1 Introduction

Nursing graduate education is a crucial pathway for the cultivation of advanced practice nurses. In China, Master of Nursing Specialist education aims to cultivate high-level, application-oriented and specialised nursing personnel (Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council of China 2010). Starting in 2016, Master of Nursing Specialist education was open to part-time students in China. Due to the development of specialty nursing and personal career development, an increasing number of full-time nurses wish to pursue part-time graduate programmes (Kinsella et al. 2018; Manyeneng et al. 2021). However, pursuing a part-time graduate nursing degree entails not only stiff competition for admission opportunities but also additional challenges pertaining to the need to establish a balance among work, family life and study demands. Studies have shown that part-time postgraduate nursing students experience conflicts pertaining to relationships, work schedules, academic pressures and family responsibilities (Jeong and Koh 2021) and that they thus face pressure in terms of their scientific research, professional ability and career development (He and Xu 2020). Research ability is the ability that nursing master's degree students most want to improve (Liu et al. 2021), and most part-time postgraduate nursing students believe that the greatest challenge they face pertains to research (Adam et al. 2019). With the continuous increase in the number of part-time graduate students globally, understanding and addressing the challenges they encounter in research have become increasingly crucial.

2 Background

In recent years, scholars have paid attention to the group of Master of Nursing Specialist students and conducted research to investigate their learning experiences, stress and psychological experiences (He and Xu 2020; Yu et al. 2019). Some of the studies noted the stresses and experiences associated with the research, such as the pressure caused by the difficulty of rationally allocating time between clinical practice and research (He and Xu 2020), the conflict between family, work and study, and the inability of the curriculum to meet the demands of research (Yu et al. 2019). These studies discuss the stress of full-time and part-time graduate nursing students together. Shen et al. (2020) found that both full-time and part-time students faced some common research challenges, such as the imbalance between the research knowledge they already possessed and their actual needs, a lack of practical experience conducting research, and confusion regarding research topic selection. However, it is more important to focus on the differences in the research challenges of these two groups of students due to their different social backgrounds.

Full-time postgraduate nursing students are mostly recent graduates from undergraduate education who are not married and have more time and energy to devote to research, while nurses who are enrolled in part-time master's program have insufficient learning engagement in research due to their full-time jobs, limited research knowledge, family commitments and limited mentoring (Muraraneza et al. 2020). Research motivation, faculty-student interaction, supportive work environment and time management are factors that influence part-time postgraduate nursing students' engagement in learning (Wang et al. 2024). Part-time postgraduate nursing students face unique research challenges due to the diversity of their roles and the differences in their learning environments, work environments and interpersonal relationships. Some scholars (Aljezawi et al. 2019; Ramón et al. 2022) have explored the barriers that hinder full-time nurses' ability to conduct research in the clinical setting, noting that the lack of time, institutional support, physician collaboration, support from other staff members and training are the main barriers to clinical nurses' ability to conduct research. However, the research challenges faced by part-time postgraduate nursing students who undertake curricular and research training while working and the implications of these challenges for them have not been deeply explored.

Currently, China's Master of Nursing Specialist program has a study period of 3 years (Permission to apply for extension of study period according to the progress of studies, normally not exceeding 6 years), requiring no less than 18 months of clinical practice. Theoretical courses are concentrated in the first academic year, and part-time postgraduate nursing students mostly choose to attend the school on weekends according to the characteristics of on-the-job. Per national policy (Tentative Guidelines for Master of Nursing Specialist Program), a minimum of 22 course credits is required, while the master's thesis itself confers no credits. Most Chinese universities require students to complete course credits, publish at least one paper in journal, and pass the master's thesis defence before graduation. Globally, nursing master's education predominantly follows a “coursework + thesis” dual-module structure. For instance, a part-time supplementary master's program in a Norwegian university includes a 10 ECTS course in research methods and a 30 ECTS master's thesis (Dahl et al. 2019). Instructors for part-time postgraduate nursing students can come from either the college or the hospital, with the clinical organisation primarily providing the practice site for the students. Most students choose their research topics independently, while a few join their advisors' research projects. Part-time postgraduate nursing students had a lower pass rate in the thesis proposal and dissertation evaluation compared to full-time postgraduate nursing students. The extant research has not yet explored in depth the core issues faced by part-time postgraduate nursing students, especially with regard to academic issues, challenges and experiences. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on part-time postgraduate nursing students has rarely been reported. As the number of part-time postgraduate nursing students has continued to increase, their multiple roles have caused them to face more academic dilemmas, social pressures and psychological conflicts. Against this background, the research objectives of this study were to (1) describe the research challenges faced by part-time nursing postgraduates and reveal the underlying reasons behind these research challenges; and (2) explore the emotional experiences triggered by the research challenges faced by part-time nursing postgraduates and analyse the implications. This study addressed the following research questions:

RQ1: What unique research challenges do part-time postgraduate nursing students face when balancing clinical work, academic research, and family roles?

