Challenges to research progression among part-time master’s students in nursing in China

A qualitative descriptive study of 14 part-time master’s students in nursing at one Chinese medical university found that delayed thesis progress was associated with interconnected pressures within hospitals, universities, families and professional culture rather than with a single weakness in students. The participants were registered nurses who continued in full-time clinical employment while pursuing postgraduate degrees, a route introduced in 2017. Interviews identified fragmented time, conflicting demands, inadequate supervision, weak links between clinical and academic institutions, uneven research resources and doubts about the value of nursing scholarship. The sample included students at several stages of candidature and two who had withdrawn after exceeding the maximum permitted study period, allowing the researchers to examine experiences that are often absent from studies limited to continuing students.

Researchers recruited the participants between October and December 2025 through maximum-variation purposive and snowball sampling. Six were in their first or second year, six were in years three to five, and two had withdrawn. All had more than 10 years of clinical nursing experience; 12 were women, seven held head-nurse or equivalent management positions, and 11 had children younger than 18. The team conducted 14 initial semi-structured interviews lasting 27 to 39 minutes, with a mean of 33 minutes, followed by three supplementary interviews of 12 to 20 minutes. Transcripts were analyzed manually using reflexive thematic analysis. Role Theory and Ecological Systems Theory served as sensitizing frameworks rather than predetermined coding categories, directing attention toward conflicts among the roles of nurse, learner and family member and toward conditions operating in clinical, institutional and cultural systems.

Participants described research as one demand among several that could not easily be separated. Their clinical work, postgraduate coursework and family responsibilities created different expectations, while irregular rotas and night shifts made sustained concentration difficult. One nurse described providing emergency care into the evening and then supervising a child’s homework, saying the combined obligations felt as though she were being pulled apart. Others explained that an idea or literature search could be interrupted before it developed, leaving their train of thought fragmented. Prolonged night work was associated with sleep loss, physical fatigue, memory lapses and reduced capacity to learn. These reports indicate that the problem described by students was not simply a shortage of clock time. Frequent transitions among roles also consumed attention and left fewer mental resources available for methodological work, analysis and writing.

Clinical practice itself imposed structural constraints on research. Participants described understaffed departments, heavy patient allocations and fragmented documentation systems that consumed both working time and energy. One nurse reported that a daytime assignment of up to 10 patients left no capacity to identify research problems; another said a full day of nonstop clinical work left her unable to concentrate on research. Electronic medical records streamlined some procedures, but participants also described continuous documentation, quality-control tasks and mobile messaging as additional sources of interruption. The findings do not establish that hospital staffing caused thesis delays, and the researchers did not compare affected students with those progressing as expected. They show that students themselves connected the organization of clinical work with their difficulty meeting thesis-related milestones, including proposal approval, data collection, submission and defense.

Supervision was another recurring concern. Students described prolonged negotiations over research topics, supervisors whose academic specialties did not match their clinical interests, and guidance that did not connect bedside experience with researchable questions. One participant said she spent an entire year trying to obtain topic approval because her supervisor insisted on a field she neither understood nor had the capacity to pursue. Another described a mismatch between her own clinical nursing interests and a supervisor specializing in basic science. Peer support was also limited because students worked at different institutions and followed different shift patterns. Unlike full-time candidates, they generally lacked a shared place and regular schedule for exchanging information, solving methodological problems and sustaining motivation. The resulting isolation meant that some students approached unfamiliar research tasks with little immediate access to practical examples or peer encouragement.

The most distinctive institutional feature was an absence of coordination between hospitals and universities. The two organizations set clinical rosters and academic schedules separately, with no formal mechanism described for adjusting one to the demands of the other. Participants reported traveling repeatedly between sites, working consecutive shifts immediately before classes, and carrying the physical and mental costs of reconciling two timetables. In ecological terms, the researchers characterized the mesosystem as not merely weak but largely absent, leaving students to absorb the consequences of disconnected institutional arrangements. The first-year curriculum was also concentrated into a short period, while students retained their full clinical workloads. Some participants who missed initial instruction during pregnancy, childbirth or other major life events said they never received equivalent training later, leaving gaps in foundational skills such as literature searching.

