I am setting up this blog in order to try to get some input into the Question with which I will focus my Masters Thesis. I would appreciate any help you can give me as I am having a bit of difficulty trying to decide how to term my question. I am very interested in Passion and Nursing Students, more specifically, how Nursing students experience passion in nursing school and what contributes to that. My initial question was:
What is it that Inspires Nursing Students to become Passionate about Nursing?
This didnt really work out very well for me as when I started doing a literature search I came up with many articles that discussed Inspiration in the context of Chest assessments! Nursing obviously had a different meaning for "inspiration" than what I intended. So I thought about changing my question and it evolved into
What is it that Motivates Nursing students to become Passionate about Nursing?
I do like this question better. However, I am still struggling with this and unsure where to go from here. The literature has still been very difficult as I am coming up with little to nothing. There are not any studies that I have been able to find that ask Nursing students how they become inspired to be passionate. I have had some discussion with my supervisor and she has encouraged me in a few different ways. One way is to do a concept analysis of what PASSION means. One definition that I have found is from the Merriam Webster Dictionary website. The definition is "a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object or concept". Of course this is only one definition, I have many others aspects of passion to explore but I do think this is a good starting place.
However I am still very concerned about the fact that I can not find any literature regarding my topic. I am wondering then if I should change my question and take out passion. The question would look like this:
What is it that motivates nursing students to become enthusiastic about nursing?
However, when I did a literature search last night replacing passion with enthusiasm, I really did not come up with anything more! Ouch! I am not really sure how to do a literature review when very little is available. So now I am considering to changing it again. I am wondering about changing it completely and focus on something else. But I just don't want to admit defeat and I still like the idea of studying passion with nursing students. So I am thinking of changing it to something like this:
What experiences do nursing students feel contribute to feeling passionate (could substitute enthusiasm) about nursing?
Then a sub question could be:
What are the barriers nursing students experience that prevent them from feeling passionate (or enthusiastic) about nursing?
I am hoping that I will be able to get some feedback from everyone about what they think about my question. Also, what do you think of my topic? Do you think that I am missing something here?
My whole premise of my thesis question is based on human resources and the rentention of nurses. I feel like if we can understand what inspired nursing students when they were in nursing, we could use this information to develop mentorship programs that would enhance and foster those feelings they made have had in nursing school.
What do you think?
Hi Tina,
ReplyDeleteMy advise for you to do search about nursing students study and I think you will find something thier.
Mohammed
Hi Mohammed,
DeleteThanks for the reply. Do you think you could clarify a a bit for me? I am not fully sure what you mean
Thanks
Tina
I like the topic. I think it will be very interesting. I like the last 2 questions. Can you combine them somehow? I like that you are asking them about their experiences because I think that it is all about the different experiences that they had and how they interpreted them that made them either more or less passionate about nursing. I know there are times for me since I started teaching that have really stuck out for me and made me more passionate about what I do and I am sure it is the same for the students. Something has to happen to either increase or decreases their passion. I love the word passion because we often hear this word in nursing. Nurses often say they are passionate about nursing. I also like the definition because I think it really gets a the heart of what you want to know. I think you do need to consider how you would measure passion. How will you know if they are passionate or not?
ReplyDeleteThanks Karen for your comments. I like the last two questions as well but I am just not sure how to combine them. Any suggestions?
DeleteI just wanted to expand a bit more on my journey to my topic and to my research methodology. I have to admit that my research method was picked mostly out of terror for statistics. I don't get statistics and I don't get people who get excited about statistics! This was my major reason for not doing quantitative! Yes, FEAR! Also, when I was in my Bachelors of nursing degree myself and another student were invited by a professor at the university to assist her in doing a research project. This project involved doing focus groups among residents of small towns who were facing losing their local hospitals. This was back in the days of premier Ralph Klein whom we all know did a lot of cutting of hospitals and nurses in the early to mid 1990's. Anyway, I completely enjoyed doing the focus groups, loved it actually! I felt very involved in the process, enjoyed getting to know the people we interviewed and began to feel very empathetic of these people's fear of losing their hospital. So, I have to admit that this was my main reason for wanting to do qualitative research. I had done it before and I enjoyed it. However, I was soon to find outin our philosophy of Inquiry course that there was a reason of why I loved it. I did not ever think that I would learn that qualitative research is part of who I am. It is part of how I think and feel about the world around me.....go figure! When I first came into Claudia's class, I thought "what the heck is she talking about?" I was completely confused and I was sure that the authors of "Generative Uncertainty" had been smoking something illegal. And then Claudia confirmed that this class was going to be "way out there" when she showed us the first film about generative uncertainty, sorry, I forget the name. I have to admit that for the first few months of class I felt like I had stumbled in to another world, another dimension that made absolutely no sense at all. Yep, everyone had been smoking wacky tobacoo! Claudia continued to assure us that it would be get better, but I really did not believe her. But something interesting happened as classes progressed in that I began to understand bit and pieces. And then before I knew it those bits and pieces began to make more sense as I saw a bigger picture emerging. And then I began to understand things within the context of my research. I began to understand that instead of not doing quantitative research because I was scared of it, I actually could pick Qualitative research because it resonated with my philosophical ideals. As I began to examine my assumptions about my world and what I know and how I know it, I became really interested to find out where I fit within all of those paradigms of thought. I know now that I fit within the Symbolic Interpretive quadrant of Burrell and Morgan's (1979) model of assumptions. I also know that I fit quite well with in the constructionist paradigm that remains quite subjective but still leaves some room for objectivity. This suites who I am very well as I do believe that there is an objective world out there that we can measure to a certain degree but I also feel that this means nothing unless we consider the social context of all things and the meanings that society and individuals place on all things. And this leads very well into my research method which is Narrative Inquiry. Narrative Inquiry basically states that the student's that I intend to research have a story to tell, a story about passion, and I as the researcher will become part of their world as they tell me the story around developing their passion in Nursing. Now that is cool!
