The effect of writing a bachelor thesis on attitudes towards nursing research and development: A cross-sectional comparative study between students and professionals

Background: Research is essential to practice nursing and must be duly enhanced during university training. Therefore, writing a bachelor thesis may help to develop research skills and thus transfer this skill set to practical application. Objectives: 1) To ascertain whether writing a bachelor thesis has a bearing on attitudes towards nursing research and development; 2) to establish a comparison between groups (students and nurses), and 3) to analyse other factors (work experience, advanced training, research experience) that may influence the relationship between nurses and nursing research and development. Design: A cross-sectional comparative study. Setting and participants: The participants totalled 204: 38 nursing students and 166 nurses. Methods: Data were gathered using the instrument Nurses' Attitudes towards Research and Development within Nursing devised by Björkström and Hamrin (2001) version II validated in Spanish. This instrument consists of 33 statements grouped into 7 factors, whose responses offer 5 alternatives on a Likert scale. Results: Most participants were female (86.3 %), with a mean age of 36 (SD = 11.65). The participants who have written a bachelor thesis obtained a higher score (Mdn = 4.14; range = 2.06) than those who have not (Mdn = 3.98; range = 2.13), with a significant difference (U = 3959.5; p = 0.012) and a moderate effect size (Hedges's g = 0.40). The students are those who obtained the highest scores. Amongst the nurses, educational training is the element that is most positively correlated with attitudes towards nursing research and development (r = 0.340). Conclusion: The results suggest that writing a bachelor thesis engenders greater interest and a favourable attitude towards nursing research and development and displays that the most interested group is the students, followed by nurses holding a degree in nursing, and lastly those with a Diploma of Higher Education in nursing. Nurses' educational training is the most influential aspect, standing above researcher or professional experience.