Research Article Review

Purpose

The purpose of this assignment is for the student to learn to assimilate, analyze, critique, and summarize an original research article. Student is to select a report of a single, original study that has been published within the last five years from the CCN Library.

Course Outcomes

Through this assignment, the student will demonstrate the ability to meet the following course outcomes:

CO1: Examine the sources of evidence that contribute to professional nursing practice. (PO #7)

CO2: Apply research principles to the interpretation of the content of published research studies. (POs #4 and 8)

CO4: Evaluate published nursing research for credibility and lab significance related to evidence-based practice. (POs #4 and 8)

CO5: Recognize the role of research findings in evidence-based practice. (POs #7 and 8)

Points

The assignment is worth a total of 225 points.

Due Date

You are to submit your paper to the Week 6 Research Article Review Dropbox by Sunday 11:59 p.m. MT at the end of Week 6.

Requirements

Through this assignment, the student will:

1. Conduct a systematic search of relevant databases to find research-based evidence related to a nursing problem (CO 1); Student is to use the CCN library for search.

2. Critique a peer-reviewed study, indicating the research question, sample, design of study, data collection method, findings, and limitations of each (CO 2, CO 4,)

3. Summarize the research article and evaluate the significance to nursing. (CO 3).

4. Please remember this assignment can be sent to Turnitin Week One draft box for review. If you wait until late Sunday night to submit, you may not receive your feedback in time if you need to make changes. Final submission must be in the Week 6 Assignment Dropbox and student will not receive Turnitin results. Please read the announcement on the Turnitin information.

5. Article must be from CCN Library and student is required to document working permalink to article.

Preparing the Paper

Conduct a PICO(T) search on the nursing problem that you identified in Week 2, Discussion questions. Select one most recent peer-reviewed study that describes original research in a single study.

Analyze the article and provide the following information in brief format: research question the study; type of sample and number of participants; research design of the study, findings of the study; and limitations of the study. Summarize the importance to nursing.

The estimated length of this paper is four (4) pages, excluding the title page and References page. Summarize the results of the study as outlined below:

1. Write a brief introduction to your paper, however do not label it as an “Introduction” in accordance with the rules of APA scholarly writing.

2. State the research question for this study in a paragraph.

3. Describe the research design of this study.

4. Explain how the sample was selected and include the number of participants. Make a judgment as to whether the sample size was adequate, and defend your answer why or why not.

5. Describe the data collection method(s) including who collected data, what tools were used, and other pertinent information.

6. Identify the limitations of the study, and describe how the limitations could be overcome in subsequent studies.

7. Describe the findings reported in the study. What is the answer to the research question based on these findings? If the study fails to answer the research question, what do you believe is the reason?

8. Summarize the article. Based on these findings, is the evidence that you found on your topic strong enough to suggest a change in practice, or an idea for practice? Please provide the rationale for your answer.

9. List your references, formatted in APA style, On the References page. Guidelines and a sample paper on APA may be found under Course Home in the Course Resources link. Follow the guidelines for writing professional papers using APA formatting as described in the 6th edition of the manual.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.

Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.