The tutorials linked in this guide work in tandem with assignments in the nursing curriculum. the boxes below show how how sections of each tutorial map to specific elements of the course content, mutually reinforcing course content and information literacy skills.
Resource link: Library Slides from Program Orientation
Before students begin credit-bearing classes, they go through an orientation program. The librarian meets with the students to review the big questions of how library research is incorporated into the nursing program: who, what, when, where, how, and why. This overview lays the groundwork for the students to be familiar and comfortable with the library services during the program.
Resource link: Tutorial for NG309 Evidence-Based Practice
Week 1 assignment: Students propose topics for the course-long research project to their groups. Each student must find at least one relevant article and share it with their group. The articles must be scholarly, peer-reviewed, primary research articles from a nursing journal. The professor gives feedback to each student on their selected article(s) to improve their ability to locate and evaluate more articles for future weeks.
Week 2 assignment: Students search for more articles, this time focusing on the topic chosen by the group last week. They share and discuss the articles to determine which articles are relevant and appropriate for use in the group's final project.
Week 3 assignment: Students analyze and evaluate their saved articles, then select the articles to use in their final project. They discuss what content the article would provide for an EBP project, whether the article is appropriate for an EBP project, and whether the content is relevant to findings for an EBP project.
Week 4-5 assignment: Students choose one of four posted nursing articles. They critique the article according to a posted rubric, using outside sources like their textbook or other research articles. This is a 3-5 page paper with APA formatting and citations. The paper describes the chosen article's research question, topic, literature review, gaps, methodology, participants, ethical issues, and data analysis. The professor gives extensive feedback on this paper to improve the writing and analysis in the final course paper.
Week 6 assignment: This is the culmination of the course-long group project. Each group writes a 2-3 page APA-style paper and creates a PowerPoint presentation. The paper and presentation, based on research articles, provide guidelines or recommendations to improve nursing practice on the group's chosen topic. Additionally, the group completes a literature matrix for all their research articles. the matrix lists each article's APA-style reference and summarizes its purpose, design, sample, statistics, findings, and a critique. the literature matrix also lists the database search strategies and keywords used to locate the articles.
Resource links: Tutorial: Basic Searching for Nursing Research and DynaMed
Assignment: students create an evidence-based care plan for a specified procedure related to women's health. They must supply several nursing diagnoses, with multiple detailed interventions for each diagnosis. They must cite at least two peer-reviewed nursing journal articles published within the last 5 years. Any other sources must also be current.