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RNSG 2504: Integrated Care of the Client with Common Health Care Needs - LSC-Kingwood

Assignment Guide

In completing this assignment, you will examine nursing journals, conduct a literature review, write a 5-10 page paper, and work with APA publication style.

Why research the literature? This advanced practice nurse explains:

Learning to do effective research in the medical literature is a key component of evidence-based medicine. Find out more about what evidence-based medicine is and how it applies to nursing.

Research Paper

Choose a topic that is related to nursing. You may choose the topic. The research paper will be evaluated based on the following:

Category	Possible Points
Introduction – Address the topic of your paper. Why you chose this topic and why it is of interest or importance to you.	10
Required Content – The paper should have: 1. Title page as per APA, 2. Introduction, 3. Review of the literature. 4.Pathophysiology , diagnosis, nursing interventions. Management. 5. Summary, 6. References. Could prevention measures have helped? Pictures may be used, but will not be counted in the content of the page.	45
Summary - Summarize the major points and theme of the paper. Relate any conclusions you have come to after doing your research.	10
References/Works Cited - References include at least 5 nursing journals/online sources published within 5 years.	20
Length of Paper and Professional Style - Typed: Times New Roman or Arial font. . No less than 5 pages (title page and reference list do not count), no more than 10. Follow APA Style. Use correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Paper submitted on time and submitted to “Turn it in.com” for review.	15
This Research paper is 5% of your class grade.	100

What is a review of the literature?

The literature review provides your audience with relevant information about your topic, as well as your synthesis and evaluation of the article. It is not just a summary of the article. It is not possible to provide all of the information on a topic with five articles. As you locate articles, determine those that are the most relevant and that give you the most information.

Choose a minimum of five articles. Before you begin, locate other literature reviews in your discipline; here is one example (*requires your library barcode for off-campus access). The CINAHL database also provides an easy way to find systematic reviews, which are specialized types of literature review, in addition to being the highest level of evidence for clinical research. Scroll under the search box to locate a box labeled Publication Type. Select Systematic Review from the box and scroll back to the search box to enter your subject keywords and search.

All sources cited in the text must be cited as per APA style. You need to have at least 5 cited works in the body of the paper. List all articles, books, on-line resources you read, gained knowledge from and refer to in the paper in the reference section. Document all references according to APA guidelines.

The following links are excellent guides on writing literature reviews:

The Literature Review: A Few Tips on Conducting It (University of Toronto Writing Center) - Good, brief list of questions to ask in order to conduct an effective review.
Literature Reviews - Tips on research strategy and organization of a literature review from the Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
How to Write a Literature Review- An easy-to-read overview of how to develop your literature review; from Agnes Scott College Writing Center.

Finding Journal Articles in Nursing

Librarian Talk . . . About Finding Journal and Newspaper Articles!

Electronic databases are purchased by the libraries for your research use. To find articles medical journals, use your updated library card to login to the following databases. We recommend Advanced Search for better results. If you find an interesting article that is not full-text, please give the correct bibliographic information to our Reference Librarians and they will see that you get the article. They will need full bibliographic information - and your name and address. Send your phone number as well, so they can contact you if they need to. There is some overlap of articles in the following databases. However, we encourage you to use more than one. All are excellent sources for this topic.

HINT: For a full list of databases, go to http://library.lonestar.edu/ and use your library card for login.

Use the following databases to identify articles for your paper:

CINAHL Plus with Full-Text(Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature)
This is the primary nursing database. Locate articles from over 1,700 current publications dating back to 1982. Approximately 1/3 of the articles are full text. Use "Advanced Search." Check "references available" and "full text" to limit your search to scholarly articles that are easily retrieved. Tip: Start your search by finding the correct search terms. Learn how to use the CINAHL/MESH Subject Headings to build an efficient and effective search!
Health Source: Nursing/Academic
Scholarly journal articles for nursing and allied health and and the Lexi-PAL Drug Guide, monographs for herbal and nutritional supplements, and over-the-counter and new prescription drugs. Most of the articles are full text.
Health Reference Center: Academic
Indexes health and medical articles. Check the box labeled "to refereed publications" to limit your search. Reference materials and news are also available. The link takes you the 'subject guide' where you can narrow your topic or find related subject terms, as well as choose articles, reference materials or dictionary definitions.
PubMed (National Library of Medicine's Medline database)
An international database of references to more than 14 million articles published in 4800 biomedical journals. Search help and an online tutorial is provided. Click on the link to 'Limits' under the search box to limit your search by publication type or by journal subset. There is also a version of Medline that you can search from the same publisher of CINAHL. You will have to use the LinkSource link to find out if the articles are available full-text. If not, you may have time to request articles not found in our libraries or databases through the interlibrary loan service.

Evidence-Based Medicine resources:

TRIP database - A specialized search engine for evidence-based medicine. Use the limits in the left column to focus your search to systematic reviews, clinical Q&A and national guidelines. See the right menu to link to a Medline (PubMed) search focused by the most common subheadings. If you cannot locate the fulltext for an article, check our A-Z list to find the journal title in another database. If it's not in our A-Z list, request it through our interlibrary loan service.
Cochrane Collection (The Cochrane Collaboration) - While only the abstracts are available free, they may be helpful in establishing the level and quality of evidence for specific protocols and/ in developing your own database search. Abstracts typically include the Background, Objectives, Search strategy, Selection criteria, Data collection and analysis, Main results, and the Authors' conclusions.

Support

Librarian Talk about getting help

Support for a successful paper is more than finding the right resources. Putting it all together takes time and effort. Sometimes it takes additional help from the librarians or tutors. Please consider the following resources if you need additional help. Remember, the expert on the assignment is your professor; see their contact information below.

Citing Sources Using APA Style | Lone Star College-Kingwood Library style guide. Examples of both paper and electronic citations. See this example of a research paper from the American Psychological Association.

Tutoring | Information on services available from theLone Star College-Kingwood Learning Center. You may also call 281-312-1439. Meet the LSC-Kingwood Learning Center Tutors.

If you have research questions, contact your class librarian, Jimmi Rushing or the librarians at the reference desk. See the links below to chat, email, phone or use Skype to contact the reference librarians.

Contact your instructor, Diane Langton or Rachel Weaver, if you have questions about your assignment.

Page created by Sue Goodwin Aug. 2008. Revised 8/2011; jfr. Updated 7/2012; jfr.

Ask Us
Reference: 281.312.1693 Circulation: 281.312.1691	Text-A-Librarian 281.973.4792 Kingwood.LRC-Ref@LoneStar.edu

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