DeleteHi Karen,
DeleteI have struggled with my question for a very long time. I remember the first time my research question was first put into question by Heather and Daniella in Research Methodology class. One of these girls asked me how I knew that nursing students were passionate? Darn, I didnt really think about that! I have to admit that I felt that a lot, if not the majority of nursing students would feel passionate about nursing or they wouldn't be there! Wow! Talk about assumptions! I had made a very big assumption. This made me think about my question and what exactly I wanted to know about nursing students and passion. As you can see from a previous blog entry, I have changed my question a few times. I have to admit that I am still a bit uncertain of how to frame the question. Claudia recently challenged me a little bit more to look at this issue of my question again. She asked me "what come first: Inspiration or Passion?" This is something that really made me stop and think. I really want to look at passion in nursing students. And I want to know if passion can be inspired or motivated or enhanced. And if so, how? I still feel that by asking nursing students about their experiences in nursing school, specifically related to passion, I may be able to see themes that contribute to the development of it. I am still convinced that I can discover antecedents that contribute to passion or the growth of it. So how do I word the question to reflect that though? I am still a bit confused. For the last paper that I just handed in for Claudia the question read: What are the experiences of nursing students that contribute to feeling passionate about nursing?
Do you think this sounds any closer to what I need? I really believe that Narrative Inquiry is the research method that I should use. It really focuses on the research participant telling a story which I feel is so applicable to my research topic. I think it will be very interesting to hear the "stories" that students may have to share with me regarding their development of feelings of passion for nursing.
I credit Kevin R. with the discovery of narrative inquiry as I have been looking for a while for a method that reflected the symbolic interpretivist point of view but that was a little less subjective. I have been looking at grounded theory but it just did not seem to fit my research question as I was not looking to create a theory from my findings. This is the research method that is recommended for Symbolic Interactionism which I do feel I fit in a bit. How ever, in a discussion with you Karen, you recommended that I look at Constructionism. I apprecieat the support that you have been so far in my journey related to my research question and understanding my philosophical stance. You have helped me just about everyday in our discussions about methodology and philosophical paradigms. I read an article about constructionism and how it can relate to narrative Inquiry and felt that this was more appropriate to my question and to my own philosophical beliefs.
I also want to thank you Karen for replying to my blog. I sent an invitation to all of my colleagues in the Mental Health Team at the end of October in an attempt to get feedback on my question. I really do appreciate the feedback that you have given me Karen.
DeleteI wonder about looking at caring in nursing/nursing students (which there is lots of literature on), then you could have passion/"a calling"/enthusiastic as sub themes? That is my suggestion, anyway...
ReplyDeleteRyan
I totally understand what you are saying, but I think that caring is an even harder word to measure. Caring and passion are two totally different things. Someone can be a caring person, but not passionate. Nurses are typically caring people, but in no way does that mean they are passionate or even enthusiastic about their profession. They may be in it for the paycheque for all we know. I think that using "caring" will push the study in a new direction. The question here I think is...what happened that made them feel passionate (or devoted) to nursing if anything. Just my thoughts....
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with Karen Ryan, sorry! I think that caring is important to nursing but passion is as well. And what I am most interested in is how students experience passion or passionate feelings about nursing and if it is possible to inspire those feelings in them as an instructor. If I have a student who has entered nursing because mom and dad them to or because they thought that nursing paid well, is it possible then to motivate them to also feel passionate about nursing? Once they have come into nursing and they are just there....is it possible to ignite passion in them? Can they instead see nursing maybe as a calling? Or am I making to many assumptions?
