Quick answer
Many UK nursing dissertations are literature reviews built on a focused PICO question, such as whether hourly rounding reduces falls in older inpatients. This guide lists 40 nursing and healthcare topics for 2026 and explains how to search CINAHL and PubMed and appraise studies with CASP.
Many undergraduate nursing dissertations in the UK are literature-based: instead of collecting new data from patients, you review and critically appraise published studies to answer a focused clinical or practice question. That makes the question itself crucial. A good one is narrow enough to search systematically and important enough to matter in practice.
Below are 40 nursing and healthcare dissertation topics for 2026, grouped by theme. They suit pre-registration nursing, health and social care, and Master's healthcare students in the UK and Saudi Arabia. After the list you will find how to turn a topic into a PICO question, which databases to search and how to appraise the evidence.
Patient safety and quality of care topics
- Interventions to reduce falls among older inpatients on acute medical wards.
- The effectiveness of nurse-led early warning score monitoring in recognising patient deterioration.
- Strategies to prevent pressure ulcers in care home residents.
- Medication errors during nursing handover and interventions that reduce them.
- The role of hourly rounding in patient satisfaction and safety.
Mental health nursing dissertation topics
- Non-pharmacological interventions for anxiety in adolescents: a review of the evidence.
- The experiences of family carers supporting a relative with dementia at home.
- Reducing restrictive practices on inpatient mental health wards.
- Social prescribing and its effect on loneliness among older adults.
- The mental health of university students and the role of campus support services.
Nursing workforce and staff wellbeing topics
- Factors influencing the retention of newly qualified nurses in their first year.
- Burnout among emergency department nurses and the interventions that help.
- The experiences of internationally educated nurses joining the NHS.
- Clinical supervision and its effect on nurse wellbeing and practice.
- Night shift work and its effects on nurses' health.
Long-term conditions and chronic disease topics
- Nurse-led education programmes for self-management of type 2 diabetes.
- Barriers to cardiac rehabilitation attendance after a heart attack.
- The effectiveness of pulmonary rehabilitation for people with COPD.
- Medication adherence among older adults with multiple long-term conditions.
- The role of community nurses in managing chronic wounds.
Maternal, child and family health topics
- Factors influencing breastfeeding continuation in the first six months.
- Support for mothers experiencing postnatal depression.
- Skin-to-skin contact after caesarean birth: benefits and barriers.
- Childhood obesity prevention in primary schools: the role of school nurses.
- Parents' experiences of having a baby in neonatal intensive care.
Digital health and technology topics
- Patient and nurse experiences of virtual wards.
- Remote monitoring for heart failure patients: effects on readmission.
- Nurses' attitudes towards electronic patient records and documentation time.
- Telehealth for mental health support in rural areas.
- The use of mobile health apps to support medication adherence.
Public health and health promotion topics
- Interventions to increase vaccine uptake among hesitant groups.
- Smoking cessation support during pregnancy.
- Health literacy and outcomes among people with long-term conditions.
- Barriers to cervical screening among ethnic minority women in the UK.
- Physical activity interventions for adults with obesity in primary care.
Saudi Arabia healthcare dissertation topics
Saudi Arabia's Health Sector Transformation Program, part of Vision 2030, is changing how care is delivered, with a stronger focus on prevention, primary care and digital services. These topics suit nursing and health students with links to the Saudi health system.
- Prevention and management of type 2 diabetes in Saudi primary care.
- The experiences of Saudi nurses in leadership roles.
- Patient satisfaction with telemedicine services in Saudi Arabia.
- Factors influencing the retention of nurses in Saudi hospitals.
- Health promotion for obesity prevention among Saudi adolescents.
Turning a topic into a PICO question
Most nursing literature reviews use the PICO framework to turn a topic into a searchable question:
- 1Population: who are the patients or people? For example, older inpatients on acute medical wards.
- 2Intervention: what is being done? For example, hourly rounding.
- 3Comparison: what is it compared with, if anything? For example, standard care.
- 4Outcome: what do you want to measure? For example, the number of falls.
- 5Question: "In older inpatients on acute medical wards, does hourly rounding reduce falls compared with standard care?"
Tip: For questions about experiences rather than effectiveness, the PEO framework (population, exposure, outcome) often fits better than PICO.
Searching and appraising the evidence
- Search databases such as CINAHL, MEDLINE (PubMed), PsycINFO and the Cochrane Library
- Combine keywords and synonyms with AND and OR, and record every search you run
- Use clear inclusion and exclusion criteria, such as date range, language and study design
- Show how studies were selected with a PRISMA flow diagram
- Appraise each study with a recognised tool, such as the CASP checklists
- Link your findings to practice, current NICE guidance and the NMC Code
Need help with your nursing or healthcare dissertation?
FIZBS has supported nursing, health and social care students since 2015. Our experts can help you narrow your topic, build a PICO question, plan your search strategy, appraise studies with CASP and structure your discussion. If your project collects primary data, we can also support the analysis.
Dissertation support is ยฃ30 per 1,000 words. Message us on WhatsApp 24/7.