Nursing Research Paper Topics for Students

Updated Aug 2021
If you picked nursing as your major, you are probably aware of how challenging and demanding nursing studies are. While many students are excited to finish their studies and start working in prestigious hospitals and practices, they face some common challenges. The most common one is staying on top of practical assignments and writing tasks.

Since practical assignments are highly demanding, many students fall behind with their writing tasks. Nursing research papers appear to be most challenging. Yes, doing the actual research and writing while taking care of structuring, formatting, and citations is hard. However, students also often struggle with finding the right nursing research topic.

Sometimes, even spending hours combing through journals and online publications is not enough to develop a good nursing research topic. To help you out, here at Study Clerk, we offer you the list of nursing research topics.

What is a Nursing Research Paper?

A nursing research paper is focused on a nursing-relevant topic. The topics of nursing research papers are similar to medical research topics. Still, they tackle the topics from a nursing standpoint: child, midwifery, elderly care, and primary healthcare nursing.

Whether you decide to research and report on an original topic or provide a systematic review of published research, you must adhere to the highest academic standards. When you complete it, your nursing research paper needs to be ready for publishing. It simply means that it has to:

• Contain all the important components;
• Be properly formatted and structured;
• Format citations according to the requirements.

Here are the components of the nursing research paper:

• Title page – title explaining the study design, full names of authors, and name of the corresponding author if any;
• Abstract – 350 words long summary of research paper containing background, methods, results, conclusions, keywords;
• Introduction – the section explaining the background of the study. It should contain a summary of the existing research and literature. When writing an introduction for a research paper, your should make sure that readers can clearly see why is the research important;
• Methods – the section outlining the aim and design of the study and description of all research methods used during research. It should also highlight the characteristics of the research participants;
• Results – the section outlines the findings, results of statistical analysis, tables, and charts;
• Discussion – the section discussing the implications of the result in the context of available research. It often contains the limitations of the study;
• Conclusions – the section stating the main conclusion and the relevance and importance of the research.

How to Choose a Good Topic for Nursing Research?

To write a well-informed and relevant nursing research paper, you need to choose a proper topic. How do you choose a good one, though? There are several guidelines to follow. If your assignment outlines the guidelines on topic selection, make sure to review them. The most important thing to do is to choose a topic that you personally find interesting. Why?

Because when you are engaged with a topic, the research is a breeze, and you will be motivated to dig deep, make notes, and find all relevant existing literature. You also need to ensure that your topic isn’t too broad or too narrow.

A too broad topic will cause you to lose focus and have to go through too much literature. A narrow one, on the other hand, may prove too hard to work on because of the limited access to the literature.

Finally, try to define your selection of the topic as questions. It will help you better understand it and decide whether it’s an interesting question.

List of Research Topics for Nursing Students

Below is the list of good and easy examples with the most popular ideas you might come across when writing research papers.

1. Assistance in Elderly Care Unit
2. How to Enhance the Quality of Aid Care in Rural Environment
3. Risk Management
4. Assessment Development Tools
5. Emergency Aid Techniques
6. Treatment of acute stroke: Role of Nurse during the Care
7. Practices during End of Life Care
8. Occupational Therapy for Nurses
9. PTSD and OT
10. Pharmacological Math Computation Skills

Pediatric Nursing Research Topics

Pediatric assistance includes all-around care delivered to children, so one should be well-versed with the techniques, theories, and practices when working with a child.

1. Why Nurses Should Know ABout the Confort Theory
2. Children’s Expectation from Pediatric Nurse
3. Pain Management for Pediatric Nurses
4. Burnout and Job Satisfaction: A Pediatric Nurse Case
5. Hospitalized Children: Best Practices for Pain Management
6. Verbal Abuse in Pediatric Practices
7. Pediatric Aid Essentials
8. Nursing Research in the US: An Overview
9. Heroes of Pediatric Assistance
10. Pediatric Unit at the Middle School

Adult Nursing Research Topics

This field has its own peculiarities the young practitioner should know about beforehand to prevent the negative consequences from occurring.

