Final Synthesis Paper – NURS 8670

Final Synthesis Paper – NURS 8670

Purpose: To provide the student learner with the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to apply the Johns Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice Model in synthesizing evidence in the form of a paper that will serve as the basis for their DNP Project proposal.

• Please use the Johns Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice appendices and assigned readings from your course textbook as a resource for this assignment.

• The writing in your paper should be scientific, crisp, clear, and succinct. Please incorporate active voice when appropriate and support ideas with examples.

• No spelling, grammar or punctuation errors should be made in your paper.

• Please include the following APA Level 1 headings in your paper:

• Introduction
  • Methods (overview of search strategy for literature review)
  • Literature Review
  • Discussion (including practice implications)
  • Conclusions
  • References
  • Appendices

• Please adhere to APA guidelines throughout the entirety of this paper. Resources and tutorials for APA can be found in this course within the “Resources” folder.

• Please review the NURS 8670 Final Synthesis Paper grading rubric posted in iCollege.

• Turnitin.com will be used to evaluate paper similarity scores. Please use the tutorial found in the “Resources” folder in our course to learn about how to avoid plagiarism.

• Please write using well-structured paragraphs and logical flow per APA. Please use transition words and topic sentences to establish connections, comparisons, and contrasts.

• Your final paper should be 10-35 pages, double spaced with 1” margins using APA guidelines. Please note that the page length excludes references and appendices.

• Please submit your assignment via iCollege by the deadline date listed on the NURS 8670 Course Calendar.

• While completing this assignment, please think about and plan ahead for your DNP project that will be developed over the duration of the DNP program that will be based on the final paper for our NURS 8670 course.

• Please save the completed paper in your cloud-based storage to access for your DNP Project. Your DNP Project Chair and Team will require you to provide them with a copy of this paper next semester.

TITLE PAGE

• Title is informative, succinct, and offers specific details about the topic of interest, variables, context and/or proposed methods of project. Please be sure that each variable of your Clinical Practice Question is included in your title.

• Please include your credentials behind your name on the title page.

INTRODUCTION SECTION

• Please include APA Level 2 subheadings and contents in this section: Background/Significance, Problem Statement, Clinical Practice Question, Target Population, Setting, and Purpose of the Project.

• National and state statistics (incidence, prevalence, morbidity, mortality, cost, etc.) should be reported within the Background section. The Background section includes significance is clear and compelling as supported by evidence. The economic impact of the problem is stated in the Background section.

• Please describe the gap in the literature that your project will address.

• Please include your revised problem statement based on the foundational work that you completed during the Clinical Practice Question assignment. The problem statement should be specific with breadth and depth clearly articulated.

• Please include your revised Clinical Practice Question within your Introduction section based on the foundational work that you completed during the Clinical Practice Question assignment. Your clinical question should specifically describe the topic of interest, inform the reader about an issue, clarify previous findings, and/or add to the body of knowledge already available.

• Please describe your Target Population in great detail, include demographic variables such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, and rationale for selection, etc. Please remember to be inclusive and culturally sensitive!

• Please describe your setting in great detail, include demographic variables such as population demographics, general description of rural/urban/urban cluster status, and rationale for selection, etc.

METHODS SECTION

• Please include the resources and databases that you used in your search strategy to identify peer reviewed journal articles.

• Please include a description of the search strategies used to search each database and resource (include the search terms and limits used).

• Please include the dates (in years) searched in your methods section.

• Include the total number of results from each search of each database or resource and articles included in your synthesis. Please strongly consider presenting this information using a flow chart as described in previous content within this course.

• Please utilize your GSU Library contact to have them review your search strategy write up. They are the experts in explaining how to revise a literature review search strategy that will be presented in a Methods section.

LITERATURE REVIEW (SYNTHESIS)

• To successfully complete this assignment, please include peer reviewed journal articles that you have appraised and synthesized in the previous assignments for this course using the GSU Library online search engine. Please use Interlibrary Loan via the GSU Library to request articles that you need to order.

• You will include at least 15 articles total in the contents of the literature review (synthesis) section of this paper. You will need to cite peer reviewed journal articles or authoritarian sources in the Introduction and Discussion sections of your paper as well as within this section. Therefore, you will need to include more than 15 articles total in the entire paper.

• You should be utilizing EndNote for the storage of all journal articles. Please note that EndNote and MS Word can communicate together for direct in-text citation using APA formatting.

• Please include only peer reviewed journal articles published within the past 5 years. (If you identify a gold standard reference from an authority source that you would like to include, then please email your course faculty for approval to include the article. Please attach the article to your email.)

• Organization of the Literature Review section should be intuitive, fluid, and sufficiently grounded to each of the variables of the proposed project.

• It is highly recommended to present your review of the literature using themed Level 2 subheadings. Each theme should be developed based on the synthesis of the literature and the themes that emerge upon synthesizing the literature.

• The Literature Review section should be a well written narrative that integrates critical and logical details or themes from peer-reviewed literature.

• It is very easy to unintentionally plagiarize when writing a review of the literature. Therefore, it is expected that you will paraphrase using the resources provided in this course and by the GSU Writing Studio.

DISCUSSION SECTION

• The Discussion section is meant to be the bulk of your critical analysis about the literature that you reviewed (synthesized) in the Literature Review section.

• The Discussion section represents your interpretation about the literature that you reviewed (synthesized).

• Discussion should demonstrate recognition of the role of a nurse as an agent of change in the healthcare system.

• Please determine whether sufficient evidence exists to support current practice or a change in practice. Please discuss how the strengths and limitations of the evidence affected determination and applicability to clinical practice.

• Please clearly state the implications for practice from a population perspective, not personal preference.

• You are expected to use in-text citation in this section of your paper to compare, contrast, and construct critical dialogue to emphasize your points about the literature that you reviewed.

• Please consider using APA Level 2 headings to organize your thoughts in the Discussion section.

• Please discuss the practice implications of the literature that you reviewed for your project.

• Please discuss the practice implications at the local, state, national, and international level. This is a very important component of your Discussion section that needs to be strongly emphasized.

• You may also connect the practice implications directly to the agency/hospital where you plan to conduct your project. Students are encouraged not to select their place of employment as the agency for the completion of the DNP Project to minimize risks for conflicts of interest.

• The gaps in literature that your project will address should be clearly evaluated within the Discussion section.

• Provide an overview of your future project and other areas of future investigation. Connect your project to the existing evidence.

CONCLUSIONS SECTION

• Provide a summary of the key findings of the literature review (synthesis).

• It is not appropriate to cite within a conclusions section.

• Provide an evaluation of the current state of the evidence reviewed and gaps in the evidence.

• Summarize your project as a key contribution of future study.

• Please do not introduce any new information in the Conclusions section of your paper. The Conclusions section is meant to serve as a wrap-up of your paper.

REFERENCES

• Please include a reference list per APA guidelines for each in-text citation. (MS Word and EndNote software programs will automatically insert your in-text citations and reference lists. Huge time saver! However, you will still need to double check each reference very carefully.)

• Please include DOIs for each article and work with our GSU Library staff and GSU Writing Studio to ensure that the DOIs are linked properly in the References.

APPENDICES

• The following completed Johns Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice appendices representing your evidence appraisal, summary, and synthesis process must be included as appendices of your final paper for this course:
  • Appendix D
  • Appendix E
  • Appendix F
  • Appendix G
  • Appendix H
• Please note that these appendices represent the equivalent to the “evidence matrix” required for your DNP project proposal.

• Please see APA guidelines for additional instructions for including appendices in a paper.

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