Program design also limited practical preparation. Students said the curriculum remained general and provided insufficient instruction in statistics, academic writing and critical appraisal for use in their own projects. They had no systematic induction for entering postgraduate study directly from full-time employment and often assembled the first steps of a research project from informal assistance. Access to literature databases and research funding depended on the resources of the student’s hospital or university. Participants described interrupted database subscriptions, outdated collections and reliance on personal connections to obtain grant proposals, materials or expert advice. These access problems operated beyond the immediate ward or classroom, in the exosystem, and showed that resources readily available through a full-time program could become dependent on a student’s employment site and professional network when studying part-time.

Broader beliefs about nursing scholarship also appeared in participants’ accounts. Some described nursing research as less prestigious than medical research within hospital cultures, saying that doubts about its status gradually became internalized as uncertainty about whether their work mattered. Others described enrollment as an externally driven transaction linked to an employer’s instruction, professional-title advancement, performance review or the need to keep pace with other nurses. The researchers proposed that the marginal standing of nursing research and limited engagement might form a self-reinforcing cycle, but emphasized that the cross-sectional evidence could not test that sequence. The interviews also revealed a possible tension between clinical expertise and academic innovation. Experienced nurses described standardized procedures as essential for patient safety while suggesting that long-established routines could make new ways of thinking difficult to open. This “perceived entrenchment of thinking” was an interpretive proposition based on self-description, not a measured effect on cognitive flexibility.

Patterns differed by stage of candidature. Role conflicts, clinical constraints, insufficient institutional support and cultural influences appeared throughout the sample, suggesting that they were features of the part-time route rather than consequences that appeared only after students fell behind. The sequence from interrupted learning through repeated deferral to loss of academic confidence was described mainly by students in later years and those who had withdrawn. Some participants linked their permanent employment posts to reduced urgency, noting that research tasks could always be postponed because failure to finish would not affect their livelihoods. The researchers interpreted this as a cumulative trajectory in which early interruptions and deferrals could erode confidence and make further delay more likely. The comparison was cross-sectional and relied partly on retrospective accounts, however, so it cannot establish that every early-stage student will follow the same path or that the identified conditions caused withdrawal.

The authors’ proposed responses extend beyond individual time-management advice. Hospitals could incorporate postgraduate study into workload planning and protect scheduled research time, while joint hospital-university mechanisms could align rosters with classes, share information about student progress and provide database access. Universities could develop a distinct part-time curriculum with applied first-year research training, formal induction, supervision matched to clinical interests and peer groups organized around shifts. Professional assessment could also recognize the quality and clinical relevance of nursing research rather than primarily counting outputs. These are implications from qualitative evidence, not interventions tested by the study. Important limitations include the single-university setting, only two participants who had withdrawn, a sample drawn only from students reporting slow progress, relatively short initial interviews, translation from Mandarin Chinese and the absence of interviews with supervisors, hospital managers and program administrators. Within those boundaries, the study presents slow research progress as a trajectory shaped by conditions across multiple levels, including clinical work, institutional coordination, program design, resources, professional culture and the timing of life events.

Subject of Research: Multilevel barriers to thesis progress among part-time nursing master’s students in China

Article Title: Challenges to research progression among part-time master’s students in nursing in China: a qualitative descriptive study

Article References: Zhang, H., Xiong, X., Chen, L., Shen, J., & Liang, S. (2026). Challenges to research progression among part-time master’s students in nursing in China: a qualitative descriptive study. Frontiers in Psychology, 17, Article 1868184. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1868184

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1868184

Keywords: nursing education, part-time study, research progression, thesis delays, role conflict, clinical workload, academic supervision, hospital-university coordination, nursing research, China, Challenges, research