1. Adult Cancer Priorities
2. Nursing in the 20th and 21st centuries: New Approaches
3. Adult Surgical Assistance Practices
4. Adult Research Knowledge Utilization Among Nurses
5. Adult Critical Care: Why Nurse Matters
6. Moral Judgement in Nursing Dilemmas
7. Spirituality in Nursing
8. Priorities for Adult Intensive Care
9. Gender Ambiguities in Nursing Practices
10. Retention Strategies for Adult Care Nurses

Evidence-Based Practice Nursing Research Topics

If EBP sounds too complicated at first glance, but you still don’t want to pay to write research paper, here are a few topics to help you with your papers.

1. Rating Systems in Evidence-Based Nursing Practice
2. EBP Skills
3. Educating for EBP
4. Misconceptions the Nurses Have About Evidence-Based Practices
5. Development of EBP Nursing
6. EBP and Leadership
7. Challenges for New Nurses Concerning EBP
8. Promotion of Quality Care and EBP
9. EBP Manual for Nurses
10. EBP for Primary Care

Quantitative and Qualitative Research Topics

Below are examples of quantitative and qualitative research methods for one to learn how to apply them during one’s career.

1. The Quantitative and Qualitative Study of Assisting the Patient with Acute Psychosis
2. Quantitative and Qualitative Research Method
3. Quantitative and Qualitative Research: Myths and Facts About Generalization
4. Quantitative, Qualitative, Mixed: Best Research Method for Nursing
5. Why Quantitative Research is Never Enough
6. Qualitative Research and Sampling
7. How to Analyze the Data for Qualitative Research
8. Mixed Methods for Mental Health Assistance
9. Quantitative and Qualitative Study of Mother Satisfaction with Postpartum Nursing Care
10. Faults of Qualitative Research for Pediatric Nursing

Critical Care Nursing Research Topics

From stress management in nurses to practical technics and strategies applicable to adult and child care, knowledge of critical care nursing (CCN) is essential.

1. Gray Gorrila Syndrome
2. Critical Care Stress and Its Management
3. Experience of Grief in a Critical Care Units
4. Nursing Decision Making in Critical Care
5. Technologies in CCN
6. Post-Surgery CCN of Kids
7. SImulator Training for New Nurses in the Critical Care Unit
8. Patient Safety Among Critical Care Nurses
9. LGBTQ Patients and CCN
10. Organ Donation and CCN

Pain Management Nursing Research Topics 

The pain management is one of the core medical skills a nurse should master before start working with patients. These topics are dedicated to this concept.

1. Attitudes and Beliefs in Pain Assessment
2. What Can a Failure to Provide an Efficient Pain Management Lead to?
3. Nurse’s Pain Assessment during Surgery
4. Medicated or Non-Medicated: Post-Surgery Pain Management
5. Pain Management in Elderly Patients
6. Chronic Pain and Its Effective Management
7. Pain Management for Cancer Survivors
8. Pain Assessment for Kids Post-Operational Treatment
9. Practices of Pain Management in the Pediatric Department
10. Medication trends in Pain Management the Nurses Should Know

Emergency Nursing Research Topics

Medical assistance in emergency situations demands a lot of responsibility from a person in care, and that’s why there are a lot of related things a nurse should know before going on duty.

1. Intuition for Emergency Aid Personnel: Case Study
2. Anxiety Level in Assistance Personnel in ER
3. Violence Towards Nursing Personnel in ER
4. Accuracy in Emergency Nurses When Assessing the Patients’ Pain: Techniques
5. EN Interventions After Abdominal Surgery in Women
6. Emergency Department Patients Flow: How Nurses Can Make It More Efficient
7. Patients’ Assault towards Emergency Nurses
8. Pediatric ER: Role of Nurse in the Unit
9. How to Reduce Stress in Emergency Nurses and prevent Burnout
10. The Future of Emergency Room Assistance

Obstetrics Nursing Research Topics

Let’s be fair: the quality of care delivered at Ob-Gyn cabinets is pretty much the quality of our survival as species. That’s why it’s paramount for every nurse to be as professional and skilled as they can be.

