Initiating the Literature Review

Overview

After a clinical question (PICO) has been developed, following the Iowa Model as a conceptual framework, a review of the literature is initiated. The literature will provide the necessary information to direct the evidence-based project. Based on what is found in the literature, the PICO question may be edited as needed. It is important to identify the strength of the literature by reviewing the methodology used in a study and assigning a level of evidence. This is accomplished by using Melnyk’s framework located within the course. Once the literature is reviewed the common ideas and themes are synthesized providing the user with the essential findings/outcomes of the literature under review and thus determining if the literature is sufficient to make a practice change.

Instructions

For this assignment, you will be building on the work started in Developing a Clinical Question Assignment. In that assignment, you developed a clinical question, using the PICO format as a guide. Key terms were also developed to serve as a guide to secure peer reviewed journals.

In this assignment, you will be using the key terms to start the literature review. You will:

1. Secure a minimum of 10 peer-reviewed journals, no older than 3–5 years.
2. Select articles that will support the clinical question developed in the PICO Development Assignment.
3. Access the assistance of the Liberty University School of Nursing Librarian to assist you as needed. Contact information is available at the Jerry Falwell Library (JFL) web site.
4. Use the Initiating the Literature Review Template to evaluate the articles and determine the level of evidence for each article. Use the Melnyk Pyramid found as an Explore item in this module.
5. Develop a narrative (approximately 150–200 words) discussing how the information, gleaned from the articles, would be used to make recommendations for change practice or not to change practice. This may be placed below the matrix in the same document.
6. Be sure to synthesize the article outcomes into a robust narrative (as stated above) and not merely report out on each individual article.
7. Discuss implications of practice.
8. Include a title page and reference page as a part of the assignment.