Instructions: The student will perform a literature review on a peer-reviewed journal preselected by the course instructor. For this specific assignment, no late assignments will be accepted. The aim of this paper is to complete review literature on the preselected journal. This is a literature review, NOT a series of abstracts stapled together. The goal is to look for connections and/or contradictions in the journal and explain the big picture to the reader (instructor). If you fail to do this, it will adversely affect your grade. A good introduction and conclusion will help tie the literature together. Read the preselected journal in its entity.
Format: The papers should be typed in 12-point Times New Roman, double-spaced, 1-inch margins, with proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Papers should be 5 full pages (minimum) to 6 (maximum) pages of text. (Do not try to pass off 7 3/4 pages as 8 full pages). You should reference this journal and it must be cited according to APA standards. A title page should include your title, name, course, instructor’s name, and date, centered on the page.
The Purpose of a Literature Review
The purpose of a literature review is to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of major research on a particular topic. It should establish the importance of a research topic by reviewing relevant academic research and identifying the main patterns, themes or trends that exist in relation to it. A literature review is not a means for you to present your own opinion, but instead should compare various peer-reviewed evidence-based research sources and explore how those sources agree relate to one another. The aim is to extend your understanding of key concepts, theories, and methodologies in your field of study, the nursing profession. It tests your own research question against what is already known about the subject.
Remember to write tight. If you are verbose, it will hurt your grade. Brevity is a virtue! PROOFREAD!!! DO NOT turn in the FIRST DRAFT!!! Rework the paper and edit!!! Consult the Writing Center for extra help.
Step 1: Analyze the literature
For your journal assignment, reflect strong analyzing the preselected journal, you need to read and evaluate the entire journal. After reading and evaluating the journal, ask yourself these questions:
• What are the key terms and concepts?
• How relevant is this journal to the nursing profession and quality healthcare?
• What are the major relationships, trends, and patterns?
• How credible is this source? What makes the information valid? How does the validity of
this journal impact nursing practice and integrating its findings into clinical nursing
practice?
• What are the differences and similarities between journals you have reviewed in the
past?
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Step 2: Write the Introduction
Your introduction should give an outline of why you are writing the literature review for this preselected journal, and why the topic is important to you as a nursing student and to the nursing profession. A good example of an introduction has a topic sentence which indicates what will be covered and tells the reader the specific focus of the literature review in the concluding sentence.
Step 3: Body Paragraphs
In each of your paragraphs, you need to breakdown your readings to better understand its components and how this journal impacts your awareness of how different ideas and practices compare/contrast. You also need to critically read, interpret, and evaluate the ways your preselected journal highlights author’s contributions and relevance to the nursing profession/clinical practice/healthcare field. Like with most essays and reports, each body paragraph should have a different focus. For example, you may choose to organize your body paragraphs:
• Chronologically
• Thematically
• Theoretically
• According to findings
Final Step: Conclusion
Your conclusion should consist of:
• Summarize all major positions discussed throughout the journal
• Clarify general agreements drawn concerning the journal
• Highlight gaps in the journal as it relates to the nursing profession and quality healthcare
delivery
• Emphasize the importance of your preselected journal/topic/the need for further
research in the field of nursing, clinical practice, and the healthcare delivery system
Additional Pointers:
An effective literature review of a journal must:
• Methodologically analyze and synthesize quality literature on a topic
• Provide a firm foundation to evidence-based nursing research
• Provide a firm foundation for the selection of its research methodology into clinical
practice
• Demonstrate that the proposed evidence-based research contributes something new to
the overall body of knowledge of advances in the nursing profession and the healthcare
delivery system
All literature reviews, whether they are qualitative, quantitative or both, will at some point:
• Introduce the topic and define its key terms
• Establish the importance of the topic
• Provide an overview of the amount of available literature and its types (for example:
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• theoretical, statistical, speculative)
• Identify gaps in within a profession, the nursing profession and clinical practice
• Point out consistent finding from other evidence-based research studies in nursing and
healthcare
• Arrive at a thought/a conclusion that organizes what is known about the topic of the
journal
• Discusses possible implications and directions for future research in nursing, clinical
practice, and healthcare.
The outcome of your literature review is expected to demonstrate that you:
• can systematically explore evidence-based research within the nursing professional and clinical practice
• can read and breakdown evidence-based research and integrate its findings into clinical practice, nursing education, and clinical practice to advance your own future clinical practice
• have sufficient knowledge in the journal’s topic to perform additional investigation
It’s good for you!
• You improve your skills on reading, reviewing, evaluating, and integrating evidence-based research into clinical reasoning and clinical nursing practice.
• You become familiar with the evidence that supports the nursing profession and learn how to be a scholar in the nursing field.
• You learn through writing your ideas and finding your voice in your in the nursing profession as it relates to evidence-based research and its importance toward support clinical decision reasoning and decision making in the nursing field.
• You are better able define, redefine, and clarify your own research questions for yourself using a thorough organized process.
It’s good for your reader (Instructor(s). Your reader expects you to have done the hard work of gathering, evaluating, and breaking the contents in this journal by completing a literature review. When you do a literature review you:
• Read the content of the journal’s topic and present its significance
• Identify what’s important to know about the journal – including individual material, prior
research, publications, organizations, and authors.
• Have opportunity to read, review, and share evidence-based research with other
members of the interdisciplinary team
• Establish a clinical pathway to increase existing nursing knowledge and clinical practice
• Examine updated trends on the journal’s area of evidence and hopefully, identify,
improve, or close gaps in the clinical practice among healthcare professionals, especially
nursing
Why do a literature review?
• To locate gaps in the literature in the nursing profession
• To avoid reinventing the wheel
• To carry on where others have already been
• To identify other people working in the nursing field as well
• To increase your existing nursing knowledge
• To provide intellectual context for yourself as a future professional nurse
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• To explore and acknowledge opposing others’ viewpoints
• To put your literature review in perspective that positively impact clinical reasoning and
clinical decision making
• To demonstrate that you possess the ability to discover and retrieve previous evidence-
based research in the nursing profession
There is usually no required format or template for a literature review. However, there are some actions to keep in mind when constructing a literature review:
1. Include an introduction and conclusion. Introductory and concluding paragraphs can act as bookends to your material. Provide background information for your reader, such as in the beginning and offering closure in the end by discussing the implications of future
research to the field.
2. Avoid direct quotations. Just like in an annotated bibliography, you will want
to paraphrase all of the material you present in a literature review. This assignment is a chance for you to demonstrate your knowledge on a topic and putting ideas into your own words will ensure that you are interpreting the found material for your reader. Paraphrasing will also ensure your review of literature is in your own voice.
3. Organize by topic. When compiling multiple paragraphs, a tendency can be to summarize each paragraph, and then compare the paragraphs at the end. Instead, organize your paragraphs by your identified themes and patterns. This organization helps demonstrate your breakdown and understanding of the journal and stop you from creating a series of book reports.
4. Use headings. APA encourages the use of headings within paper to display a shift in topic and create a visual break for the reader. Headings in a literature review can also help you as the writer organize your material by theme and note any layers, or subtopics, within the field.
5. Show relationships and consider the flow of ideas. A literature review of your journal should be made appealing to your reader. Transitions and comparison terms will allow you to demonstrate where you agree or disagree on a topic and highlight your interpretation of the literature.
Journal Assignment: Due Tuesday, October 25th by 0800
***Place in a folder and place on my desk before the beginning of the morning’s lecture
Thanks,
Dr. Marshall
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