skip to main content

“A life without a supervisor is like a seed that never grows”: Students’ Experiences of Undergraduate Nursing Research Supervision

*Cyruz P. Tuppal orcid scopus  -  Director, Center for Research and Publication, Emilio Aguinaldo College, Philippines
Alejandro C. Nonog Jr.  -  Academic Program Coordinator EMS Education and Training Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine, Nova Southeastern University, United States
Shanine Mae P. Tuppal  -  Department of Nursing, National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Philippines
Mark Donald C. Reñosa  -  Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, University Heidelberg, Germany
Marina Magnolia G. Ninobla  -  Oman College of Health Sciences, Oman
Mary Nellie T. Roa  -  St. Dominic College of Asia, Philippines
Christian S. Tu  -  Program Chairperson, Nursing Program, School of Health Science Professions, St. Dominic College of Asia, Philippines
Open Access Copyright (c) 2022 Nurse Media Journal of Nursing
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Citation Format:
Abstract

Background: Undergraduate research is an inquiry or investigation conducted by students who develop an original intellectual or creative contribution to the discipline. However, little is known within the Philippine context that explores undergraduate nursing research experience and supervision.

Purpose: This study illustrated the students’ lived experiences of undergraduate research supervision using transcendental phenomenology.

Methods: This study made use of transcendental phenomenology. Thirty students enrolled full-time in a nursing research course during the academic year (AY) 2019-2020, and AY 2020-2021 were purposively sampled. These students completed their research projects as required for the nursing research course and were supervised by a mentor. Each participant underwent an in-depth one-on-one interview, of which the responses were transcribed and analyzed based on the modified Stevick-Colaizzi-Keen method.

Findings: From the thirty-nine significant statements carefully reviewed and clustered into meaning units, three themes emerged, namely (a) re-capturing tripartite challenges in doing research, (b) re-cultivating quintessential requisites in doing research, and (c) re-envisioning the future ahead. These themes provided textural and structural descriptions that intuitively integrate into the essence of the lived experience of being supervised in undergraduate research.

Conclusion: Undergraduate research supervision resonates with the mutual exchange of novel ideas in a dialogical encounter, collective learning, and participatory-in-action where sciencing and caring thinking is imbued to develop critical thinking, inquisitiveness, and caring intuitiveness.
Fulltext View|Download
Keywords: Caring research; nursing students; Philippines; transcendental phenomenology; undergraduate research supervision

Article Metrics:

