Choosing a research topic is often the hardest part of a nursing project. A good topic is relevant, focused and doable within your time and resources. Here are 60 topic ideas for nursing students, with a focus on Nigeria and Africa, plus advice on how to turn an idea into a strong research title.
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What makes a good nursing research topic?
- Relevant: addresses a real problem in practice or the community.
- Focused: specific population, place and variable.
- Feasible: you can collect data within your time, budget and access.
- Ethical: you can get approval and protect participants.
- Interesting to you: you’ll be working on it for months.
How to write a strong title
A common formula is: Variable + Population + Setting.
Example: “Knowledge and Practice of Hand Hygiene Among Nurses in [Name] Teaching Hospital, [State]”
Medical-surgical nursing
- Knowledge and practice of pressure ulcer prevention among nurses in a tertiary hospital
- Factors influencing adherence to diabetes self-care among adults attending a medical outpatient clinic
- Knowledge of hypertension and medication adherence among adults in a rural community
- Nurses’ knowledge of sepsis recognition in emergency departments
- Post-operative pain management practices among surgical nurses
- Patients’ satisfaction with nursing care in medical wards
- Knowledge and practice of blood transfusion safety among nurses
- Awareness of chronic kidney disease risk factors among adults in an urban community
Maternal and child health
- Factors affecting utilisation of antenatal care services among pregnant women
- Knowledge of danger signs of pregnancy among pregnant women attending antenatal clinic
- Practice of exclusive breastfeeding among nursing mothers
- Uptake of family planning services among women of reproductive age
- Knowledge and use of insecticide-treated nets among pregnant women
- Determinants of immunisation completion among children under 2
- Mothers’ knowledge of home management of childhood diarrhoea
- Factors influencing choice of place of delivery among women in rural areas
- Midwives’ practice of kangaroo mother care for low birth weight babies
- Knowledge of postpartum haemorrhage management among midwives
Community and public health
- Knowledge and practice of malaria prevention among households
- Attitudes towards HIV testing among young adults
- Awareness of cervical cancer screening among women
- Knowledge and practice of breast self-examination among female students
- Prevalence of self-medication among undergraduate students
- Waste disposal practices and health risks in a community
- Knowledge of Lassa fever prevention among residents
- Awareness of sickle cell genotype testing before marriage among young adults
- Knowledge and attitude towards COVID-19 or other vaccines among adults
- Prevalence of hypertension among market traders
Mental health
- Prevalence of stress and coping strategies among nursing students
- Attitudes of nurses towards patients with mental illness
- Prevalence of depression among older adults in a community
- Substance use among secondary school students
- Burnout among nurses in critical care units
- Stigma towards mental illness in a community
- Social media use and sleep quality among university students
Nursing education and workforce
- Factors influencing nurses’ intention to migrate abroad
- Job satisfaction among nurses in public hospitals
- Perception of nursing students towards clinical placement
- Use of e-learning among nursing students
- Barriers to continuing professional development among nurses
- Impact of staffing levels on nurses’ workload and patient care
- Nurses’ knowledge and use of nursing process in patient care
- Workplace violence against nurses in emergency departments
Infection prevention and patient safety
- Compliance with hand hygiene among healthcare workers
- Knowledge and practice of standard precautions among nurses
- Incidence and reporting of needlestick injuries among nurses
- Knowledge of healthcare-associated infections among nursing students
- Practice of safe injection among nurses in primary health care
- Medication error reporting among nurses
- Use of personal protective equipment in isolation wards
Paediatrics and adolescents
- Parents’ knowledge of febrile convulsion management
- Prevalence of malnutrition among under-5 children
- Knowledge of menstrual hygiene among adolescent girls
- Teenage pregnancy: contributing factors in a community
- Oral hygiene practices among primary school children
Older adults and chronic care
- Quality of life among older adults with chronic illness
- Caregiver burden among family members of stroke patients
- Knowledge of fall prevention among older adults
- Palliative care knowledge among nurses
- Adherence to antiretroviral therapy among adults living with HIV
Tips for success
- Discuss your topic early with your supervisor.
- Do a quick literature search to check there’s enough published work to support your review.
- Avoid very broad topics like “HIV in Nigeria”.
- Choose a setting you can easily access for data collection.
- Plan for ethical approval and informed consent from the start.
- Use AI tools only to support brainstorming, not to write your project. See our guide to using AI safely as a nurse.
Free research help from NRDI
Our sister platform, the Nursing Research & Data Institute (NRDI), has free guides written by nurse researchers to help you move from topic to finished project:
- Literature review and ideation: finding and narrowing your topic
- Methodology and study design: choosing a design and calculating sample size
- Data collection and tools: building questionnaires, reliability and validity
- Analysis and statistics: chi-square, p-values, parametric vs non-parametric tests
- Writing and publication
NRDI’s DataBridge tool lets you build an SPSS-ready questionnaire and analyse your data online. You can also join free to ask research questions in the community. Browse the NRDI guides.