Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41109312›Full record

ReviewJournal of advanced nursing2026

Retention and Completion of a Doctoral Nursing Programme: Sense Making Through Collective Reflection.

Sally Bassett, Helen Ayres, Karen Lascelles, Elaine Strachan-Hall

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Journal of advanced nursing, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Sally BassettOxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6646-3110
Helen AyresOxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0061-3881
Karen LascellesOxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6542-4379
Elaine Strachan-HallNorth West Ambulance Service Clinical Associate KPMG, Banbury, UK.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1909-6439

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionThis discussion paper explores the group experience of a cohort of eight nurses completing our university's first professional nursing doctorate programme.

aimsThis paper aims to make sense of our shared experience and to contribute to what is known about doctoral study by sharing our insights.

designDiscursive paper.

methodsThrough individual and group reflections on our experience, we address the questions 'why did we stay'? and 'how do we make sense of the fact that we all, as a group, successfully completed the programme'? We drew on principles of collaborative and collective auto-ethnography to guide our group reflexivity in response to these questions.

findingsThe main reasons we gave for staying were: (i) commitment, which had three strands - 'proving', 'obligation' and 'self-determination' - and (ii) shared-identity and common humanity. The two further elements that helped us make sense of our cohort's completion were (i) the joy of learning together and (ii) professional friendship and Socratic inquiry.

conclusionAs the first programme cohort for the nursing doctorate in our area, we became a close and supportive group, which we argue contributed to our success. We ascribed this to our characteristics as doctoral students and the creation of a sisterhood reminiscent of a community of practice. We also acknowledged the importance of the WhatsApp platform in facilitating group cohesion, and the sense of reflexive closure brought by the process of reflection at the end of our programme. IMPLICATIONS FOR DOCTORAL EDUCATION IN NURSING: We recommend that doctoral cohorts, supervisors, and teaching teams systematically plan opportunities into programmes for organic relationship development and consider how the literature on communities of practice and academic persistence might support academic development. Academic staff could also encourage students to set up an online communication channel such as WhatsApp or similar at an early stage in their programmes and give particular consideration to closure and transition to post-doctoral practice on completion of professional doctorates.

Indexed as

Education, Nursing, GraduateStudents, NursingAdultFemaleHumansMaleMiddle Agedacademic developmentattritioncommunity of practicedoctoratenursingreflectionsisterhoodsupport

Identifiers

PMID41109312
PMCPMC13069263

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.