Introduction: It is well-established in research that clinical learning during nursing education is a foundational preparation for future practice. However, the role of academic tasks, such as writing a bachelor's thesis, is less recognized for its contributions to nurses’ working lives and overall professional development. Objective: This study aimed to explore registered nurses’ perceptions of the process of bachelor's thesis and its perceived usefulness in professional nursing careers. Methods: Semistructured interviews with ten registered nurses was employed. A thematic analysis of the data and the framework of sustainable learning were used. Results: The findings showed that the process of writing a bachelor's thesis during nursing education was perceived as a valuable learning experience and a source of continuing development. The main themes, professional knowing and professional agency, demonstrate the knowing applied in the healthcare contexts and for understanding nurse-patient relationships. The nurses stated that professional agency in research dissemination and a critical approach in their daily patient care was important and that the bachelor's thesis had provided a foundation for these practices. Conclusion: Writing a bachelor's thesis during nursing education is justified as it may contribute to a critical understanding of nursing phenomena and the care taking place in clinical contexts. Bachelor's theses align with sustainable learning and are one of the prerequisites for readiness for change and development in professional practice.

Aim To explore nursing students’ academic emotions during ongoing learning activities focusing on perceived challenge and competence.

Background Emotions plays an important part in learning. Positive emotions can be beneficial while negative emotions can be detrimental to educational outcomes. Optimal experiences are situations when learners simultaneously experience sufficient challenge and competence. Since various learning activities are performed in different learning environments during the nursing program, it is of interest to investigate students’ ongoing emotions in the occurring contexts.

Design A longitudinal descriptive study.

Methods By using the Contextual Activity Sampling System, data was collected every third week on a three-year nursing program. From August 2015 to January 2020, a total of 2, 947 questionnaires were answered by 158 students. Experiences of positive and negative academic emotions were calculated for the entire program. Optimal experience was calculated for courses where high discrepancy between positive and negative experiences were identified.

Results Students self-reported academic emotions varied over time and in relation to learning activities. High ratings of negative emotions were reported during clinical practice in all semesters except the final. Students’ positive academic emotions and optimal experience in clinical practice increased after having deepened their academic knowledge.

Conclusion Nursing students had an increased positive experience when they themselves practice a learning activity and it appeared that they benefit from academic preparation prior to entering internship. Nursing students need an academic competence to develop their skills during training in the clinical reality. Increased collaboration between academia and clinic would be beneficial for students’ clinical development.

Nursing education prepares students for both academia and practice; however, the contribution of writing a bachelor's thesis in learning nursing is overlooked. The aim of the present study was to explore the role of a bachelor thesis as a learning tool in nursing. A total of 15 nursing students were individually interviewed using semi-structured questions. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis, and the activity theoretical concept of a tool was subsequently applied. The results were reported in accordance with COREQ for qualitative research. The findings identified writing a bachelor's thesis as a ‘Personal tool’ and a ‘Systemic tool for learning nursing’. The personal tool was related to ‘Preparation for patient encounters in working life’ and ‘Discovering bodily mechanisms of disease or health’. The systemic tool was related to ‘Enabling to impact on the organization of work and stakeholders’ and ‘Facilitating knowledge of the links between patient groups and common diseases’. The study discusses and concludes that a bachelor's thesis represents both a personal and a systemic tool that embodies nursing knowledge, preparing students for their future work as registered nurses. An implication for contemporary nursing is that a bachelor's thesis may serve as a boundary-crossing tool that transcends the school, workplace, and even society.

