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Midwifery

QR Code for MIDGD3105 assessment-specific page in Midwifery subject guide

Assignment Summary

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

  • You will need to find three (3) peer-reviewed journal articles for this assessment.

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.

  • You will need to find use six (6) peer-reviewed journal articles for this assessment. Three (3) of them can be the articles from the first assessment.

How confident do you feel about putting together a search?

How confident are you about the articles/references part of this assessment?
Very confident: 0 votes (0%)
Reasonably confident: 2 votes (66.67%)
Somewhat confident: 1 votes (33.33%)
Not very confident: 0 votes (0%)
Not confident: 0 votes (0%)
Total Votes: 3
How confident are you about the articles/references part of this assessment?
Very confident: 0 votes (0%)
Reasonably confident: 2 votes (16.67%)
Somewhat confident: 5 votes (41.67%)
Not very confident: 3 votes (25%)
Not confident: 2 votes (16.67%)
Total Votes: 12

Plan Your Search

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:

  1. Identify the key concepts in your scenario. You might want to use the Population Concept Context approach (Sometimes approached as Who? What? Outcome?) to defining concepts.
  2. Consider alternative terms that authors might use for these. You will need to consider the clinical terms and everyday terms.
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.

Search Builder 2.0

 

 

 

Step One

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:

  • climate change
  • coffee
  • production

Add each one to a separate concept box. Add new concept boxes as needed

Text copied to clipboard...

Your current search ( and paste it into QuickSearch or a database search box):

In most Library databases, this means every result must have:

 

 

 

Concept 1:

 

Concept 2:

 

Database search

Search NAME

  

        

Search For Resources


Suggested databases for this assignment are:

Levels of evidence

Levels of evidence

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).

Systematic reviews

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

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.

Cohort studies

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

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

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

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.

Systematic reviews Randomised control trials Cohort studies Case control studies Case series and case reports Editorials and expert opinions

 

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

Primary and secondary research

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
  • Review, evaluate, and discuss other peoples' original research and findings
  • The 'methods' or 'methodology' section describes how the authors searched databases and decided which studies to include in their review
  • The 'results' and 'discussion' sections may include a table of the characteristics of the studies they included, and describe the themes of the studies.
  • Reports on the authors' own original research that they have conducted themselves
  • The 'methods' or 'methodology' section describes how the research was carried out, such as recruitment of participants, experiments, tests, interviews, surveys, and other data collection.
  • The 'results' or 'findings' section describes what the researchers found out, and may include statistics, graphs, or tables to show their data.
Secondary study-type examples Primary study-type examples
  • literature review
  • systematic review
  • meta-analysis (quantitative) 
  • meta-synthesis (qualitative)
  • guidelines
  • evidence-based care sheets
  • expert opinions
  • editorials
  • surveys 
  • interviews
  • focus groups
  • experiments
  • randomised control trials
  • cohort studies
  • case studies
  • qualitative studies

Checklists

Use the following checklists to help decide if an article is primary or secondary research.

In secondary research, you will probably see:

  • The word 'review', 'meta-analysis', or 'meta-synthesis' in the title
  • A description of how the researchers found articles e.g., search strategy, and databases searched
  • A flow chart showing how the articles were chosen
  • How many articles were reviewed
  • A description of their characteristics or themes

In primary research, you will probably see:

  • Methodology section describing:
    • the study participants, e.g., how many there were, and how they were chosen
    • What tests, experiments, surveys, or interviews were done
  • Results section:
    • Charts or tables of the data found
    • Quotes from participants

Do your references pass the CRAAP test?

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?

Parts of a journal article reference

Click on any part of the reference for a description and/or brief tips.

Quick Quiz Questions

Create a reference

Drag'n'drop referencing activity

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.

  • Journal: Midwifery Education Studies,
  • Year: (2023).
  • Volume: 23
  • Issue: (4),
  • Pages: 34-42.
  • Article title: Midwifery students and referencing: Easy marks or hard labour?
  • Author: Elk, A.
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.12345.midwedns.23/4.34

 

 

 

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.

Referencing

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.

Go to FedCite

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.

Need more help with referencing?

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. 

Referencing tips (APA 7th edition)

  • If you use a direct quote, you must include a page number (for works without pages, use some other location identifier e.g. para. 4 for paragraph 4)
    "chocolate intake was positively associated with cognitive performance" (Crichton et al., 2016, p. 129)

 

  • Authors
    • One or two authors: Always use both authors: (Jenkins & Tapper, 2014)
    • Three or more authors: Use the first author and et al. all the way through, even the first time: (Kuebler et al., 2015)

 

  • In-text citations must match the reference list:
but only if it is dark chocolate (Rusconi et al., 2012)
Rusconi, M., Rossi, M. G., Moccetti, T., & Conti, A. (2012). Acute vascular effects of chocolate in healthy human volunteers. In A. Conti, R. Paoletti, A. Poli, & F. Visioli (Eds.), Chocolate and health (pp. 87-102). Springer.

 

dangerous for dogs (Department of Primary Industries, 2012).
Department of Primary Industries. (2012). Give a dog a bone, not chocolate this Easter. http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/content/archive/news-releases/agriculture/2012/give-a-dog-a-bone

If you are using a Mac, you will usually have to use the Command or Apple key instead of Ctrl.


Only in Word

APA - hanging indent in the reference list

Ctrl+T - adds a hanging indent to the selected paragraphs (or references)

(Remember, for a Mac using Cmd+T instead)

If you accidentally indent too far, use Shift+Ctrl+T to unindent (Shift+Cmd+T on a Mac)

animation showing selection of references in Word, followed by Ctrl+T to format the selection with a hanging indent

 

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.

screenshot of Word, indicating locatrion of A-Z sorting icon or button

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)

Sentence case is what you want, but sometimes going straight to sentence case doesn't work in Word - if this happens, select your article or book title, first change it to lowercase, then change it to sentence case.

You may also need to manually edit it afterwards to start a sub-title with a capital letter.

screenshot from Word, indicating location of icon to change to sentence case


Use them everywhere

Remember, as it mentions above, if you have a Mac then use Cmd instead of Ctrl

Ctrl+A - select All

Ctrl+C - Copy

Ctrl+X - cut   (think of X = )

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.

How confident are you about the articles/references part of this assessment?

How confident are you about the articles/references part of this assessment?
Very confident: 0 votes (0%)
Reasonably confident: 3 votes (100%)
Somewhat confident: 0 votes (0%)
Not very confident: 0 votes (0%)
Not confident: 0 votes (0%)
Total Votes: 3
How confident are you about the articles/references part of this assessment?
Very confident: 0 votes (0%)
Reasonably confident: 7 votes (100%)
Somewhat confident: 0 votes (0%)
Not very confident: 0 votes (0%)
Not confident: 0 votes (0%)
Total Votes: 7

Ask for help!

Remember you can always ask for help: