Missing Evidence Level Thesis

Thank you for submitting your literature review matrix.

 

You did a nice job. In addition to the comments here, you may find some comments in the paper view, and information related to grade point assignment in the grading rubric.

– Missing Evidence Level: Points were deducted due to missing information. Be sure to include the level of evidence (1, 2, 3, etc) in the second column. It is helpful to include the type of study as well, but it’s important to keep track of the quality of your evidence and this is easily evaluated by including the level for each article as you collect your evidence. You will be able to more easily evaluate whether or not your evidence leads you to determine if more research is needed, or not.

– Type of Study Needed: Note, under research design methodology the information needs to include the type of study as well. For example, is it a prospective quasi-experimental two-group comparison study, or a qualitative study using group interviews, etc etc. It is important to keep track of the quality of your evidence and this is easily evaluated by including the level for each article as well as the design description as you collect your evidence. You will be able to more easily evaluate whether or not your evidence leads you to determine if more research is needed, or not.

*Be sure that you continue to find literature that supports each aspect of your study, including the idea for your intervention, on your specific population, and justification as to why you feel you will get a certain outcome (hypothesis).

The matrix is a tool that can be very helpful as you complete your literature review write up. The note section for each article can be a very helpful for recalling the most pertinent points of the paper that support your research topic.

Keep the matrix handy and continue to take notes and add literature as you proceed through the course, and it becomes a very handy reference tool now, as well as in the future should you decide to proceed with your research.

The literature review process is often a time that we make adjustments to our research topic. The beautiful thing about searching literature is that we learn so much and develop even more expertise on our topics than we previously had. We learn and sometimes we also realize that some adjustments are needed to our research question.

 

Consider:

1. Did you find that your research question is still too “broad” with several different possible avenues to follow for your research? You may need to be more specific with your question so that you can be as focused as possible. It will help avoid many headaches in the coming weeks. For example, if your proposal was for non-chemical intervention on methods to prevent hair-loss during chemotherapy, you may find several types of interventions. Changing your research question to focus solely on a specific non-chemical intervention (as opposed to general non-chemical interventions) to prevent hair loss during chemotherapy, helps focus you question and the study becomes much more practical.

2. Did you find that there were already a lot of studies on your exact topic? Remember that if there is already an adequate body of research on a topic, it is not research, even if it has not been implemented in your particular organization. You will want to do develop a research proposal and contribute new generalizable knowledge to the field of nursing. What did those studies in regards to related topics that require more research? Often within the articles that are reporting on completed research, we can find a strengths and weakness section, and suggestions for future research needed on a topic. This can be an excellent way to find where there are still knowledge gaps in your area of interest – and then you can develop just the right wording for your topic.

 

Do not be afraid to write me and let me know that you need to change your topic slightly to help fine-tune your research proposal.

 

Please let me know if you have any questions and keep up the good work.