Objectives: The aim of this literature review was to describe the focus of nursing education research in Finnish doctoral dissertations in the field of nursing and caring sciences between the years 1979-2014. In addition, the characteristics (methods, study informants and reporting of validity, reliability, and research ethics) of the dissertations were described. Methods and data: A literature review was carried out. Altogether 51 Finnish doctoral dissertations of nursing and caring sciences focusing on nursing education research were included in the final analysis. The dissertations were published in 1990-2014. The data were analyzed by content analysis both deductively and inductively. Results: Finnish nursing education research was focused on four main areas: structural factors in nursing education, nurse teacherhood, teaching activities, and learning and learning outcomes in nursing education. The most central focus was learning in nursing education whereas nurse teacherhood and structural factors in nursing education were studied the least. Students were the predominant study informant group while nurse staff including nurse mentors were next and nurse educators only the third. Surveys and interviews were the most common data collection methods. In the findings there were a lot of similarities with international nursing education research. Conclusions: Finnish nursing education research has been relatively student-centered yet studies focusing on the education of other nursing-based professions are rare. Future research about nurse teacherhood, curricula and structural factors in nursing education is recommended also. In addition, nursing education research should focus on the central phenomena of nursing education and working life. All in all, more nursing education research is needed. Nursing education dissertations cover only 12.3% of all the dissertations of nursing and caring sciences in Finland. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.
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