Nursing Literature Review

Nursing Literature Review

Choose a specific nursing topic of interest to you. Search the literature and find five research-based journal articles that relate specifically to your chosen topic. Write a review (ie. analysis) of the chosen articles and come to a conclusion about the topic based on the articles reviewed.

Your assignment should include a brief overview (ie description) of what each study is about or what it involved. The majority of your Review should then be a critique or analysis of each study. Primarily what you are writing should be a ‘discussion’ about the quality of each study, but students are expected to utilise appropriate research resources to formulate their conclusion. These resources must be cited in the text.

As stated, you must have a focussed topic and a formulated specific question which your review will address. For example, ‘pressure ulcers’ is NOT a specific topic, but ‘what are the best methods of treating pain associated with pressure ulcers’ is a specific question. If you are unsure, please ask your tutor or the Subject Coordinator.

When writing your assignment, you are advised to keep in mind the following words from Polit and Beck (2006, p. 437):

A research critique is not just a summary of a study but a careful appraisal of its merits and flaws…A good critique objectively identifies areas of adequacy and inadequacy, virtues as well as faults. Sometimes, the need for this balance is obscured by the terms critique and critical appraisal, which connote unfavourable observations. The merits of a study are as important as its limitations in coming to conclusions about the worth of its findings. Therefore, a research critique should reflect a thoughtful, objective, and balanced consideration of the study’s validity and significance.

 

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