Week 5: The Doctorally Prepared Nurse: Scholarship
One of the most important and critical roles of the DNP-prepared nurse is that of the scholar-practitioner. A scholar-practitioner represents an individual who is committed to not only ensuring effective, quality, and safe practice but engages in the necessary scholarship activities to inform that practice.
For example, consider the term evidence-based practice and how pervasive this type of research is for the field of nursing. So many aspects of advanced nursing practice and healthcare delivery are rooted in evidence-based practice research (i. e., the installation and implementation of nursing practice/healthcare delivery guidelines that are supported by the critical analysis and synthesis of peer-reviewed research with clearly defined and specific test criteria).
In your role and function as a DNP-prepared nurse, you have the opportunity to not only demonstrate and apply advanced nursing practice but to also promote the future of advanced nursing practice further by informing the field and areas of improvement through sustained scholarship and research abilities.
This week, you will begin your critical analysis and synthesis of the peer-reviewed research on a topic of interest to inform advanced nursing practice. You will locate a set of peer-reviewed research articles to support your topic of interest and will engage in a stepwise approach to critically analyze, summarize, and synthesize themes in the current literature.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
- Summarize peer-reviewed research
- Synthesize peer-reviewed research
- Contrast approaches for summarizing and synthesizing peer-reviewed research
Learning Resources
Required Readings (click to expand/reduce)
Required Media (click to expand/reduce)
Assignment: Locating and Critically Analyzing Primary Research Articles
- What steps do you take to locate primary and peer-reviewed research articles when performing a literature search?
What resources are available to you to engage in a meaningful and successful literature search?
As you have explored throughout this course, Walden University provides vast resources for student support to ensure success in their academic program of study. When it comes to research and using Library resources, several support mechanisms are available to you as well.
Taking the first step to think about a research topic or area of interest and filtering that topic using a series of keywords and operations will be a fundamental component for performing a literature search in Walden Library’s databases. While the ultimate goal is to produce a set or results that match your search criteria, you must keep in mind that that the quality of the research articles obtained will likely vary. Thus, you must critically examine and analyze the aims of the research produced and how it aligns, confirms, or negates your topic or area of research. As you develop proficiency in this area, you will discover that you can extract content themes and frameworks to enhance future research and the need to identify additional research support.
For this Assignment, consult the Walden Library webinars and resources provided. These resources serve as a general good first step for performing literature searches and engaging with the databases of research available to you. Think about a research topic or area of interest to focus on for this Assignment. Then, search the Walden Library to locate and retrieve peer-reviewed research articles that pertain to your topic or area of interest.
To prepare:
- Review the Walden Library webinars presented in the media Learning Resources for this week.
- Then, search the Walden Library and locate three peer-reviewed primary research articles that pertain to your practice area and are of particular interest to you.
The Assignment: (6 paragraphs)
Write a 6-paragraph APA-formatted paper in which you do the following:
- Write a 1-pararaph introduction of how you conducted your literature search and the databases consulted in your search in relation to your practice area or area of interest. Be specific and provide examples.
- Write a 1-paragraph summary of each of the articles you have selected (a total of 3 paragraphs).
- Write 1 paragraph that synthesizes the three articles using a scholarly voice.
- Write a final paragraph in which you discuss the differences between summarizing and synthesizing research. Be specific and provide examples.
Reminder: The College of Nursing requires that all papers submitted include a title page, introduction, summary, and references. The Sample Paper provided at the Walden Writing Center provides an example of those required elements (available at https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/templates/general#s-lg-box-20293632). All papers submitted must use this formatting.
By Day 7 of Week 5
Submit your Assignment by Day 7 of Week 5.
Submission and Grading Information
To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:
- Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “M4Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name.
- Click the Module 4 Assignment Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
- Click the Module 4 Assignment link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
- Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “M4Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open.
- If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
- Click on the Submit button to complete your submission.
