Dignity in a hospital setting from a service users perspective?
I. What is the form of assessment?
For this assignment, you will conduct a narrative literature review on a topic.
Chosen topic: Dignity in a hospital setting from a service users perspective?
A literature review is a comprehensive summary and critical appraisal of the literature that is relevant to your research topic. It presents the reader with what is already known in this field and identifies traditional and current controversies as well as weaknesses and gaps in the field.
– Williamson G., Whitaker A. (2020). Succeeding in literature reviews and research project plans for
nursing students (4th ed). London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
It is a critical review of the published literature on a particular subject.
You are expected to look at published work (not just research/studies) in a specific subject area. Literature reviews usually take the form of a critical discussion wherein the student is expected to show a critical understanding of the published work, as well as the differing arguments, theories and findings that they bring up.
For this assessment, you are required to write a narrative literature review. Such a review is usually driven by a general interest in a subject or a
question, and not necessarily by a scientific research approach. Take note, a literature review is not the same as a systematic review.
II. Why a literature review?
This form of assessment will demonstrate your ability to meet the module learning objectives wherein you will:
Have a more in-depth study of your chosen topic.
Undertake a review of existing literature and to critically appraise the information which is pertinent to the topic being investigated.
Evaluate the information and organise it in a way to identify your perspective on the topic.
III. What should the literature review demonstrate?
Apart from critically appraising the literature that is relevant to the subject of interest, the content of your essay should also demonstrate the learning objectives of the module:
Critically evaluate contemporary nursing practice and justify the need for future development in light of current evidence and policy direction in the field of adult nursing.
Demonstrate the ability to assess and evaluate the delivery of care to individuals with complex health needs in the field of adult nursing.
Critically evaluate the skills required by the nurse to engage and involve individuals, families and communities in decisions regarding their health and well-being in the field of adult nursing.
Demonstrate the knowledge and skills required by the nurse when advocating for and on behalf of service users/clients in the field of adult nursing.
Critically appraise the skills required for partnership working with service users / clients and other professionals in the field of adult nursing.
Reflect on individual professional development within the field of adult nursing, and identify ongoing personal training and development needs.
IV. What should the essay include?
The total word allocation for this literature review is 4000. Below is the guidance with a suggested structure to the essay:
Introduction (approx. 500 words)
Have an essay topic sentence – a topic sentence is a sentence that sets the whole scene. It is the sentence that will entice the reader to keep on reading your essay.
Background information This elaborates the rationale for your chosen topic. Explain how the assignment developed and why a literature review on your chosen topic is important are there recent or current events, experiences that you may have had, or published literature that supports the need for you to conduct a literature review on your chosen topic or research question? Or perhaps there is a need to find out of a more effective or efficient way to render nursing care.
Mention how this literature review will contribute to your field of nursing.
Mention which theme you have chosen. And as the 3 themes are very broad, there is a need to then describe the focus or scope of the subject that you wish to explore (funnelling broad to narrow).
For example,
If you have chosen the theme service users perspectives and you are
looking at exploring the experiences of adult patients of virtual clinics after undergoing knee surgery, then make sure to stick to reviewing literature that examine patient experiences.
State the aim of the essay, followed by sentences that tell the reader how you are going to achieve this. This can be done by presenting or introducing to the reader, in a chronological order, what you will be discussing throughout the essay.
Search strategy (approx. 300 words)
A search strategy is an organised investigation for material relevant to your topic across a range of sources (Williamson & Whittaker, 2020). Your explanation of the strategy should include:
The types and nature of literature searched
Search engines and databases used
The use of Boolean operators (e.g. AND, OR, NOT), truncation, etc.
List the keywords used together with the Boolean operators, truncation or quotation marks used in searching.
Search parameters/limiters applied (filters) e.g. date range, English language, peer-reviewed, country/ies of publication.
Present the retrieval rate i.e. (1) the number of results from the initial search, (2) the number of results after applying limiters, and then (3) the final number of studies that you will review.
Explain the criteria for including those particular studies in the review. In other words, state how you narrowed down the number of studies that you will review and how you were able to pick out the literature that is most relevant to the topic.
The critical appraisal tool used
TIP: There isnt a specific number of literature that you have to review. What is important is the curation of the literature and that you will be able to read each one fully in detail.
TIP: Once you have selected the literature you will review, you will need to make sure that you have full access to each of the evidence.
Review of the literature (approx. 2500 words)
This is the main part of the assignment. Here, you will begin to present your review of the literature that you have included.
One way to present your review is by writing according to the emerging themes which are the information or concepts that appear throughout the literature. This is known as thematic analysis.
Another way is to write according to the issues or problems related to the topic. This can be presented in a Problem-Cause-Solution order.
In this section, you will:
Compare and contrast analyses made by the authors of the literature
Identify any strengths, weakness or limitations of the literature (e.g. critically appraising the methodology used in the study, sampling method, the findings of the study, etc.)
Offer your interpretation and judgement of the evidence.
Present your analyses and arguments based on the knowledge you have gained from the literature.
Present your appraisal of the literature with the help of the critical appraisal tool that you used.
Remember, you must read each literature in detail for you to create a comprehensive body of knowledge in your essay. And from that body of knowledge, you will then generate your analyses, arguments and conclusions.
TIP: Do not just simply describe what the literature are saying. You will also need to explain their impact on nursing practice and offer recommendations.
Summary (approx. 500 words)
In this section, you are expected to draw together the key findings and judgements that you have made from your review of the literature section, and the implications of your findings to your field of nursing.
TIP: There is no need to introduce new literature here as you are basically condensing the 2500 words that you used in your review of the literature section into 500 words. The purpose of this is to highlight your key findings, analyses, arguments and judgements based on the review that you have conducted. This is where the synthesis of the literature can be clearly established.
Conclusion (approx. 200 words)
This section identifies the over-all achievement of your review.
TIPS:
– Revisit the aim of your essay, was it achieved?
– Reflect on your review, did it answer your research question?
– Evaluate the body of knowledge that you have produced, does it satisfy your research topic? Or did you identify gaps?
– If the literature doesnt satisfy your research topic or if they not
comprehensive enough, what do you recommend?
TIP: There is no need to introduce new literature or ideas here because you are simply creating closing remarks based on the review that you have done.
References (APA 6th edition)
As this assignment is based upon published literature, your attention to detail in referencing both in the body (citation) and reference list is crucial.
In the reference list, you will already include:
– The literature you reviewed (no need for a separate list for these)
– Resources you used to help you appraise the literature
– Literature to support your background information
– Literature you used to support your analyses, arguments and recommendations.
TIP: The quality of the referencing style and the type references that you used for your essay will be assessed.