  1. Alarcon, M. C., Dingel, B. B., Chua, A. R., Buenaventura, A., & Libatique, N. J. (2019). Engaging undergraduate students in the Philippines in photonics research with a novel publication-driven online mentoring approach. Fifteenth Conference on Education and Training in Optics and Photonics: ETOP 2019, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
  2. American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). (2008). The essentials of baccalaureate education for professional nursing practice. https://www.aacnnursing.org/Education-Resources/AACN-Essentials
  3. Arellano, E. R., Morano, L. N., & Nepomuceno, C. T. (2012). Assessing undergraduate research competence: Readiness for research-oriented jobs. Development Education Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 1(2), 92-116. http://ejournals.ph/form/cite.php?id=6621
  4. Armstrong, S. J. (2004). The impact of supervisors' cognitive styles on the quality of research supervision in management education. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 74(4), 599-616. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1348/0007099042376436
  5. Boykin, A., Parker, M. E., & Schoenhofer, S. O. (1994). Aesthetic knowing grounded in an explicit conception of nursing. Nursing Science Quarterly, 7(4), 158-161. https://doi.org/10.1177/089431849400700407
  6. Boykin, A., & Schoenhofer, S. O. (2001). Nursing as caring: A model for transforming practice. National League for Nursing
  7. Burkhart, P. V., & Hall, L. A. (2015). Developing the next generation of nurse scientists. Nurse Educator, 40(3), 160-162. https://doi.org/10.1097/nne.0000000000000121
  8. Campillan, R. G. (2019). Difficulties in research writing among communication students in a private university. International Journal of Management and Applied Science, 10(5), 28-32. http://iraj.in
  9. Council on Undergraduate Research. (2012). Characteristics of excellence in undergraduate research. https://www.cur.org/assets/1/23/COEUR_final.pdf
  10. Creswell, J. W. (1998). Qualitative enquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. Sage
  11. Cypress, B. S. (2017). Rigor or reliability and validity in qualitative research: Perspectives, strategies, reconceptualization, and recommendations. Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing, 36(4), 253-263. https://doi.org/10.1097/dcc.0000000000000253
  12. Davis, S. N., & Jones, R. M. (2020). The genesis, evolution, and influence of undergraduate research mentoring relationships. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 14(1), 6. https://doi.org/10.20429/ij-sotl.2020.140106
  13. de Jong, G., Meijer, E., Schout, G., & Abma, T. (2018). Involving undergraduate nursing students in participatory health research: Implications from the Netherlands. Journal of Professional Nursing, 34(6), 507-513. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2018.04.001
  14. Dworkin, S. L. (2012). Sample size policy for qualitative studies using in-depth interviews. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 41(6), 1319-1320. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-012-0016-6
  15. Eydgahi, A. (2019). An interdisciplinary platform for undergraduate research and design projects. 2019 IEEE World Conference on Engineering Education (EDUNINE), Lima, Peru
  16. Gacrama, B. I., & Baptista, G. O. (2019). Research competencies of undergraduate faculty in a private university in Northern Philippines. Salettinian Open Academic Review, 1(1), 1-18. http://ejournals.ph/form/cite.php?id=15200
  17. Harrison, N. (2006). The impact of negative experiences, dissatisfaction and attachment on first year undergraduate withdrawal. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 30(4), 377-391. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098770600965383
  18. Husserl, E. (2005). From introduction to the logical investigations and from the crisis of european sciences and transcendental phenomenology. In G. Gutting (Ed.), Continental Philosophy of Science (pp. 113-120). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470755501.ch9
  19. Kain, V. J., Hepworth, J., Bogossian, F., & McTaggart, L. (2014). Inside the research incubator: A case study of an intensive undergraduate research experience for nursing & midwifery students. Collegian, 21(3), 217-223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colegn.2013.04.004
  20. Kostovich, C. T., & Thurn, K. E. (2013). Group mentoring: A story of transition for undergraduate baccalaureate nursing students. Nurse Education Today, 33(4), 413-418. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2012.12.016
  21. Lea, A., & Watson, R. (1996). Caring research and concepts: A selected review of the literature. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 5(2), 71-77. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.1996.tb00230.x
  22. Limeri, L., Asif, M. Z., Bridges, B. H. T., Esparza, D., Tuma, T. T., Sanders, D., Morrison, A. J., Rao, P., Harsh, J. A., Maltese, A. V., & Dolan, E. L. (2019). “Where’s my mentor?!" Characterizing negative mentoring experiences in undergraduate life science research. CBE Life Sciences Education, 18(4), ar61
  23. Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (2000). The only generalization is: There is no generalization. In R. Gomm, M. Hammersley, & P. Foster (Eds.), Case study method (pp. 27-44). Sage
  24. Liou, S.-R., Cheng, C.-Y., Tsai, H.-M., & Chang, C.-H. (2013). Innovative strategies for teaching nursing research in Taiwan. Nursing Research, 62(5), 335-343. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNR.0b013e31829fd827
  25. Mailloux, C. G. (2011). Using the essentials of baccalaureate education for professional nursing practice (2008) as a framework for curriculum revision. Journal of Professional Nursing, 27(6), 385-389. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2011.04.009
  26. Malinski, V. M. (2009). Wisdom in caring research. Nursing Science Quarterly, 22(2), 108-108. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894318409332566
