How to Conduct an Effective Literature Review for a Nursing Paper?
Nursing Paper | August 17th, 2024 | By SEO Manager
Imagine it’s your deadline for completing the nursing research paper, and you are stuck at your literature review; we feel you! Conducting a literature review is quite technical, but don’t worry! Here are a few strategies you can follow to write a nursing literature review easily. So, are you ready to jump in? Here you go!
What Is a Literature Review?
A literature review is the precise summary and analysis of the existing research on the topic you are looking for. It involves finding authentic research sources via Google Scholar, JSTOR, or reading books and other academic sources to identify trends, gaps, and key findings in the field.
The core purpose of the literature review is the analysis in which you need to understand the current state of the problem and evaluate weaknesses and strengths of the existing literature so that you can overcome them in your research paper.
Whatever the subject or topic is, with effective literature, you can find context for new research, ensuring that it builds on or challenges existing work.
How to Conduct an Effective Literature Review
To solve all your literature review-related queries, we come up with a few easy steps. So, read carefully to follow them later. Here is the beginner’s guide to writing a nursing paper. Check it out!
Define the Scope and Objectives
Before starting your literature review, define the scope and objectives of your review:
- Research Question: Start by refining your research question. With a well-defined question, you can stay focused and determine the relevance of the literature.
- Keywords and Phrases: Identify key terms, synonyms, and phrases related to your topic. This will be critical when searching databases.
- Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria: Set your goal or criteria for what studies you will include, like well-reviewed journals, specific date ranges, and geographic regions, and exclude non-English articles, studies with small sample sizes, etc.
Search and Retrieve Relevant Literature
The next step involves systematically searching for literature across various databases. You can use nursing-specific databases such as CINAHL, PubMed, and Cochrane Library. Also, multidisciplinary databases like Scopus and Web of Science should be considered.
You also need to make a search strategy using Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to combine keywords. For example, a search string could be: ‘nursing education’ OR ‘nurse training’ AND ‘simulation’ OR ‘clinical practice.’
You can also focus on grey literature like conference proceedings, theses, and government reports, as they can offer valuable insights not available in peer-reviewed journals.
Screening and Selection of Studies
After collecting all the nursing articles and research papers, the screening for quality and relevance is begun. So, review the titles and abstracts and discard the articles that are not relevant. For the remaining ones, conduct a thorough full-text review to assess their relevance to your research question.
You can also use established appraisal tools to assess the quality of research. For quantitative studies, tools like the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) checklist are useful. For qualitative studies, consider using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Critical Appraisal Tools.
Data Extraction and Organization
After selecting the studies, the next step is to extract and organize the relevant data. You can use a standardized data extraction form or software like Covidence or Excel to get the key details such as study design, sample size, outcomes, and limitations.
Now, organize the extracted data into themes or categories that align with your research question. You can also consider creating a literature matrix to visualize the relationships between different studies, their findings, and methodologies.
Synthesize the Literature
Synthesizing the literature means integrating the findings from the selected studies to draw broader conclusions. You can provide a narrative synthesis that discusses the common themes, trends, and gaps in the literature. Highlight areas of agreement and disagreement among the studies.
If your review involves qualitative studies, use thematic synthesis to combine findings across studies into broader themes. For quantitative studies, consider conducting a meta-analysis to statistically combine the results of similar studies. This can provide a more robust estimate of the effect size.
Critically Analyze and Interpret Findings
Other than offering a summary in the literature review, it is also a critical analysis and interpretation because it offers:
- Identify Gaps: You should point out gaps or inconsistencies in the literature. With this, you can justify the need for your research.
- Implications for Practice: Discuss the implications of the findings for nursing practice, policy, and future research.
- Limitations: Mention any limitations in the studies you reviewed, such as small sample sizes, potential biases, or methodological weaknesses. Read the detailed guide on nursing paper methodology, which will be very helpful in your writing.
Write and Present the Review
The final step is to write and present your nursing literature review in a clear and structured format. First, introduce the topic, research question, and the scope of the review. Then, organize the body of your review thematically or methodologically.
Every section must have the findings that you analyze and link to your research question. Highlight the key findings and gaps to suggest recommendations for future research. In the end, add proper citations and references in APA, MLA, Chicago, or the style your institute recommends.
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Ending Note
These steps are not limited to nursing literature reviews. You can follow the same steps to write literature reviews for any other subject. You just need to be organized while conducting research and use proper referencing.
You can also get professional help from any reputable writing team if you find it difficult to conduct research or write a high-quality literature review. I hope that with these steps, you can easily write your literature review next time!
