Week 3: Finding and Appraising the Literature

literature review is a key step in the _____ as well as a ______

research process, sparate action of study

literature review is an _______ ________ summary and critical ______ of the scholarly literature on a topic

in depth, appraisal

characteristics of a lit review

succinct

adeuete positive and negative findings

literature search

searching various scholarly sources to identify appropriate literature

what happens when literature is found

it is reviewed to determine its strengths, limitations and gaps

purposes and uses for nurses in evidence informed projects (9)

1. uncover

2. promote

3. generate

4. determine

5. determine

6. discover

7. generate

8. determine

9. determine

1. uncover

one or more new practice interventions or obtain supporting or contrary evidence for revising, maintaining, or stopping current interventions, protocols and policies

2. promote

evidence informed revision and development of new practice protocols, policies and projects or activities related to nursing practice

3. generate

clinical questions that guide the development of EIP projects

4. determine

what is known and unknown about an subject, concept or problem

5. determine

gaps, consistencies, and inconsistencies in the literature

6. discover

conceptual traditions used to examine problems

7. generate

useful research questions and hypotheses

8. determine

an appropriate research design, methodology, and analysis for answering the research questions or hypotheses on the basis of an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of earlier works

9. determine

the need for replication of a study or refinement of a study

quantitative research purposes

develop conceptual/theoretical framework: primary and secondary sources

problem statement and hypothesis refinement

methodology; design, sample, instruments, procedure

outcome and analysis

critical review of relevant literature affects the steps of the research process as follows (7)

theoretical framework

problem/need/significance

question/hypothesis

design/methodology

findings

implications

recommendations

sources

Primary: data based, theory, research (research study)

secondary: summary of material

types of resources

print: books, refereed journals

internet: online bibliographic databases, search engines

types of scholarly literature

database: research literature, research studies found in journals, also known as empirical, scientific

conceptual: reports of theories or reviews, how to type of articles (theoretical)

systematic reviews

special kind of literature review that uses rigirous methods to identify, critically appraise, and synthesize primary studies

purpose is to summarize a body of literature or data

meta analysis

statisitcal integration of results of quantitative studies

steps and strategies for conducting a literature search (7)

1. determine the topic and generate key words

2. choose databases to search

3. conduct your search

4. refine search results

5. select relevant sources

6. critically read, summarize and synthesize

7. present findings

Developing a Clinical Question

use PICOT

Devising a search strategy

define tour topic; choose a topic, narrow your focus

stating tour topic as a searchable question

using OR

either term in search result

mORe results

using AND

find all terms in the search result

AND narrows your search

using NOT

exclude unwanted terms

less results

phrase searching

quotations

exact phrase

narrows search

Next steps; screen retrieve, review synthesize relevant articles/sources

STEP 1: determine the clinical question or research topic

STEP 2: identify key variables/terms

STEP 3: conduct a computer search by using at least 2 recognizes online databases

STEP 4: reviews abstracts online and disregard irrelevant articles

STEP 5: retrieve relevant sources

STEP 6: print or download articles

STEP 7: conduct preliminary reading and disregard irrelevant sources

STEP 8: critically read each sources

STEP 9: synthesize critical summaries of each article

what happens once the relevant papers have been retrieved, the next steps are to

critically read each source using critical appraisal criteria

characteristics of well written literature review

• Review uses a systematic approach

• Established criteria are used to evaluate the study strengths and weaknesses

• The review includes mostly primary sources

• Provide a synthesis of the literature 

• Research questions and hypotheses are identified, or clinical questions are answered

Critical reading strategies

critical thinking

critical reading

critical thinking

• The rational examination of ideas, inferences, assumptions, principles, arguments, conclusions, issues, beliefs, statements and actions 

• Involves disciplined, self-directed thinking 

• Includes the display of mastered intellectual skills and abilities such as applying research critique

critical reading

• An active, intellcually engaging process in which the reader participates in an inner dialouge with the writer

• Actively looks for assumption, key concepts

• Both critical thinking and reading are developed by learning the research process

critical reading process

preliminary

comprehensive

analytical

synthesis

preliminary: familiarize yourself with the content

• Skin the article

• Identify concepts

• Carify unfamiliar terms

Comprehensive: understand the researcher's purpose or intent

• Identity main theme 

• Identify the main steps of the research design 

• Continue to clarify unfamiliar terms

Analytical: understand the parts of the study and begin developing a critique

• Assess the studies value for your needs 

• Critically evaluate the validity and applicability to practice

Synthesis: understand the whole article and how it fits with the larger body of knowledge

• Understand the whole article and each step of the research process

• Use your own words to describe

• Identify the article strengths and weaknesses

steps to evidence informed practice (6)

• Critical reading

• Critical thinking 

• Read widely 

• Understand scientific principles 

• Be an intelligent consumer of knowledge 

• Can develop evidence infromed interventions

Level I of Evidence

systematic review

Level II

well designed randomized control trials

Level III

controlled trial without randomization

Level IV

single nonexperimental study

Level V

systematic reviews of descriptive and qualitative studies

Level VI

single descriptive or qualitative study

Level VII

opinion of authorities and or reports of expert committees

17 steps of the research process and journal format

1. Research problem 

2. Purpose

3. Literature review

4. Theoretical framework, conceptual framework or both 

5. hypothesis/research questions 

6. Research design 

7. Sample: type and size

8. Legal - ethical issues 

9. Instruments 

10. Validity and reliability 

11. Data collection procedure

12. Data analysis 

13. Results

14. Discussion of findings and new findings 

15. Implications, limitations and recommendations

16. References

17. Communicating research results

components of a research report

• Question or hypothesis 

• theoretical/conceptual framework 

• Methods

  • Design, sample, procedures, instruments, ethics 

• Results

  • Data analysis 

  • discussion/conclusions and implications

  • References

communicating results

• Dissemination of results is important

• Can publish an article in a journal

• Present study at conferences

• Apply study findings to evidence-informed activities