  27. Malotky, M. K., Mayes, K. M., Price, K. M., Smith, G., Mann, S. N., Guinyard, M. W., Veale, S., Ksor, V., Siu, L., & Mlo, H. L. (2020). Fostering inclusion through an interinstitutional, community-engaged, course-based undergraduate research experience. Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education, 21(1), 11. https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.v21i1.1939
  28. Mendoza, A. T. O., & Golden, J. A. (2019). How pre-tenure and tenured faculty can engage undergraduates in publishable research. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 111. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00111
  29. Mitchell, K., Rekiere, J., & Grassley, J. S. (2020). The influence of undergraduate research assistant experiences on future nursing roles. Journal of Professional Nursing, 36(3), 128-133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2019.09.006
  30. Moustakas, C. (1994). Phenomenological research methods. Sage
  31. Mueller, D., Basha, E., & Pallipuram, V. (2018). Incorporating research in the undergraduate experience at a private teaching-centric institution. 2018 International Conference on Computational Science and Computational Intelligence (CSCI), Las Vegas, NV, USA
  32. NVivo, Q. (2002). QSR international Pty ltd. Doncaster, Victoria, Australia
  33. Perrella, A., Dam, H., Martin, L., MacLachlan, J. C., & Fenton, N. (2020). Between culture and curricula: Exploring student and faculty experiences of undergraduate research and inquiry. Teaching and Learning Inquiry, 8(2), 90-113. https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.8.2.7
  34. Piamjariyakul, U., Keener, T. A., Smothers, A., Young, S., Shafique, S., McDill, S., Keech, K., Petitte, T., & Pacheco, C. (2021). Mentoring undergraduate nursing students in palliative home care research. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 16(4), 423-428. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.teln.2021.05.001
  35. Polkinghorne, D. E. (1989). Phenomenological research methods. In R. S. Valle & S. Halling (Eds.), Existential-phenomenological perspectives in psychology (pp. 41-60). Plenum Press
  36. Sethares, K. A., & Chin, E. (2020). Use of music lyrics to engage millennial learners in undergraduate research. Nursing Education Perspectives, 41(6), 376-377. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000000523
  37. Severinsson, E. (2015). Rights and responsibilities in research supervision. Nursing & Health Sciences, 17(2), 195-200. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/nhs.12160
  38. Si, J. (2020). Course-based research experience of undergraduate medical students through project-based learning. Korean Journal of Medical Education, 32(1), 47. https://doi.org/10.3946/kjme.2020.152
  39. Skirke, C. (2022). Internalism and externalism in transcendental phenomenology. European Journal of Philosophy, 30(1), 182-204. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/ejop.12660
  40. Slattery, M. J., Logan, B. L., Mudge, B., Secore, K., Von Reyn, L. J., & Maue, R. A. (2016). An undergraduate research fellowship program to prepare nursing students for future workforce roles. Journal of Professional Nursing, 32(6), 412-420. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2016.03.008
  41. Snoeren, M., Volbeda, P., Niessen, T. J., & Abma, T. A. (2016). Dutch care innovation units in elderly care: A qualitative study into students' perspectives and workplace conditions for learning. Nurse Education in Practice, 17, 174-181. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2015.11.005
  42. Tan, E. B. (2007). Research experiences of undergraduate students at a comprehensive university. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 19(3), 205-215
  43. Taraban, R., & Logue, E. (2012). Academic factors that affect undergraduate research experiences. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104(2), 499. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026851
  44. Tuppal, C. P., Vega, P. D., & Tuppal, S. M. P. (2019). Towards a theory of communion‐in‐caring. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 36, 524-535. https://doi.org/10.1111/scs.13049
  45. Vessey, J. A., & DeMarco, R. F. (2008). The undergraduate research fellows program: A unique model to promote engagement in research. Journal of Professional Nursing, 24(6), 358-363. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2008.06.003
  46. Voelkel, S., Mello, L. V., & Varga-Atkins, T. (2018). Supporting students during their undergraduate research projects using audio recordings. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 55(4), 433-440. https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2016.1263233
  47. Wheeler, E. C., Hardie, T., Schell, K., & Plowfield, L. (2008). Symbiosis—undergraduate research mentoring and faculty scholarship in nursing. Nursing Outlook, 56(1), 9-15. e12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2007.09.001
  48. Wolf, Z. R., Bailey, D. N., & Keeley, P. A. (2014). Creation of a caring protocol: Activities and dissemination strategies in caring research and instruments. International Journal of Human Caring, 18(1), 66-82. https://doi.org/10.20467/1091-5710.18.1.66

Last update:

  1. From Preparation to Presentation: Student Nurses' Transformative Research Dissemination Journeys at Off-Campus Academic Conferences

    Jayson Bimuyag, Christopher Ian Gaerlan. Journal of Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 2 (8), 2024. doi: 10.69569/jip.2024.0273
  2. Nursing students' expectations of group supervision while writing a bachelor thesis: A pre-post survey

    M. Jaensson, I. Wätterbjörk, A.-K. Isaksson, K. Falk-Brynhildsen. Nurse Education Today, 139 , 2024. doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2024.106257
  3. Advancing Diversity in Behavior Genetics: Strategies for Incorporating Undergraduates into Student-Driven Research

    S. Mason Garrison, Emma E. Webster, Rachel Good. Behavior Genetics, 54 (1), 2024. doi: 10.1007/s10519-023-10172-9

Last update: 2024-12-01 16:16:12

No citation recorded.