RQ2: What are the underlying systemic and personal reasons behind these research challenges? RQ3: What emotional and physical impacts do these challenges have on part-time postgraduate nursing students?

It is expected that research on these issues will not only provide a reference for the reform of nursing graduate education and policy development but also facilitate reflection on the general dilemmas faced by adults in continuing learning and on-the-job learning in the context of lifelong learning.

3 Methods

4 Findings

5 Discussion

To our knowledge, this study is the first qualitative research to explore in detail the research challenges faced by part-time postgraduate nursing students in China. The first theme, ‘conducting research amidst hustle and bustle’, describes the multiple role burdens faced by part-time postgraduate nursing students. Individuals who study while working face challenges such as maintaining their jobs and balancing family and societal responsibilities (Ramelet et al. 2022). Notably, the COVID-19 pandemic uniquely intensified these pressures. Participants described clinical workloads surging due to pandemic policies (‘no time to breathe’), leaving minimal energy for research. Part-time postgraduate nursing students are mostly women of childbearing age with more domestic and childcare responsibilities, they mostly ranked their academic commitments after their work commitments and those of their families. Even if they made time to conduct research, it was difficult to study efficiently due to factors such as fatigue and being disturbed by children. Anxiety over slow research progress and possible delayed graduation made it more difficult for part-time postgraduate nursing students to meditate on research. Therefore, it is especially important to improve the time management, mindset regulation, and efficient learning ability of part-time postgraduate nursing students. Time management training can be incorporated into the curriculum, for example, personal time analysis, time matrix creation (Çingöl and Karakaş 2023), to equip students with practical skills for balancing academic and professional responsibilities. Additionally, leveraging artificial intelligence-driven adaptive learning platforms and technologies, which provide personalised feedback and resource recommendations, can enhance students' learning efficiency (Cullen and Kirkpatrick 2024). In terms of interpersonal support, part-time postgraduate nursing students are eager to receive research support from their school research team and their workplace colleagues. Unfortunately, limited support from school research teams due to time and space constraints. The issue of inadequate mentor support in Master of Nursing Specialist education stems from systemic challenges. Large-scale enrolment often leads to insufficient faculty resources. Clinical nursing instructors lack systematic research training despite their extensive practical experience, which limits their ability to effectively mentor students (Wang et al. 2024).

Additionally, mentors are not sufficiently enthusiastic about training part-time postgraduates due to their own busy schedules and the difficulty of training part-time postgraduate students (Muraraneza et al. 2020). Part-time postgraduate nursing students have less time for social integration on campus, and a lack of social integration has been shown to have lasting negative effects on academics (Pascarella and Terenzini 2005). Part-time postgraduate nursing students use their private time to attend courses and spend most of their time working in healthcare facilities. Some participants reported feeling isolated and helpless in the research process due to the limited organisational support they received and the lack of a research atmosphere in their work environment. This challenge is not unique to China. A study of part-time master's students in midwifery by Dahl et al. (2019) found that participants expressed a desire for support, yet some administrators viewed education as a personal matter unrelated to the clinic. These phenomena reflect a common problem of inadequate support for research activities in clinical settings.

Research has suggested that perceiving a more supportive organisational climate can strengthen intrinsic and extrinsic research motivation among part-time postgraduate nursing students, which in turn increases research learning engagement (Xing et al. 2023) and sense of gain (Wan and Guo 2021). Support from family, school team and work environment is critical to postgraduate nursing students' motivation to persist in research (Volkert et al. 2018; Xing et al. 2023). However, part-time postgraduate nursing students often encounter the experience of moving forwards alone, lacking adequate family support and an insular team environment, which can increase the student's intent to drop out (Volkert et al. 2018). Therefore, both nursing educators and healthcare leaders should recognise the research challenges arising from the multiple role burdens faced by part-time postgraduate nursing students and provide a supportive environment wherever possible. It was observed that some part-time postgraduate nursing students were supported by their families and organisations to return to campus for 1–2 months, which was helpful in advancing their studies. Therefore, nursing educators should guide them to enhance their self-awareness of research and to find out efficient ways of learning (Jin et al. 2023). Furthermore, the establishment of support networks is one of the rules of academic success (Gaillard et al. 2022). In addition to the mentor-centred team, part-time nursing postgraduate students should proactively seek support from elsewhere.