1. The Role of Gender Among Obstetric Nurses: A Case Study
2. Hi-Fi Simulation Training for Obstetric Nursing
3. EBP during Obstetric Care
4. Social Factors That Affect Obstetrics
5. Qualities Every Obstetric Nurse SHould Have to Be Successful
6. Principles for Ob-Gyn Nurses
7. How to Deal With Patient’s Abuse towards Nurses in Obstetrics Unit
8. Rural and Urban Obstetrics Nursing: Case Study
9. Obstetrics Assistance in Cabinets Around the World: Practices
10. Depressive Symptoms in Women and the Role of Obstetrics Nurse in Managing Them

Neonatal Nursing Research Topics

1. Inhibiting Interactions of Nurses with Young Mothers
2. Neonatal Palliative Care
3. Neonatal Intensive Care: Technologies
4. Barriers in Neonatal Care: What a Young Practitioner Should Know
5. Vulnerability during Neonatal Nursing
6. Pain Management in Neonatal Units
7. Nursing Intervention to Foster Becoming a Mother
8. Adapting the Neonatal Unit to Decrease Noise
9. Parents Visiting Management in Neonatal Units: Nurse Perspective
10. Neonatal Hypothermia: Mapping the Nursing Intervention

Mental Health Nursing Research Topics

It is a very responsible mission to assist patients with a mental disorder. This is why you have to learn about the peculiarities of it at your medical school. You also might need the help of a nursing paper writing service to do well.

1. Patients in Military Hospitals: Mental Health Therapy
2. Mental Health: Factors to Define a Successful Collaboration between Nurses, Patients, Relatives
3. Emotional Labor in Mental Health Units
4. Transcultural Mental Practices
5. History of Mental Health Medical Assistance
6. Acute Patients in Mental Asylums: Methods for Nurses
7. Mental Health Education: A Nurse’s Perspective of What It Lacks
8. Social Control in the Mental Health Department: A Nurse’s Perspective
9. Mental Health and Physical Well-Being: A Correlation
10. Child Mental Health Practices

Women's Health Nursing Research Topics

Women’s care has a lot of factors that influence its success and it’s a new professional’s duty to know about them.

1. Women’s Health Issues Across the Lifespan
2. Cultural Differences in Women’s Health Medical Assistance
3. Maternity and Women’s Health Nursing: Practices to Avoid
4. Postpartum Stress and Women’s Health Nursing
5. Women’s Health among Immigrants
6. Impact of Health Literacy on Women’s Health: What a Nurse Can Do
7. Women’s Mental Health Aid: A Qualitative Study
8. Moral Responsibility in the Women’s Health Medical Assistance
9. An American Model of Women’s Health Medical Assistance
10. Women’s Health Nursing: A Feminist Perspective

Ethics Paper Topics

There is a line between what is ethically wrong or right, and a professional nurse knows it.

1. The Importance of Ethics
2. What is Unethical: A Nurse Perspective
3. A Guide to Ethical Decision Making in Intensive Care Unit
4. Who is an Ethical Nurse?
5. Ethical Issues in Nursing of Elderly Patient with Mental Disease
6. Code of Ethics for Nurses at ER
7. Cross-Cultural Ethics
8. Holistic Ethical Care Practices
9. End of Life Nursing Ethics: A Case Study
10. Moral Distress in Everyday Medical Care: An Ethical Approach

Nursing Intervention Research Topics

Nursing intervention (NI) practices are an important part of any medical school program. That’s why if you aren’t willing to pay for medical research paper on the topic, here you have a list of problems to research yourself.

1. NI for Patients after Cardiac Arrest
2. Abdominal Surgery and NI
3. Music Playing as NI: When It Makes Sense
4. NI and Family-Centered Care
5. Foot Massage as NI for Patients with Cancer
6. NI for Patients with Diagnosed Cancer
7. Animal-Assisted NI for Pediatric Care
8. Pre-Surgical NI to Reduce Anxiety
9. NI Art Therapy: Adult Care Approach
10. How to Design an Effective NI for ER

Nursing Leadership Paper Topics 

1. Leadership Styles
2. Leadership Within ER Management
3. Nursing Leadership: How to Become a Leader
4. Leadership Roles and Priorities at Pediatric Unit
5. Ways to Leadership in Rural practices
6. Leadership and Patient Outcomes: a Correlation Study
7. Nursing Education for Leadership Roles
8. Clinical Leadership Among Nurses
9. Evolution of Nursing Leadership
10. Why Leadership Matters: Patients Perspective

