Literature Review
For this assignment, students will combine the information from Writing Assignment 1 and 2 into ONE document.
Note: this is not a simple matter of copying and pasting the information into a new document. The goal is to work on synthesizing the information from the two assignments into ONE well-written, well-developed, and logical paper.
The paper will consist of the following:
A brief overview (5-7 sentences) describing the authors’/researchers’ research plan (from the introduction/background of the articles). This will be the ‘introduction’ section to your assignment.
Your goal here is to weave the information into one paragraph that succinctly conveys what the two groups of authors/researchers are planning to do.
Summarize the methods, results (often referred to as findings), the discussion of the findings, and the authors/researchers conclusions, limitations, and if included the implications for nursing, and recommendations for future research OF both articles.
Again, work to blend and merge the information from the two articles into a flowing, logical process.
Discuss the methods of one, and then the methods of the other… in one paragraph! Here’s an example.
Smith and Jones (2007) conducted a retrospective study of causes of readmission to the hospital following discharge to home hospice for the years 2005-2006. They included diagnosis at previous discharge, admission diagnosis, comorbidities, admission to ICU (yes or no), length of stay in ICU, the total length of stay until discharge (discharge home, discharge to another facility, or death), and insurance status. Samuel, et al. (2009) conducted a prospective study from 2003 to 2007 of patients readmitted to the hospital after a terminal diagnosis, Diagnostic codes for readmission, length of stay until discharge (discharge home, discharge to another facility, or death), admission to ICU (yes or no) and length of stay in ICU were evaluated. The mean age of the subjects in the study by Samuel et al., was 72 and the mean age in the study by Smith and Jones was 81. Smith and Jones conducted a power analysis prior to selecting charts and determined that the best number of records for reliable statistical analysis was 419 charts. Unfortunately, they were only able to retrieve and use 280 charts for the two-year period. Samuel et al. did not conduct a power analysis and their study consisted of only 18 patients over the 4 year period. …. and so on
A short conclusion to the paper consisting of any issues or concerns you developed as you read the studies. The key is to write in an objective fashion without the use of personal pronouns. This would not be an opinion, but clear concerns or observations.