How To Do A Literature Review

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How To Do A Literature Review

• Dr. Anne Davis
• Nov.17, 2005

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Why research?

• Intellectual curiosity
• Research is fun and exciting.
• Professional value
• Basis of knowledge
• Benefit to patient
• Pain research for my knees

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The reason why we review the literature

• To build on what has been done
• To see where your research fits in that body of
  knowledge
• To learn from problems of earlier author
• To see what they recommended for further research

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Literature Review

• Source for Research Ideas---also from other
  sources, i.e. clinical, teaching, etc.
• Find out what is already knownintellectual
  curiositywho,what,why,how ?
• What research topic does interest you ?
• 3. Conceptual Frameworknot every study has
  this stated.

(Polit Humgler Nursing Research)
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Literature Review (Cont.)

• Get more understanding on methodology. How do I
  go about finding out what I want to know?
• Use of developed tools.
• 5. Discover any problems with sampling. What
  type of sample?

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Literature Review (Cont.)

• See how to organize the literature Review section
  for your own study. Several possible problems----
• Much literature my call to Kennedy Library of
  Bioethics asked for end of live ethics.
  Librarian said TOO MUCH!! And I said I want this
  for Japan narrower down considerably in English.

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Literature Review (Cont.)

• Too little literature
• Literature in another culture. Student in Taiwan
  using research conducted in USA

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Literature Review (Cont.)

• Sources
• Library is one of the most important places
  in the life of a student. Think of all the ideas
  found there.(1)Books(2)Journals(3)Index-internatio
  nal Nursing Indexjournal index mostly Cumulative
  Index to Nursing and Allied Health Nursing
  studies Index (4) Computer Searches---depends on
  what your library has.
• Use of key words index Medicus-Medline
• Other peopleRNs, teachers, students

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Literature Review

• Source
• (4) Computer Searches---depends on what your
  library has. Use of key words index
  Medicus-Medline
• Other peopleRNs?teachers?students

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• Read widely on your topic in
• several appropriate fields of study
• Begin to know names of those
• who have written extensively
• on the topic

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How far back you will read?

• Depending on topic
• It will be determined bya. what is
  availableb. nature of the topic if SARS
  cannot go back very far

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Possible Problems

• Too much literature
• Very little literature
• Use of literature from another culture or use of
  research tools from another country when they
  have not been tested for fit with Taiwan culture
• For example Nursing Diagnosis

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How to critique the article or book?

• If research
• Statement of research problem or question
• Methodology-use of measurements
• Review of literature
• Sample and setting
• Findings
• Discussion of findings
• Conclusions/recommendations

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How to critique the article or book?

• If qualitative research
• plausible
• If not research but a polemical essay
• Does it seem logical given what you know about
  the subject?
• Does it seem biased?
• What references does the author use?

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Example-End of Life Ethics

• Culture in general
• Definition of the self
• The role of the family and what is meant by
  family
• Gender roles in family-decision making
• Who usually makes what sort of decisions
• Role of elderly in family
• Is respect for elderly strong or not?
• What does respect mean?
• Death rituals
• The meaning of death

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Influences

• Religion
• Cultural influences
• Language
• Notions of obligations, rights
• Whose name is mentioned many times
• What have they written on this topic
• Any research on dying or death in Japan written
  in English
• Any of this about ethical issues

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• I read health care ethics, anthropology,
• psychiatry, psychology, nursing, sociology,
• medicine, fiction.
• I read and critiqued with my western
• Knowledge as my point of reference
• I sought out clarification from Japanese
• colleagues re some of these ideas

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Any Questions?