literature review

Write a 16-page literature synthesis of 30-40 sources that addresses your PICOT question.

Instructions

This assessment builds on the work you completed in Assessment 2.

For this assessment, you will continue to explore the literature and expand on the evidence you have found that addresses your PICOT question.

Complete an exhaustive review of the literature:

· Describe your search strategy.

· Analyze the evidence and identify main themes in the literature.

· Write a coherent, scholarly synthesis of the literature gathered during your review.

· Present the inferences and conclusions you can draw from your synthesis.

Graded Requirements

The following requirements correspond to scoring guide criteria, so be sure to address each point. Read the performance-level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed.

· Describe your literature search strategy.

· Be sure to capture refinements you have made to the search strategy you developed in Assessment 2, based on faculty feedback and on lessons learned executing your strategy.

· Include search terms, medical subject headings (MeSH), hand searches, the number of pieces found, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and the number of pieces retained and why.

· Consider a search strategy that extends beyond published studies, which may include systematic reviews, government publications and, as applicable, dissertations or thesis reports.

· Limit your search to sources published within the last five years. Older sources should only be included in your literature synthesis if they are influential or clearly valuable and professionally relevant to your project.

· Analyze the literature addressing your PICOT question.

· Continue to use the  Evidence Table [XLSX]  Download Evidence Table [XLSX] to document and analyze your source materials.

· Read carefully to make informed selections in weeding out irrelevant and inferior studies and recognize the best available evidence that addresses your PICOT question.

· Critically evaluate the evidence.

· Do not accept articles at face value.

· Consider opposing points of view.

· Analyze the credibility, quality, and authenticity of each source using critical appraisal tools.

· Identify the main themes in the literature.

· This enables you to develop meaningful category headings to organize the reviewed literature.

· Continue to use the  Main Themes Table [XLSX]  Download Main Themes Table [XLSX] to document the main themes.

· Synthesize the findings from your analysis of the literature.

· Describe the main themes in the literature.

· Explain how your sources relate to one another.

· Identify commonalities and differences in research questions, methodologies, and findings.

· Consider supporting and opposing points of view.

· Explain how your sources build upon one another.

· Refer to the annotated  Literature Synthesis [PDF]  Download Literature Synthesis [PDF] for an example.

Organize your literature synthesis as follows:

· Introduction. Your introduction should include a brief and succinct overview of the gap or problem you are seeking to address with your project, data to support the issue, an introduction to the intervention and outcomes, and your PICOT question.

· Search Strategy. Provide a comprehensive description of the process you used to find your literature.

· Synthesis of the Literature. After an introductory paragraph that tells the reader what they will find in the review, present your interpretation of the main themes and relationships among sources uncovered in your search.

· Conclusion. Present the inferences and conclusions you drew from your review.