produce a literature review that will consider an aspect of patient care related to end of life care.

Assignment Brief Written Assessment Year 2 (NUR2000)

Assessment Title:

A Literature Review of an evidence-based aspect of patient care with a focus on end of life.

Assessment Format:
A written literature review with a 3000 NOTIONAL word count. Notional word count means you can be under or over this word count without a penalty on word count alone. However, remember this has to satisfy the standards required for level 5 (See marking criteria – Module Handbook on Bb p7-8) and the learning outcomes. When work is too long it is usually too descriptive. When too short, there is not enough content. Learning outcome 10 is requesting Demonstrate the ability to write concisely to a brief. Considering all this try to keep to the 3000 words Quality not quantity is what is valued.

Assessment Brief:
Students will produce a literature review that will consider an aspect of patient care related to end of life care. Any aspect of end of life care can be considered. Some examples include, advanced care planning, communication skills, medications, interventions, views of relatives, training and education, etc. Students will complete a literature review of the available evidence. Included in this work will be evidence of the student’s literature search (a search strategy) including the search terms (A search strategy table) used as an appendix.

Learning Outcomes:

Learning Outcome 1: Demonstrate a critical understanding of research methods, ethics, and governance in providing evidence-based care.
Learning Outcome 7: Demonstrate an evidence-based understanding of end of life care.
Learning Outcome 10: Demonstrate the ability to write concisely to a brief.

Preparation
Timetabled teaching and learning activities within the NUR 2000 curriculum and from UniSkills regarding literature searching and using databases
A presentation study support guide
Support from personal teachers and assessment lead
Formative assessment opportunities within the NUR 2000 curriculum
Independent investigation of the topic area
Visiting learning services and Catalyst support outside of the timetabled session
Level 5 written marking criteria.

Student Guidance:
The written assessment will be in the form of a literature review. This method of assessment will help to build upon skills you have started to develop in year 1, however, for year two, this is NOT an annotated bibliography (Please do not think about reproducing something similar for this assessment).
A literature review has been selected at level 5 as this method will allow you to consider a wealth of evidence in relation to a specific topic. Evidence-based practice is recognised by the NMC as being vital for effective and safe person-centred care. It is vital that nurses are equipped with the skills to consider the available evidence – literature reviews are one way of achieving this.
There are different types of literature review, but they all aim to consider a specific aspect of practice and if there are any gaps in the evidence where further research is required.

What do you already know?

  • Consider how to search for journal articles/academic books
  • Consider how appropriate an article is for the subject being written about
  • Edge Hill University Harvard Referencing and where to access support with this.
  • Consider how to write in an academic style and where to access support with this.
    What you will learn from completing a literature review?
  • Advanced Literature searching using specific key terms
  • Using search terms which can enhance/limit your advanced literature search.
  • How to present literature reviews.
  • Demonstrate a critical understanding of research methods, ethics and governance in providing evidence-based care.
  • Demonstrate an evidence-based understanding of end of life care.

How do I start?
Please see the NUR 2000 written assignment study support guide presentation (This can be found on blackboard)

  1. Consider the information regarding end of life care that you find particularly of interest. This does not have to be related to your specific field but can be if you wish. Some possible examples are (but not limited to):
  • Communication issues
  • Advanced Care Planning
  • Specific patients e.g. Cancer, Learning disabilities, dementia, males/females, elderly/child etc
  • Place of death
  • End of life medications and prescribing
  • Training and education
  1. When you have selected you chosen topic of interest you will need to narrow this down to a more specific research question or focus. This can be a question that the search of the literature will help to answer or could be a presentation of the available evidence in a particular area. Some possible examples are (but not limited to):
  • Child patients and preferred place of death in end of life care
  • Benefits and obstacles of shared decision making in end of life care
  • End of life care and pain control with people who have dementia
  • End of life care and patient’s preferred place of death and the effect this has on relatives
  • Nurses’ attitudes towards communicating with patients in end of life care.
  1. Consider some key words or phrases that are related to your focus. This will help you to search for the related literature using an academic database/search engine and using the Boolean search terms e.g. AND, OR, NOT you can search for relevant literature to help frame your discussion. Ensure you keep this information as you will use it as an appendix (Search strategy table) for your assignment. This will demonstrate that you have used the databases appropriately using the correct search terms. (see information on blackboard and Uni Skills session for more information).

A suggestion for how you could present your search strategy table in the appendix:

Search Strategy Table
Database Search Terms Limits Results Articles Used
PubMed
Search 06/02/22 End of Life Care OR Death OR Dying OR Terminally Ill AND Dementia OR Alzheimer’s disease OR Palliative care AND Therapeutic interventions OR strategies English language only
Peer Reviewed
Full Articles
Time period – 01/01/15 – 31/01/22 844 12
CINHAL
Search 06/02/22 End of Life Care OR Death OR Dying OR Terminally Ill AND Dementia OR Alzheimer’s disease OR Palliative care AND Therapeutic interventions OR strategies English language only
Peer Reviewed
Full Articles
Time period – 01/01/15 – 31/01/22 375 8

I have my literature – What next?
You will now need to read and evaluate your sources – there are some tools to help you do this (see blackboard and UniSkills resources). It may be worth considering:

What is the focus of the research and the key message?
What are the research processes within the study i.e. What was its design? i.e. Quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods. Is there evidence to suggest that the method was suitable? What is the study sample population, type, size. When study was conducted?
What evidence suggests that this study is robust?
Does the study identify research ethics, ethical approval, research governance?
Do the findings offer new insights?
Are there other literature/ studies that agree or refute these findings?

Once you have done this you may start to see some key themes emerging. i.e. do few studies indicate nurses’ attitudes are supportive? If so, this can form a theme.

You may decide develop themes and discuss the relevant studies under those theme headings.

Suggested Assignment Structure:

Introduction: As with all assignments you will use this section to introduce your review by integrating the learning outcomes and introducing the topic that you have chosen to discuss – what is the research question or what is the focus of this review?

Search Strategy: A brief discussion surrounding how you searched for the literature (signpost the reader to your appendix here. Your appendix should contain your search strategy table).

Main Body (Discussion): Using the literature you have gained from the search, critically discuss the research methods within the study and the research ethics and governance. Provide literature evidence to critique the research process. You will also need to analyse the findings and using the wider evidence-based literature to support or refute the studies findings.

At Level 5 you need to show evidence of analysis and evaluation in your writing to meet the learning outcomes. This means the discussion should not be limited to describing each study in order. You need to try and link studies and information where possible (either because it supports or refutes others) and be critical about how they have been conducted – consider what makes the study reliable or not.

Conclusion: Draw conclusions based on your discussion above and if applicable/possible you can suggest possible ideas for future research in this field.

Reference list

References should be arranged in alphabetical order. Please follow the Harvard referencing system as per Edge Hill University guide.

Appendix

The search strategy table should be here.

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