A bachelor’s thesis can be characterized as a proof of basic research and a trajectory of academic writing. This study addresses students’ ways of experiencing the writing process at the halfway stage, a stage that has been ignored in research. In a phenomenographic interview-study design, semi-structured interviews with 15 nursing students were carried out. A phenomenographic analysis of the data represents an outcome space with four categories of ways of experiencing writing: A. Structure, B. Comparison, C. Shift, and D. Relation. The categories of ways of experiencing the writing of a bachelor’s thesis constitute a range of foci, from solitary writing and assurance of the textual structure to a shared understanding, discussion, and transformation. This study confirms that sharing the preparation of texts in groups at the halfway stage can promote academic and relational skills. Conclusions address the nature of academic writing at the halfway stage and discuss potential pedagogical implications of the transformation from writing for oneself to writing for others, across disciplines and beyond academic levels.

Background A functional interprofessional teamwork improves collaborative patient-centred care. Participation in interprofessional education promotes cooperation after graduation. Individuals tend to use different approaches to learning depending on their individual preferences. The purpose of this study was to explore nursing students’ experiences of professional development with a focus on the relationship between attitudes to interprofessional learning and learning styles.

Methods A longitudinal parallel mixed-methods design. The study was carried out at a Swedish three-year nursing program from August 2015 to January 2020. On enrolment, thirty-four students self-assessed their attitudes to interprofessional learning according to the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale, and their learning style according to Kolbs’ Learning Style Inventory. In the final semester the students participated in an interview focusing on their experiences and perceptions of teamwork and they self-assessed their attitudes to interprofessional learning again.

Results Our findings indicated that 64.7% had a predominantly concrete learning style and 35.3% had a predominantly reflective learning style. No significant relationship with internal consistency reliability was identified among the participants between attitudes to interprofessional learning and learning styles. The content analysis resulted in four main categories: Amazing when it’s functional; Deepened insight of care; Increased quality of care; Understanding own profession which were summarized in the theme: Well-functioning teams improve patients’ outcome and working environment.

Conclusion The students’ attitudes to interprofessional learning were positive and it was considered as an opportunity to participate in interprofessional cooperation during internship. Transformative learning is a useful strategy in fostering interprofessional relationships due to the interdependence of various professions in interprofessional teams. When students are guided to use reflection to develop new perspectives and meaning structures, they acquire emotional and rational skills beneficial for interprofessional cooperation.

Artikeln tar sin utgångspunkt i Wides beskrivning; att se utvecklingen av högskolepedagogisk forskning som nära förbunden med den verksamhet som bedrivs inom pedagogiska utvecklingsenheter vid landets lärosäten, d.v.s. i hur stöd för högskolepedagogisk utveckling vuxit fram. Den avgränsning av högskolepedagogisk forskning författarna föreslår tecknar dock framväxten av ett potentiellt betydligt större fält. De menar: ”att den högskolepedagogiska forskningen har som primärt syfte att genom den systematik som befintliga och nya forskningsmetoder erbjuder skapa grund för förståelse, reflektion och utveckling av den högskolepedagogiska praktiken och dess processer”. De menar vidare att högskolepedagogisk forskning är ett ”tvärvetenskapligt forskningsfält vars syfte är att bidra till förståelsen och utvecklingen av den högre utbildningens villkor, innehåll, form och funktion”. Det särskilda med detta tvärvetenskapliga forskningsfält utgörs då av den nära kopplingen mellan pedagogisk utveckling, forskning och teoretiska bidrag. Scheja och Bolander Laksov lyfter fram att forskningen ska bidra såväl med underlag för högskolepedagogisk utveckling som med en vetenskaplig teoriutveckling, vilken även ska kunna skapa en grund för sammanhang inom och en integration av forskningsresultaten inom det växande fältet.

What is and what could higher education research be? A Response to Sverre Wide's Position The point of departure of this article is Wide’s description of the development of educational research in higher education as being closely linked to the work carried out within educational development units at higher education institutions around the country. In other words, emphasis is on how higher education development has grown over time. However, the authors proposed delimitation of higher education research marks the emergence of a potentially much larger research field. In addition, they argue that higher education research is an “interdisciplinary research field and that its aim is to contribute to the understanding and development of the conditions, content, form and function of higher education”. A salient feature of this interdisciplinary field of research is the close connection between higher education development, research, and theoretical contributions. Bolander Laksov and Scheja highlight the multifaceted functions of higher education research stating that it should not only contribute to different higher education development initiatives but also to the development of theory that can serve as a framework for interdisciplinary meaning-making and as a platform for integrating results within this growing field of research.