The second theme, ‘perplexity’, describes the intricate emotional experiences of research challenges faced by part-time postgraduate nursing students. Part-time postgraduate nursing students do not have an adequate understanding of the challenges that may be encountered in the research process. Postgraduate nursing students must improve their systematic research skills and writing through courses and mentorships (Geraghty and Oliver 2018). The participants had an overly high expectation that the school curriculum could guide specific research processes and the application of research methods efficiently, and the lack of self-directed learning capacity posed challenges to the conduct of research for part-time postgraduate nursing students. In addition, the sense of loss and neglect exhibited by the study participants was particularly strong when they were compared to full-time classmates, and similar results were reported by Liu et al. (2021). This study showed that identifying a topic and publishing a paper were two important research challenges faced by part-time postgraduate nursing students. The current graduation requirement for Master of Nursing Specialist in most Chinese universities requires the publication of at least one core journal paper (Shen et al. 2020). At a time when the capacity of core journal articles is overloaded, part-time postgraduate nursing students with relatively weak research bases face greater pressure to publish core journal articles. The study participants were confused and saddened by the rejections without clear reasons or review comments that were contrary to other journals after enduring a relatively long review cycle. Notably, interviews with part-time master's students in the UK and Norway (Burrow et al. 2020; Dahl et al. 2019) did not mention the pressure of publishing papers. This discrepancy highlights the potential cultural variations in the challenges faced by part-time master's students across different contexts. As feelings of research fallout and self-doubt intensified, some students became confused about the future direction of their research and underwent distressing experiences that impacted their emotional and physical health. Similar results have been found with regard to part-time nursing students in South Africa (Manyeneng et al. 2021). Compared to previous studies, our research uniquely captures the lived experiences of part-time nursing graduate students pursuing academic endeavours during the pandemic. Our findings describe ‘A painful process’ that participants endured while balancing clinical duties, research responsibilities, and personal obligations, offering the first exploration of how compounded pressures during the pandemic uniquely shaped the research trajectories of part-time postgraduate nursing students. The pandemic underscored the fragility of organisational support systems, particularly for part-time graduate students. As noted by Muraraneza et al. (2020), there is often limited to no collaboration between students' workplaces and the universities they attend. This lack of coordination becomes particularly acute during crises, significantly impacting the mental and physical well-being of part-time students. The results of this study further emphasise the importance of strengthening collaboration between educational and healthcare institutions and provide insights into the development of educational policies in the aftermath of the epidemic.

Research challenges in the process of selecting research topics, advancing research, and writing and publishing papers are opportunities to improve research skills. Mezirow (2000) posits that ‘disorienting dilemma’ is the first stage of transformative learning, where learners often encounter unexpected situations and need to seek different (new) approaches to address and resolve problems. It is recommended that nursing educators familiarise themselves with transformative learning theory and apply it. This can guide part-time nursing graduate students to engage in critical reflection triggered by research challenges, become aware of their limitations, and encourage them to acquire new knowledge, skills, or attitudes to overcome them. Policy-makers should review the graduation requirements of Master of Nursing Specialist, and develop a variety of research output requirements to fit the goals of the program, such as case study reports, patents, program design, etc.

6 Conclusion

The multiple roles and time and space constraints that make part-time postgraduate nursing students research in hustle and bustle, and these research challenges bring about loss, self-doubt, and painful experiences. A reflective thematic approach helps to capture the complex and multifaceted challenges these students encounter. This study describes for the first time the unique research challenges experienced by part-time graduate nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic and explores how these challenges impacted participants emotionally and physically. Part-time postgraduate nursing students, nursing educators and healthcare facility administrators should be aware of these challenges and experiences, and work together to explore countermeasures to the research challenges faced by part-time postgraduate nursing students to facilitate the completion of their studies. Part-time postgraduate nursing students need to strengthen their ability to allocate and manage their research time to improve their learning efficiency. Nursing educators should focus on key aspects of research challenges, such as research topic selection and dissertation submission, to guide part-time postgraduate nursing students through the tasks of identifying deficiencies and overcoming limitations through knowledge and competency enhancement. Further exploration of how schools and healthcare organisations can work together to create supportive environments for part-time postgraduates is needed. Policy-makers should revisit the graduation requirements for Master of Nursing Specialist and develop practical research output requirements that are consistent with the training goals of these nursing degrees.

Author Contributions

Jianou Xu: conceptualization, methodology, resources, investigation, writing – review and editing, funding acquisition, project administration. Fei Lv: conceptualization, methodology, resources, investigation, writing – original draft, funding acquisition. Jun Zhang: resources, writing – review and editing. Caifeng Luo: writing – review and editing, project administration. Zhengxia Yang: resources, supervision. Jing Wu: resources, investigation.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.