alter it must be obtained by the authors from the original publisher and the figure legend must give full credit to the original source. This credit should be accompanied by a letter indicating that permission to reproduce the image has been granted to the author/s. This letter should be uploaded as a supplementary file during submission.Main Article Content
Research supervision: Perceptions of postgraduate nursing students at a higher education institution in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Abstract
Background. Scientific advancement, particularly in the area of information communication technology (ICT), challenges the mode of knowledge
advancement at universities. Such challenges are especially evident in the area of postgraduate (PG) research supervision, particularly in the light of
the changing students’ demography, whereby there is a radical shift from full-time campus-based students to part-time students. This challenge is
compounded by many countries not considering research competency as a requirement for PG supervision – the result of static and outdated curricula.
Objective. To explore the perceptions of PG nursing students with regard to the research supervision process.
Methods. A quantitative research study was conducted at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Durban, South Africa using non-convenience sampling.
The PG Research Experience Survey questionnaire was adapted for the current study. Ethical clearance was obtained from UKZN’s Ethics Committee.
The population consisted of the PG coursework Master’s nursing students who were registered for the research project module during 2012. A total of 56
students participated, with a response rate of 70%. Data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 19 (SPSS 19) (IBM Corp., USA).
Results. The findings revealed that more than half of the respondents (66.2%; n=37) rated the level of support from research supervisors as moderate
on a scale of low to high. The period of research supervision, mode of attendance and status within the university were identified as factors influencing
the perceptions of support from research supervisors.
Conclusion. This study recommends that, to improve the quality of research supervision, there is a need to include a research supervision module in
the curriculum of nurse educators and to adopt online research supervision, underpinned by the extensive use of ICT to accommodate both part-time
and full-time PG students.
