Investigation of the quantity and content of postgraduate theses in Turkey in the field of mental health and psychiatric nursing

Abstract

Objectives: The aim of this study is to examine the postgraduate theses in the field of mental health and psychiatric nursing in our country. Methods: This is a descriptive study about postgraduate theses which were completed and approved between 1980 and 2018. The data for this study were collected by screening the National Thesis Database in April 2018. An advanced screening method was applied for the data examination process, as follows. For “Institute” we selected "Institute of Health Sciences." For “Department,” we selected three choices: "Mental Health and Psychiatric Nurse," "Mental Health and Diseases Department," and "Nursing Department." "Psychiatry" keywords were used for the Department of Nursing. A total of 403 postgraduate theses were identified; 382 of these were found to be within the scope of the research and were selected for this study. Results: We performed a statistical evaluation, which showed that 74.6% (285) of the theses were master’s theses and 25.4% (97) of the theses were doctoral theses. It was determined that 27.7% of the theses’ study designs were experimental, and 65.2% were quantitative and descriptive. Among the experimental studies, 19.4% were on psychoeducation, 4% were on counseling and psychotherapy, and 2.1% were on applications of complementary medicine. Among the experimental studies, 16.5% of the theses studied adult and child and adolescent with mental disorders, and 67.5% worked with healthy populations. Conclusion: Our study found that the post-graduate studies in our country are mostly descriptive. They usually determine the current situation and most often focus on the field of preventive mental health with individuals without mental disorders. It is important that most of the theses are in the area of protection of mental health, but we also recommend that experts work more with patients in clinics to increase the presence of the field.