Nursing

Now use Boolean operators to connect your search terms. 

Use OR to combine all the terms for the same concept: graduate nurse OR newly qualified nurse

Use AND to combine terms from different concepts: graduate nurse AND fatigue

Use quotation marks to search for a phrase: "imposter syndrome"

Use brackets to group all terms from the same concept together

Watch the following video to learn more about Boolean operators

When you put it together: 

("coping strategies" OR "coping skills" OR "coping approaches") AND (transition OR transitioning) AND ("nursing students" OR "student nurses" OR "newly qualified nurses" OR "graduate nurses")

You will often need to alter your search terms as you discover new alternative terms. For example, in the reference lists of relevant articles.

Suggested databases for this assignment are: 

You might find the relevant nursing codes and standards are useful for this unit. 

Is this information relevant to your assignment? Is there likely to be better information? This will depend on what you are trying to find out. Often you will need to read the abstract to find out.

Is this aimed at the correct audience? Articles for this assessment should be peer reviewed. If you are not sure, you can copy and paste the title into Quicksearch to see if the purple peer review icon shows in the result:

Alternatively, you can check the journal title in Ulrichs. If it has a small black icon that looks like a book next to the title, it is peer reviewed (called refereed in Ulrichs).

Who wrote it? What are their qualifications? Are the qualifications relevant to the topic? Most peer reviewed articles will have information about the authors, often at the end or hyperlinked, with their qualifications listed. 

Where do they work? Who do they work for? Generally, authors should be working for a university or a research centre of some kind. 

Are they likely to have a good understanding of this field?

What is the study population size and characteristics? Keep in mind this is dependent on the study type, for example qualitative studies usually have smaller study populations than quantitative. The population does need to be fairly similar however, to enable accurate results and to make sure any effects reported are due to the treatment. For example, a treatment for back pain may look more effective if the group receiving the treatment is much younger than the group that doesn't.

Is there a control group? This is a group that does not receive the treatment, and allows the researchers to compare them to the group getting the treatment to see if it works.

Is there blinding? This is where the control and treatment groups do not know whether they are getting the intervention or not. Remember though that this might not be possible for some interventions, for example researchers testing a new vaccine can give the control group a saline solution instead of the vaccine, but if they are testing a new massage technique it is almost impossible for the participants to be unaware if they received a massage or not!

Do the statistics make sense and match the authors' claims? 

Who funded the study? Is it a company, university or research organisation? If it is a company, do they manufacture a product being tested? If you are not sure, can always search for them on the internet. If the URL ends in .com, it is a company.

Is there any obvious bias where the authors or their employers are likely to benefit from the study recommendations? For example, if the authors work for a particular company and recommend the use of one of their products, this could indicate a risk of bias.

Does it state what the authors' were trying to find out? The research aims or questions should be clearly stated in the beginning of the article, and the conclusions should describe what they found out.