DeleteAnother thought, could also examine nursing student values, or what they value about nursing, then could have themes drawn from that value context looking at professionalism, caring for others, passion about nursing?
ReplyDeleteRyan
Thats good Ryan, I like that. I could consider that as Judith has suggested that passion may become a sub theme. But I wasnt sure if was my sub theme then what would become my main question. I do appreciate that feedback and I will think about that.
DeleteAnother thought that I had was maybe looking at intrinsic and extrinsic motivators in nursing, motivating factors internal and external to the nursing student, passion and being passionate about nursing would definitely be a sub theme?
DeleteThanks Ryan, I did actually look at intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. It is very interesting because as I look through the literature, I have found that there is a progression in the literature in Psychology that initially looked at motivation for work based on intrinsic and extrinsic factors. These factors are somehow intertwined with The Social Determination Theory. But I have not had a chance to read SDT yet to to see how they are related. Interestingly though, I did find a progression of the use of terms in the literature from the early 1990's that talks about intrinsic and extrinsic factors in workers motivation. Interestingly enough though there is a steady progression of these factors now being linked to passion, or work passion. This concept has been even taken further by Vallerand (2003) to Harmonious and Obsessive passion. All of this will be addressed in my literature reveiw
DeleteTina, I know you are having trouble finding the literature and I am in a similar situation as there is not much on my direct topic. Have you thought about breaking down your topic and finding literature on the various pieces, i.e. seeing if there is any peer reviewed pieces on passion in careers or passion in education? You may need to get creative in order to get all of the pieces you need. Also have you looked for the possibility of studies on what creates passion in other careers? This might give you an example of studies done in other specific careers and help guide your own study. Just a few thoughts from my head.
ReplyDeleteHi Heather,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your feedback. I did do exactly that and have had much more progress than I had hoped for. If you see my response to Ryan above I have been able to find a lot of literature very relevant to my topic of Passion in the Management-Human Resources Literature, and Psychology literature. This has been extremely interesting as I have found a steady progression of terms starting in the 1990's that has resulted in a current model of Passion proposed by Valleran (2003). This model is so interesting and has been tested empirically by Vallerand and many others in a variety of interesting topics including work passion, passion in sports, passion that can lead to difficulty in a person's life (ie. gambling, internet). I even found a study in whiich he tested his model on nurses and measure burnout. It is all very interesting and the progression for me of learning about passion has been very interesting. I have moved from a somewhat vague notion of wanting to discover how nursing students feel passionate about nurses to wanting to discover what student nurses experience that may contribute to feeling passionate about nursing.
Hi Tina...wow, some interesting discussions here! I checked out the site when you posted it, and was almost a bit overwhelmed with my own confusion about your questions about passion, and what inspires nursing students. I really didn't know how to respond and thought I needed time to formulate something somewhat "intelligent" as a response! However, when I thought about passion/inspiration/motivation/enthusisam, I really couldn't think of how those things could be easily defined in nursing students; at least nothing "intelligent" came to me. :)
ReplyDeleteNow that I've had a bit of time to reflect on the question, I actually thought about it more in terms of myself, to see if I could identify what makes ME passionate about nursing, and then translate that into a student's perspective. I think I've come to the realization that I am not passionate about nursing, per se, but I AM passionate about my own practice area, specifically my clients and the things that I have learned from them, the challenges they have brought that have helped me to grow, and the slowly emerging realization that a lot of who I have become as a person and a nurse is as a result of the experiences I've had the privilege of having with my clients.
Last fall, I attended a presentation by a professor (Dr. Elangovan) from the University of Victoria (Claudia will remember this presentation). He spoke about whether individuals view their work as a job, a career, or a calling, and explored the idea of what having a "calling" to a particular profession might look like. It was only through this presentation that I became aware that when I was a student, I didn't really have a "calling" to the nursing profession. I viewed my education as a means to a "job", and as I progressed through my various places of employment, I began to accept nursing as my career. It is only recently that I have come to think that perhaps the reason I wasn't passionate about nursing in the past was because I hadn't found my "calling" yet. As I re-examine my nursing experiences, I know that those that have made me the most enriched are the ones where I made a positive impact on someone's life.
Perhaps when examining the issue of passion in nursing, students will have a difficult time identifying that as a concept, but they may be better able to define what they find personally "rewarding", and how that translates into their nursing? Maybe this follows a bit of what Ryan and Lyle were talking about, in terms of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation, I don't know. Maybe passion in the profession will emerge if you start by examining passion for them as a person first?
I'm not much help, I'm afraid, but it was fun talking about it!