The effectiveness of pain management using opioids for cancer-related pain in children.
You will be expected to write a 4,000 word review of the literature on an aspect of nursing specific to your field of practice. Information from a range of sources should be evaluated and recommendations for clinical practice should be generated from the discussion.
Suggested structure:
INTRODUCTION
The introduction should clearly identify the chosen topic for your literature review.
It should state why this is an important nursing topic in the UK worthy of investigation.
In other words, it should provide the justification for the topic selected. This may include the extent of the issue, the cost, variations in practice, and implications for patients, nurses and the NHS.
Include in the introduction reference to professional nursing practice and link concepts such as accountability, evidence-based practice, ethical principles, nursing values and philosophies, governance, and codes of conduct to your topic.
THE AIM
The introduction should end with an aim and/or question(s) which the review will attempt to answer.
THE REVIEW
You may like to give a brief introduction defining a literature review.
You should demonstrate to the reader your ‘Search strategy’, which can (largely) be in tabular form and therefore (much of) this will not be included in the word count. This will provide the reader with some transparency to the approach you took.
Describe how you searched and selected the literature you have used in your review.
You should state which databases you used, what your key words and search terms were, and any limiters you applied such as date and language restrictions.
State the inclusion and exclusion criteria you used to select the final number of articles used and state the latter.
It is helpful for the reader if you identify the themes that emerged from the literature and use them as subsections in the review.
Compare, contrast and comment on the literature you have selected and identify the strengths and limitations of the methods used in the studies or in the information that has been included.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
At the end, pull the literature review together by writing a conclusion that answers the aim and is clearly based on the literature you have examined. It is often a good idea to start the conclusion by reminding the reader of the aim, e.g. ‘This literature review set out to….’ What can you say now about the topic based on your review of the literature?
Suggest recommendations for practice (and research, if appropriate) based on your conclusions. They should identify any possible developments which may improve nursing practice:
Are there specific clinical changes that would need to be made?
Are there any educational issues for helping staff carry out practices in a different way?
Are there any specific managerial issues that need to be addressed?
Are there any professional or ethical issues raised by any differences between the literature’s identification of best practice and local practice?
Are there any issues for multidisciplinary or multi-organisational cooperation or healthcare policy (the bigger picture)?
What could the benefits of a change in practice possibly be?
