Your assignment is to prepare and submit a paper on literature searches

Your assignment is to prepare and submit a paper on literature searches. Literature Searches December 27, The topic I selected was work-related stress in Nursing. The database CINAHL was used for filtered information. I chose MEDLINE database for unfiltered information. For both databases the search term used was nursing related stress. Two resources were found within systematic reviews. Each source concluded that interventions for this stress were lacking, though the reasons, responses and outcomes of this stress are well defined.

19 results were found that were critically appraised or expert peer reviewed. Information found at this level of the hierarchy focused on specialty areas, such as work stress and physical assault in nursing homes. This level identified and individualized factors which were very specific and also analyzed specially care units and the dynamics within which contribute to work related stress.

Critically appraised individual articles are written by authors who evaluate and provide a brief synopsize of the individual research studies. There were five results found with this criteria. These articles identified studies with implications related to the topic and provided a brief summary of the study without opinion or conclusions of their own.

For unfiltered information I used MEDLINE. For RCT’s only one result was found with the search term nursing related stress. This evaluated nursing students stress level at the bachelor’s level and was a quantitative study. Cohort studies involve groups of individuals who are linked in some way and observed. 2 results were found with this criteria. Only one was relevant which observed Chinese nurses to determine factors related to stress. This linked individuals of a certain ethnic group.

Case controlled studies are merely observational with no intervention attempted and compares individuals with certain characteristics with those who do not have those characteristics, such as a disease. For this group I used cancer as the differing factors and 212 results were found. These results weren’t very useful as most focused on the patient rather than the stress of the caregiver. These studies would not be my first choice in researching nursing related stress.

For background information or expert opinion I focused on validation studies. There were 502 results though most were not focused on my particular topic or phrase which I used. These results actually provided physical and biological evidence of nursing related stress. These studies were very in depth and specific, some measuring levels of stress hormones or using defined scales to determine levels of stress. These studies would be most useful if my topic were narrowed, such as ,’possible effects of stress on nurses.’

The value of the information located in expert opinion sources help to identify possible health risks which can be avoided with stress reduction methods. Though these are unproven they provide insight into areas which are worth further study. The most valuable level were systematic reviews though they did not provide way to avoid this stress or reduce this stress. they merely identified that this was a topic that needed further study to determine how this stress can be reduced.

Cohort studies were more difficult to actually locate a resources which focused on my topic, as nurses stress aren’t comparative to that of the patient. Critically appraised individual articles merely restate what is known without suggesting solutions or criteria for further study.

A useful tip for conducting a literature search which provides you with relevant and useful research studies would be to define your topic or phrase several different ways and to use advanced search options to narrow down the type of research you are wanting to locate such as RCT’s, or systematic reviews.