SNHU NUR 440 Final Project – All Milestones

NUR 440 Final Project Guidelines and Rubric

Overview

The world of professional nursing practice and health policy is ever-evolving to meet the new dynamics of care needs in every setting. As a registered nurse, you are accountable and responsible for making decisions that are consistent with safe, competent, and ethical practice on a daily basis. You also face a variety of complex issues that impact the delivery of your nursing care.

A professional practice issue is any issue or situation that either compromises client care/service by placing a client at risk, or affects a nurse’s ability to provide care/service consistent with standards and guidelines, and agency or organization policies or procedures.

For this final project, you will develop an integrative review of literature about a clinical problem or issue of your choosing encountered in nursing practice. The purpose of an integrative review of literature assignment is to assist in preparing a scholarly paper that systematically collects, classifies, and analyzes a body of research evidence about a clinical topic in order to make evidence-based practice recommendations for a practice change.

The project is divided into four milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules One, Two, Four, and Five. The final product will be submitted in Module Seven.

In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:

• Assess diverse ways of knowing in nursing for their appropriateness in conducting nursing research and evidence-based nursing practice
• Critique relevant primary research sources for their potential to provide evidence-based solutions to clinical nursing problems
• Employ principles of ethical conduct of research in seeking evidence-based resources that support professional nursing practice changes

• Propose evidence-based recommendations for practice changes that address clinical nursing problems for improving quality of care

Prompt

Choose a clinical problem or issue, with your instructor’s approval, that might be encountered in nursing practice. For this assessment, prepare a scholarly integrative review of the literature that will support a recommendation for a practice change to solve or improve the identified clinical problem or issue. To cover the appropriate range of the research, you should search for and retrieve six current and relevant nursing research studies from primary sources that are relevant to your clinical topic of interest (these should be the articles from your annotated bibliography). Follow the assignment guidelines below to prepare a scholarly integrative review of the research literature you retrieved.

Specifically, your integrative review of the literature should include the following critical elements:

1. Introduction

A.  What is the purpose of the integrative review?

1. 1. Clearly articulate the topic of interest, problem statement, and the research question being studied.
   2. What variables of interest (such as concepts, target population, setting, interventions, etc.) will be used to guide the review of literature?
   3. Discuss the background and significance of the problem to nursing. Be sure to substantiate your claims with specific examples from your research.

1. Literature Search Methods
   1. Identify keywords, subject headings, and combinations used in the initial search.
   2. Which databases were searched?

1. 1. State the inclusion/exclusion criteria for the sample of research reports. In other words, how did you make decisions to narrow the search and focus the literature review? How was the final sample of research reports determined?

1. Data Analysis and Critical Appraisal

1. 1. Analyze the quality of each study. In other words, is the problem well formulated and the purpose of the study clear? Is the study approach well designed and executed? Does the study demonstrate understanding of related studies? Do the findings advance knowledge?
   2. Note each study’s strengths and limitations.
   3. Identify gaps in the literature and reflect on why these may exist.
   4. Identify similarities and inconsistencies across the studies.

IV.    Synthesis, Interpretation and Presentation of Results

1. 1. Develop an evidence table of your results that addresses the following criteria for each study: report citation, design, method, sample, data collection, data analysis, validity, and reliability of the findings. This table should appear in the Appendix of your paper.
   2. Identify major trends or patterns in the research reviewed.
   3. Can you make generalizations across the studies? Why or why not?
   4. What conclusions can you draw? Be sure to use a logical chain of evidence to support them.
   5. Provide a scholarly summary of the research reviewed that describes the “state of the science” presented by the research reports.
   6. Make practice recommendations based on the research reviewed.

V.   Conclusions

1. 1. Identify the limitations of the literature review.
   2. Discuss the relevance of the results of your literature review to clinical practice.
   3. Discuss the implications of the recommended practice change on future nursing practice and research.

VI.    Abstract: Include an abstract at the beginning of your paper that summarizes each of the following elements:

1. Aims and objectives
2. Background
3. Methods
4. Results
5. Conclusions

F.    Relevance to clinical practice

VII.  Appendix: Provide an appendix at the end of your paper that includes the following elements:

1. Search method flow chart
2. The table of evidence that you developed in Step IV.A

Milestones

Milestone One: Topic Proposal

In Module One, you will submit your topic proposal for instructor approval. You will briefly explain your interest and what you hope to gain through a review of the literature. This milestone will be graded with the Milestone One Rubric.

Milestone Two: PICO(T) Question

In Module Two, you will submit your PICO(T) question, which will guide your research and review of the literature. This milestone will be graded with the

Milestone Two Rubric.

Milestone Three: Annotated Bibliography

In Module Four, you will submit an annotated bibliography to help gather resources for your final project. This milestone will be graded with the Milestone.

Three Rubric.

Milestone Four: Evidence Table

In Module Five, you will submit an evidence table to organize your resources and as part of your final project. This milestone will be graded with the Milestone

Four Rubric.

Final Submission: Integrative Review of the Literature

In Module Seven, you will submit your final project. It should be a complete, polished artifact containing all of the critical elements of the final product. It should reflect the incorporation of feedback gained throughout the course. This submission will be graded with the Final Project Rubric.