Discuss the purpose of the literature review and in which situation will you use it? Discuss also what are the challenges that nurses are facing today when they have to do a literature review?

Description

Chapter 5

Literature Reviews: Finding and Critiquing Evidence

Question

Tell whether the statement is true or false:

A research literature review is a written summary of evidence on a research problem.

Answer

True

A research literature review is a written summary of evidence on a research problem.

Purposes of a Literature Review

Identification of a research problem
Orientation to what is known/not known
Determination of gaps or inconsistencies in a body of research
Determination of a need to replicate a study
Identification of clinical interventions that need to be tested

Purposes of a Literature Review (cont.)

Identification of relevant conceptual frameworks for a research problem
Identification of suitable designs and data collection methods
Identification of experts who could be used as consultants on a project
Assistance in interpreting findings and developing implications

Sources of Information in a Research Literature Review

Principal reliance on primary sources (research reports written by researchers who conducted the study)
Less reliance on secondary sources (summaries of studies by others)
Peripheral use of anecdotal reports, opinion articles, case reports

Question

Tell whether the statement is true or false:

An ancestry approach uses pivotal studies to search forward to subsequent studies that cited it.

Answer

False

Ancestry approach: tracking down earlier studies cited in a reference list of a report

Descendancy approach: using a pivotal study to search forward to subsequent studies that cited it

Finding Studies

Ancestry approach: tracking down earlier studies cited in a reference list of a report
Descendancy approach: using a pivotal study to search forward to subsequent studies that cited it

Types of Search in Electronic Databases

Subject search

Search for topics or keywords in the database

Text word search

Search for specific words in text fields of the database record

Author search

Search for a specific researcher

Key Electronic Databases for Nurse Researchers

CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature)
MEDLINE (Medical Literature on-Line)

Example of a Printout from a CINAHL Search

Example of a Printout from a
PubMed Search

Abstracting and Recording Information

Coding the studies
Literature review protocols
Literature review matrices

Question

Matrices are a convenient means of abstracting and organizing information for a literature review. What is the purpose of evaluation matrix?

Record methodologic features of a set of studies.

Record research findings.

Record quality assessment information.

Record thematic analysis of the retrieved information.

Answer

C

A reviewer might use a methodologic matrix to record methodologic features of a set of studies, a set of results matrices to record research findings, and an evaluation matrix to record quality assessment information. The use of such matrices facilitates thematic analysis of the retrieved information.

Matrix

Methodologic
Results
Evaluation

Example of a Literature Review Protocol

Critiquing Studies and Evaluating the Evidence

Research critiques of individual studies
Evaluating a body of research

Analyzing and Synthesizing Information

Theme Analysis:

Substantive themes
Theoretical themes
Methodologic themes

Preparing a Written Literature Review

Organizing the review
Writing a literature review

1. Content

2. Style

Guidelines for Critiquing
Literature Reviews

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