This assessment help page assumes you have read the course outline, assessment description and marking rubric provided in Moodle. Assessment instructions, marking guidelines and lecturer advice override any advice on this page.
Assessment 1: An annotated bibliography
research evidence-based interventions that midwives can use to support breastfeeding success in the early postnatal period
Assessment 2: Essay
respond to the clinical question itself in the form of an essay. The purpose of the essay is to review and apply evidence to a clinical scenario, including how evidence can be incorporated into practice to improve care of childbearing women.
In this assessment, you may need to conduct multiple searches in order to address the patient's symptoms, health issues and goals, as well as relevant characteristics, such as their age or gender.
Start planning your search by:
Key concepts | Alternative terms |
childbirth (What - Concept or Context?) | birth OR delivery OR labor OR labour |
preparation (Outcome - Concept or Context?) | preparedness OR readiness |
prenatal (Who - Population) | "pre-natal" OR prepartum OR "pre-partum" |
Now use Boolean operators to connect your search terms.
Use OR to combine all the terms for the same concept: mental health OR wellbeing
Use AND to combine terms from different concepts: mental health AND support
Use quotation marks to search for a phrase: "mental health"
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:
(birth OR childbirth OR delivery OR labor OR labour) AND (prepar* OR readiness OR ready) AND (prenatal OR "pre-natal" OR prepartum OR "pre-partum") AND midwi*
You will probably need to alter your search terms as you go.
Break down your question into concepts (mostly the nouns).
e.g. Discuss how climate change might affect coffee production
This might be broken down into three concepts:
Add each one to a separate concept box. Add new concept boxes as needed
Concept 1:
Concept 2:
Suggested databases for this assignment are:
When answering clinical questions, you need to use the highest level of evidence possible. In the diagram below, evidence that is higher up the pyramid is of higher quality i.e., systematic reviews (secondary research).
A systematic review is regarded as a high level of evidence and is secondary research. It starts with a specific and answerable clinical question, identifies all the research available and eliminates flawed and low-quality studies, then uses the results of the remaining high-quality studies to answer the clinical question and thus make recommendations on best practices.
Randomised controlled trials are primary research. Researchers assign participants randomly into an intervention group or a control group, then results are compared to see if the intervention had an effect.
A cohort study is primary research. It looks at the health outcomes of a specified group, comparing people in the group who have been exposed to a potential risk factor with those who have not been exposed, and looks for links and correlations.
Case control studies looks at existing data to compare people who have a specific health outcome or condition, compared with those who don't, to find what factors differ between the groups.
Case series and case reports look at one or more individual cases and outcomes or responses to interventions. Regarded as a low level of evidence, the information might not apply to a wider population.
Editorials and expert opinions can be based on a practitioner's individual experience. Generally regarded as one of the lowest levels of acceptable evidence, they do not necessarily account for uncontrolled external factors, differences between different groups, nor placebo effects.
Hover over each level of the evidence pyramid for more detail
To learn more about levels of evidence, click on the links below:
Joanna Briggs Institute. (2013). JBI levels of evidence. JBI. https://jbi.global/sites/default/files/2019-05/JBI-Levels-of-evidence_2014_0.pdf
More explanation:
Joanna Briggs Institute Levels of Evidence and Grades of Recommendation Working Party. (2014). Supporting document for the Joanna Briggs Institute levels of evidence and grades of recommendation. JBI. https://jbi.global/sites/default/files/2019-05/JBI%20Levels%20of%20Evidence%20Supporting%20Documents-v2.pdf
Nice tabular summary of the JBI levels of evidence:
JBI, & University of Adelaide. (2021). JBI EBP database guide. Wolters Kluwer. https://ospguides.ovid.com/OSPguides/jbidb.htm
Secondary research appraises the quality of original research studies, summarises the findings, and often makes recommendations for practice. However, secondary research is not always available, and searching for primary research such as randomised control trials may be required.
Secondary research | Primary research |
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Secondary study-type examples | Primary study-type examples |
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Checklists Use the following checklists to help decide if an article is primary or secondary research. |
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In secondary research, you will probably see:
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In primary research, you will probably see:
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When was this source published?
How old are the references and data used?
Has this source, or its data, been updated?
Does this type of information get updated?
Is there likely to be more recent information available elsewhere?
Is this information relevant to your assignment? Is there likely to be better information?
Is this aimed at the correct audience?
Who wrote it? What are their qualifications?
Where do they work? Who do they work for?
Are they likely to have a good understanding of this field?
Is the information reliable?
Can you find the original source?
What is the quality of the presentation? Are there significant errors?
Do the conclusions match the data?
Have all sides been considered?
Why has the article been written?
Is there any obvious bias? Is the author or their employer likely to get a benefit out of the recommendations?
Is it recommending a particular course of action or therapy? Does the data support this? Are any alternatives considered?
The following resources (from the Learning Skills Advisers)) might be helpful for creating your assignment.
Click on any part of the reference for a description and/or brief tips.
Smith, A. B., & Jones, C. (2022). Correlation of chocolate intake with librarian effectiveness: A scoping review. Journal of Library Stuff, 23(3), 245-253. https://doi.org/10.1298uwu.woiej/23.3.245
Drag the pieces in order into the box below. After each drag, click to de-select the dragged text (inside or outside the target box).
Template: Author. (Year). Article title. Journal, volume(issue), pages. DOI
Example:
Doe, J. (2024). Referencing journal articles: A librarian's view. Journal of Librarian Pettifoggery, 273(5), 345-372. https://doi.org/10.54321.lib.pet.273.5.
Click the Test button to check how it turned out.
Note: no italics or hanging indent will be used in this test, so the result is not fully compliant with APA 7th edition.
Does not work in Internet Explorer (does work in Edge), time to update your web browser.
The following video has been created by the Library to step you through the referencing process if you are new to FedCite.
Please refer to the common midwifery sources page of this LibGuide to aid in referencing some of the more frequently used nursing literature such as the NMBA Standards.
Use the Journal article section of FedCite to reference the peer reviewed articles you use. Remember the Using APA7 section has information about what to do if the article doesn't quite fit into the template, such as if there is no DOI, or if you have two articles by the same author.
Lots of examples, instructions, and tips on citing and referencing. To get started, click on your style. Expand any line with a
These "Quick Guides" have been created by the Learning Skills Advisors.
See also the Study Skills Referencing page.
For quick help during Semester, contact the Peer Support team.
Alternatively, book an appointment for more in-depth individual help from a Learning Skills Advisor.
If you are using a Mac, you will usually have to use the Command or Apple key instead of Ctrl.
Ctrl+T - adds a hanging indent to the selected paragraphs (or references)
(Remember, for a Mac using
If you accidentally indent too far, use Shift+Ctrl+T to unindent (Shift+Cmd+T on a Mac)
Sorting by A-Z - Word has a feature to sort selected lines or paragraphs (or references) alphabetically. Select your references, and click the A-Z button on the Home tab.
Note: if you don't select your references first, all the paragraphs in your essay will be sorted alphabetically - this is a bad thing, select your references first.
Changing case - Word has a feature (look for the Aa button) to change case, so you can quickly change a title to correct sentence case.
(Hint: Ctrl+click will select a whole sentence, which often is enough to select a book or journal article title)
You may also need to manually edit it afterwards to start a sub-title with a capital letter.
Ctrl+A - select All
Ctrl+C - Copy
Ctrl+V - paste (think of V = or put it here)
For easier selecting : If you have a laptop touchpad and selecting text is awkward, just put your cursor where you want to start selecting, then (instead of using the touchpad) hold down Shift and use the arrow keys on the keyboard to "drag out" the area of selection.