Research Committee Module #2
1 CNE Available
Created by Kathryn Spiegel RN PhD
There is no conflict of interest in the creation of this education program.

 Explain the rationale for a literature review
 Review the scope of the literature review
 Discuss the types of literature included in a comprehensive review
 Demonstrate knowledge of web-based resources for nephrology nursing research

 Brings the researcher up to date with information on a specific topics
 Forms the basis of justification for future research in the area of interest
 Seeks to describe, summarize, evaluate, clarify and/or integrate the content of primary reports

 Presents a theoretical framework
 Provides a bibliography, analytical and critical appraisal of current literature
 Refines, improves and adds to the body of knowledge
 Informs and lends support to the researcher’s assumptions, definitions
 Reviews previous scholarly and scientific work
Wilson, H.S. (1992). Introduction to nursing research (2nd ed.). Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley.

 Relevant nursing research
 Theoretical literature
 General and specialty nursing literature
 Methodological literature
 Research literature from other disciplines
 Popular literature
Wilson, H.S. (1992). Introduction to nursing research (2nd ed.). Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley.

 Books
 Periodicals
(journals, magazines and newspapers)
 Popular magazines
 Trade journals
 Scholarly journals
 Medical libraries

 Software programs (RSS Feeds)
 Databases (CINAHL ®)
 Popular (Google) and scientific
(PubMed) search engines
 Metasearch engines (Dogpile)

Purpose:
 Used to facilitate a review of the literature
 Search is narrowed to those records that contain each chosen keyword
 Common operators include:
• AND
• OR
• NOT

AND
Keyword
Term A
C
Keyword
Term B
Search A AND B = C

OR
Keyword
Term A
Keyword
Term B
Search A OR B broadens the search by searching for alternate terms, synonyms and related concepts

NOT
Keyword
Term A
C
Keyword
Term B
Eliminates records which have an unwanted keyword in them

 RSS Feeds: RSS stands for Really Simple
Syndication.
RSS readers are software programs that collect, organize and display
RSS feeds. RSS readers allow users to scan headings from a multitude of journals or news sites. The benefit of RSS is that content from multiple Web sources is aggregated in one place. RSS readers can be desk-top based or web-based (Note - web-based readers require no download).
• Some user-friendly web-based readers are Google Reader, NetVibes, and FeedBucket.

CINAHL®
 Nursing and allied health literature
 Covers approximately 330 nursing and allied health journal references
 Includes information on the title, author, journal, volume number, issue number, page numbers, date of issue, descriptors that indicate the type of article (i.e., research), and number of references.

Search engines: An internet program that searches for documents for specified keywords and returns a list where these keywords are found
• Dogpile
– http://www.dogpile.com
• PubMed
– http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez

 Identify the key concepts of the research question.
 Enter the significant terms into the search box.
 Press the “Enter” key or click “Go.”
National Institutes of Health (2007). National Library of Medicine. from http://www.nih.gov/science/library.html.

– Date (or range of dates)
– Journal title
– Author
– Key words
National Institutes of Health (2007). National Library of Medicine.
Retrieved from http://www.nih.gov/science/library.html.

Allows for more specific searches using ranges within categories
- Full text or free full text - Age group
- Gender
- Languages
- Human or animal studies
- Publication types
- Dates
- Topics
- Journal groups

Limits tab
Preview / Index tab
History tab
Clipboard
Details

Used to determine the number of articles available on a particular topic
Search Most
Recent Queries Time Result
#2 Search anemia 13:34:23 141371
#1 Search dialysis 13:34:05 111628

 Previous searches can be combined or used in subsequent searches by using the History tab.
 All search queries can be located under the History tab. The query list is erased after eight hours.

 Clipboard is a storage page for collecting selected citations from one or several searches.
 Clipboard is lost after eight hours of inactivity on PubMed or any of the other databases.

 The following process is used to add citations to the Clipboard:
• In the search results, use the citation check boxes to select citations. To save all citations do not click any check boxes
• From the Send to menu, select Clipboard
• To view the selections, click the Clipboard tab

When using Boolean operators it is not necessary to order the concepts, the number of hits will be the same:
Search Most
Recent Queries Time Result
#2 Search anemia
AND dialysis
#1 Search dialysis
AND anemia
13:34:23
13:34:05
4926
4926

Searching for phrases using keywords and quotations:
Search Most
Recent Queries Time
#2 Search “Iron deficiency anemia in dialysis patients” 13:34:23
#1 Search
“iron deficiency anemia” 13:34:05
Result
246
6170

 “+" Dialysis" Outcomes : search will retrieve all documents containing the words Dialysis , but no documents that contain only the word Outcomes
 Documents containing Outcomes must also contain Dialysis to be retrieved

An “*” is the symbol for a Wildcard
 Allows for a search of words with variations in spelling by using the * after the first 3 letters of the word
 Following a keyword with an asterisk (*) will search for the keyword and various suffixes
 For a prefix, at least three letters of the keyword are necessary before using an *

 Using the word "NOT" or a "-" before a keyword will exclude any document containing that term
 For example: NOT cultural diversity will retrieve all documents containing the word diversity , but from these documents it will exclude all the results that contain the phrase cultural

Research Question:
“Does a patient’s cultural background influence adherence to dialysis therapy?”

Research Question
“Does a patient’s cultural background influence adherence to dialysis therapy?”
Bolded words are key words in this search
Key word may give results on laboratory data
111,628 listings
5528 pages culture AND dialysis
2827 listings
528 pages culture AND dialysis AND adherence
Specifically address the sociological effect of one’s culture on the dialysis experience
14 listings
1 page

 The literature search is one of the most important steps in the research process.
 A comprehensive review provides education of and validation for the research and the writing of scientific publications.

Cooper, H.M. (1989). Integrating research: A guide for literature reviews (2 nd ed.). Newbury
Park, CA: Sage Publications.
National Institutes of Health. (2007). National
Library of Medicine. Retrieved from the web site http://www.nih.gov/science/library.html.
Nieswiadomy, R.M. (1993). Foundations of nursing research (2 nd ed.). Norwalk, CT:
Appleton and Lange.

United States Department of Health and Human
Services (n.d.). National Center for
Biotechnology Information. Retrieved from the web site http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez.
Wilson, H.S. (1992). Introduction to nursing research (2 nd ed). Menlo Park, CA: Addison-
Wesley.