Background: During education it is essential for nursing students to develop professionalism in nursing. Nurses are placed in situations based on trust, and it is crucial that their patients have confidence in them to provide professional and safe care. A key period in nursing students’ development of a professionalism occurs during training when students gain knowledge and skills that separate nurses as professional healthcare workers from laypeople. The purpose of this study was to investigate nursing students’ experiences of professional competence development during education.

Methods: A longitudinal study was carried out using qualitative content analysis with a manifest inductive approach. Thirty-four students enrolled in a Swedish three-year nursing program, from August 2015 to January 2017 were interviewed on four occasions.

Results: The results revealed that students’ professional role developed gradually. The students’ started their education with dreams and a naive understanding of the profession, but their understanding of the complexity of the nursing profession gradually evolved. Students became theoretically equipped at the university and developed clinical skills through practice. Students’ focus went from mastering medical technology to a more holistic approach. Before graduating, students felt ready but not fully trained.

Conclusions: Our findings indicate a discrepancy between the content of the theoretical education and the clinical settings since students identified a lack of evidence-based practice. A solid theoretical education before entering clinical training offered students possibilities for reflecting on evidence-based practice and the clinical settings. The realization that there is always potential for professional improvement can be interpreted as an emerging awareness, and development of professionalism. It is clear that students could benefit from increased collaborative work between clinical supervisors and faculty staff at the university.

This final chapter draws on some of the themes addressed in the previous chapters in the book. In particular it seeks to describe challenges that the Department has faced over the past decade, but it also addresses opportunities that arise as the Department celebrates its 10th anniversary. The Department of Education (Institutionen för Pedagogik och Didaktik, in short: IPD) developed through a merger of several departments from the independent Stockholm College for Teacher Education and the Department of Education at Stockholm University. The chapter discusses where we at the Department of Education are heading with regard to the three main university missions we have : teaching, research and collaboration. Finally, we need to actively contribute to expanding the knowledge base in our society with research that has arisen both through collaboration and on the basis of independent research. Here we must see the department as a larger “we”, where we with our different and complementary competences make it possible to continue to succeed in our social missions and to establish ourselves as clear actors in both national and international contexts. We have grown to be one of Stockholm University’s five largest departments over the years and currently have 174 people on our payroll at the time of writing in October 2021, a very large number of competent employees. Here we can see another challenge: to keep a large institution together. 

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate newly admitted nursing students’ views on nursing education and their future profession.

Background: Students' choice of education can be influenced by societal and familial values and among nursing students’ altruistic motives are common. Students’, conceptions, expectations and doubts combined with their orientations to learning affect their ability to successfully cope with studies in higher education.

Design: A descriptive design using mixed method.

Methods: This mixed-method study is based on 126 qualitative semi-structured interviews and 158 questionnaires with newly admitted nursing students. The data collection was conducted during their first six weeks of education. Collected data were analyzed using content analysis and descriptive statistics. This study was conducted and reported in accordance with the COREQ checklist.

Results: The overarching theme: “Making a difference if managing to become a professional nurse”, describing students’ dichotomous emotions of expectations and doubts in relation to their conceptions, emerged from seven main categories. Students’ ratings of emotions revealed high ambition and motivation. Fears and worries about uncertainty expressed in interviews correlated with ratings of negative emotions.

Conclusion: Newly admitted nursing students think highly of the nursing profession and upcoming education. Students put faith in their own ability which is accompanied by doubts derived from uncertainty about forthcoming demands in academic, clinical and personal settings. Understanding of students’ conceptions, expectations, doubts and their orientations to learning could be helpful in guiding them to acquire the nurse competencies necessary to become professional nurses that are able to handle complex situations.