Nurse Practitioner Research Topics

1. Trial of Nurse Practitioner
2. Primary Care for Nurse Practitioners
3. Studies of Nurse Practitioner Effectiveness
4. Evaluating the Nurse Practitioner Role in a Community Health Center
5. A Guide to Become an Effective Nurse Practitioner
6. Nurse Practitioner in Generic Practice
7. How to Assess Patients Satisfaction: To-Do List for a New Nurse Practitioner
8. A Private Clinic Nurse Practitioner Role: Administrating vs Assisting
9. Nurse Practitioner Transition of Roles: Switching Units
10. Nurse Practitioner Management

Psychiatric Research Topics

1. Psychiatric Care Plans for Nurses
2. Psychiatric Theory in Practice: What Doesn’t Work for Nurses
3. Psychiatric Nursing Contemporary Practices
4. Cultural Ethics Competence in Psychiatric
5. Occupational Therapy in Psychiatric Medical Assistance
6. Working with Young Patients: Psychiatric Unit
7. Stigmatization of Nurses in Psychiatric Practice
8. Qualities for a Psychiatric Nurse
9. Psychiatric Nursing Skills to Keep the Unit Safe
10. Fostering a Social Dialogue: a Psychiatric Nurse Perspective

Child Nursing Research Topics

Caring for children is one of the most specific fields of medicine. Children are just like regular people, only smaller and incapable of telling what seems to be the issue – making the treatment that much more difficult.

Child nursing is a broad topic, and writing research papers on it can be done in various ways to explore an abundance of topics. Here are some of the most interesting topics that we’ve come up with for child nursing.

1. The Main Causes of Seizures in Children
2. The Ethics in Pediatric Care
3. Healthy Diet and Child Obesity
4. The Impact of Social Media on Eating Habits in Children
5. Exploring the Speech Disorder Therapy
6. The Most Efficient Newborn Resuscitation Practices
7. Demands of the Children Critical Care
8. Malnutrition in Children: The Most Effective Treatment Strategies
9. The Main Causes of Child Mortality in the “Country Name”
10. ADHD in Children: Causes and Emerging Treatments

Midwifery Nursing Research Paper Topics

Midwives are the medical specialists that don’t get nearly enough attention. Being a midwife is a fantastic career choice, and as long as babies are being born, midwives will be needed. As a midwife or a midwife-to-be, there are plenty of things that you can learn to improve the level of care that you provide.

If you’re writing a research paper, however, things might seem a bit complex, but don’t worry, here are ten midwifery nursing research paper topics that you can use for your next examination.

1. The Most Important Safety Rules of Obese Pregnant Women
2. The Methods to Evaluate the Impact of Delayed Umbilical Cord Clamping
3. The Emerging Trends in Obstetrics and Gynaecology
4. Why is Vitamin D Important Supplement During Pregnancy
5. Mental Health and Postnatal Period
6. How to Improve Neonatal and Maternal Practices in Rural Areas
7. The Most Common Challenges of Gestational Weight Gain
8. The Common Risks Associated With Laboring in Water and How to Prevent Them
9. The Impact of Hepatitis B and AIDS on the Pregnant Women
10. The Importance of Antenatal Appointment

Elderly Care Nursing Topics

Caring for babies as a midwife is one thing, but caring for the elderly is a polar opposite. Caring for the elderly is difficult. Unlike pregnant women, who are usually all excited about their pregnancy or fall within some category – geriatric patients are vastly different from one another and will require a special approach with every patient.

