Departmental Thesis Requirements

The College of Nursing requires a written thesis. The completed thesis is typically 20-40 pages long. It is structured much like a typical research article with Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion sections. Alternate forms of the thesis, e.g., an article-based thesis or policy-based work may be considered and negotiated with agreement by the student, thesis mentor, and DHL

How does the Honors Thesis relate to other aspects of the major, like a Capstone Project?

Honors nursing students register for NURS 4999. This is the course through which the student receives credit for the work of completing the thesis. This course may be taken at any time after the thesis proposal is completed and submitted to the Honors College. The thesis does not have to be completed during the semester that the student is registered for NURS 4999. Most of the time the student will receive an “in progress” grade. A final grade is assigned when the thesis is complete and all requirements for the Honors degree have been met (thesis submitted to the Honors College, presentation at the Undergraduate Research Symposium, and publication in the Undergraduate Research Journal).

Additional Information for Students

We require all nursing students whose thesis involves data collected as part of human subjects research to complete CITI training and be added to the mentor's IRB application. This training supports Honors students in completing research in compliance with all relevant ethical considerations.

We suggest that Honors pre-nursing students meet with Honors DHLs in the College of Nursing during their freshman year to become acquainted. The DHLs support students in identifying a thesis mentor (typically during the sophomore year). Ideally, students develop their thesis proposal by the end of their sophomore year. After approval of the proposal by the thesis mentor and DHL, the student begins work on the thesis.