Substance Abuse

II. Nursing Problem Analysis
The purpose of this paper is to provide students with the opportunity to analyze concepts or variables of interest within the context of a problem, in Nursing, using published research studies from peer-reviewed journals. Analysis of health and disease outcomes will be accomplished by examining each research article. Students will analyze each research study for research methods and analyses, in order to better understand the role of the advanced practice nurse in the evaluation of research, in order to seek knowledge for evidence based practice.

The following is a procedure you should follow for this paper.

Prior to our library search class, students should:

1. A. Select two concepts or variables pertaining to a problem. This could be a problem you have encountered in your practice setting, one you have heard about or one that you are interested in, or, a problem based on Healthy People 2020, World Health Organization, or other National/International Health Agendas. Choose a problem in Nursing. Choose a problem which best fits under one of the following themes from the National Institute of Nursing Research.
B. The National Institute of Nursing Research has 4 major themes and 2 cross-over ones for priorities in Nursing Research so you may want to choose a problem which fits under one of them. They include: 1. Symptom Science: Promoting personalized health strategies (some examples are: chronic illness and adverse symptoms such as symptoms resulting in pain, fatigue, disordered sleep or strategies to treat and prevent symptoms of illness across diverse populations and settings; 2.Wellness:promoting health and preventing illness (such as physical, behavioral and environmental causes of illness, behaviors that lead to a healthy lifestyle and choices to develop evidenced-based interventions to promote illness); 3.Self-Management: Improving quality of life for individuals with chronic illness (some examples are: strategies to help individuals with chronic conditions and their caregivers to create a better understanding of these strategies for management of their illness); 4. End of Life and Palliative Care: The science of compassion (some examples are: science to manage the symptoms of life limiting conditions and planning for end-of-life decisions); 5.Promoting Innovation: Technology to improve health (some examples are: science in promoting innovations) and, 6. Innovative Strategies for Research Careers.

One example selected might be: the effects of the use of bright light on patient�s sleep. There are many issues which can be chosen so think about one which best suits your own clinical area of expertise. Think about choosing some problem in patient care.

2. Search the literature by using either key words or concepts (depending on the search engine used) from the problem and locate 10 research, peer-reviewed studies (less than 10 years old- preferably 5 years or less) in Nursing which address these two concepts or variables.

3. Using 5 quantitative, peer-reviewed research articles (out of the 10 selected from the literature search) in Nursing, identify and describe elements of the research process within each of these articles. These elements include:
a. research problem and purpose, or hypotheses if any,
b. literature review,
c. design,
d. sampling strategies,
e. descriptive and/or inferential statistical analyses for the major study concepts or variables (only choose those statistics which fit your major study concepts or variables-do not choose both)
f. summary, conclusions and limitations to the study
(Hint: Be sure to write these steps out, avoiding the use of an outline or exact words from the research article. Avoid the use of a table. Do not take these steps from the abstract but rather select them from the study, using your own words.)

4. Explain the statistical results (descriptive or inferential- depending on what you used above) in your own words.
5. Provide a summary of the Research-based interventions from all of your research studies related to your identified Practice-based Nursing Problem.

Please see the grading rubric below for specific grading criteria.

Be sure to use the grading rubric below when writing your paper.

Grading Rubric for Nursing Problem Analysis Paper
CRITERIA POINTS COMMENTS

1. Provide an introduction to the problem in Nursing discussing the selected two concepts or variables. 10

2. Provide a background to the problem, significance of the problem and current state of the problem. 10
3. Identify and describe the steps of the research process of 5 quantitative, research studies in Nursing addressing the following elements of the research process. Include: a. research problem/purpose, and hypotheses (if any), literature review b. design, c. sampling strategies d. data (including descriptive and/or inferential statistical) analyses, e. statistical results, limitations to the study and f. summary /conclusions in each of your selected articles.
30
4. A. Provide a summary of the statistical results illustrated from each article. (Remember, use either descriptive or inferential statistics depending on the article. Avoid the use of both types of statistics. If the article uses inferential statistics then report those results only. If both descriptive and inferential statistics are used, then only use inferential. If only descriptive statistics are used, then only report those).

B. Provide a summary of the statistical results in your own words.

20