That being said, elderly care is one of the most rewarding fields of nursing and one of the most demanding. With that in mind, here are ten topics on geriatric care that you can explore:

1. Exploring the Ethics in Geriatrics Care
2. Critical Care Requirements in Elderly Care
3. Stroke and Cerebrovascular Disease in Elderly Patients
4. The Causes and Treatment of Restless Legs Syndrome
5. Exploring the Holistic Approach to Geriatric Care
6. The Most Efficient Practices to Reduce Cardiovascular Risks
7. The Best Nursing Practices When Working With Patients With Alzheimer’s Disease
8. The Study on Atrial Fibrillation
9. The Most Effective Therapy for Bladder Cancer Therapy
10. The Most Common Joint Disorders in Elderly Population

Primary Healthcare Nursing Topics

Primary health care applies to the most common health problems that people face. It’s by far the biggest aspect of nursing and will require the broadest possible approach. As someone who is studying nursing or writing a research paper on the topic, you have endless options if you have primary healthcare as a broader topic.

However, whenever you have a slew of different options, you might latch onto one that really isn’t all that great. With that in mind, why not latch onto one of ours that we’ve provided below, as all are interesting, fun, and most importantly, original.

1. The Efficiency of Probiotics in Diarrhea Treatment
2. The Upsides and Downsides of Private and Public Healthcare Systems
3. Vaccination Programs: Exploring the Benefits and Potential Downsides
4. The Common Oversights Made By Primary Health Care Service Providers
5. How Did Private Healthcare Providers Change the Mental Health Services System?
6. Understanding the Different Levels and Job Requirements of Different Nursing Credentials
7. The Pros and Cons of Medical Services at Patients’ Homes
8. Nurses in Schools: Required Qualifications, Role, and What the Future Holds
9. The Efficiency of the Assessment Methods in Public Healthcare Facilities
10. Patient Privacy Rights: Exploring the Data Collection Ethics in Public Healthcare Facilities

Nursing Careers Research Topics

Nursing as a job in itself is insanely difficult but exciting and rewarding work. Just like a lot of other things, it's really not for everybody, but people that seek out nursing as their career tend to thrive in it.

The medical world has so many positions available, and nursing makes up the bulk of jobs in the world of healthcare. Here are some top-tier topics that concern nursing as a career choice:

1. Comparing Diversity in Private and Public Healthcare Systems
2. How is Technology Shaping the Future of Nursing
3. Evaluating the Pros and Cons of Remote Intensive Care Unit
4. The Best Practices to Promote Physical and Mental Well-being in Nurses
5. Clinical Nurses: Exploring the Main Roles and Responsibilities
6. Nursing and Medical Treatment of the Homeless
7. The Nursing Practitioners Who Have Changed Nursing Forever
8. Types of Nursing Theories and Their Implications on Modern Nursing Practices
9. Stress Management Practices for Nurses In Critical Care
10. The Role of Nursing Professional and Career Service in Health Promotion

Interesting Nursing Research Topics

Now, to be fair, Nursing may not be as exciting as being a brain surgeon, and it might not be as well paid – but the job of a nurse is still pretty interesting when you compare it to a lot of other professions. Think about it, as a nurse, not only do you have to deal with an abundance of tasks every day, you get to work with people, which brings a whole new dimension to the career.

Saying that the job is interesting is an understatement – what isn’t an understatement is doing a research paper on just what makes nursing so interesting, which you can do by following one of the ten topics listed below.

1. Cutting-Edge Technologies and Innovations in Clinical Cardiology
2. The Most Effective Treatments for Sleep Disorders
3. Common Issues Associated with Menopause
4. Exploring the Moral Aspects of Euthanasia
5. Hypertensive Diseases: Causes and Treatment
6. Caesarean Section: Indications and Preparation
7. Differences Between Alternative and Complementary Therapy
8. The Primary Causes of Type II Diabetes
9. Nursing and Night Shifts: The Most Efficient Ways to Alleviate Stress
10. Breast Cancer Prevention: Exploring the Most Effective Methods

Conclusion

When you need to select a nursing research paper topic for the exam, midterm, or assessment, you can feel like you are under a lot of pressure. Practical assignments often take too much time and energy, and you can feel overwhelmed. Finding inspiration for nursing research papers can prove difficult at these times.

Hopefully, you’ll find our selection of nursing research topics inspirational and be able to select one that resonates well with you. We also have a variety of sports research topics to choose from. However, if you don’t have the time to do research and write your nursing research paper on your own, don’t despair.

Contact our team of professional writers here at Study Clerk, and we will deliver a high-quality nursing research paper just in time for you to submit it.