Literature Review

The foundation of the study should suggest some theoretical framework to be explained further in this chapter. The literature review thus describes and analyzes previous research on the topic or a gap in information that your project may fill. This chapter, however, should not merely string together what other researchers have found. Rather, you should discuss and analyze the body of knowledge with the ultimate goal of determining what is known and is not known about the topic. (  The aim of the project is to reduce the patient’s fall rate in the skilled nursing unit at an acute care facility through improving the fall precaution process. The unit consists of 48 bed with a population of stroke, medical, and surgical patients.)

This section should contain a discussion of OTHER PEOPLE’s research. This is not the section to include information about your project. Do not include your own opinions or findings from your data.  Begin by describing which databases you searched, search terms you used, how you narrowed your search, how you selected those references you will discuss in this section.

The Literature Review is what others have written that provide a foundation to the content of your quality improvement activity, an underpinning theory, framework and support for the method you chose for delivery–does that help to expand it? A well-written Literature Review section demonstrates to the reader that you are expert in the problem you examined current, best practice to inform your project.

The Literature Review should begin with a paragraph that describes which databases you searched, which search terms you used, which strategies you used, and what you yielded. This shows the extent of your search. Then you describe how you focus on about 35 of the retrieved references and briefly summarize how their content forms the foundation for your project. This section should be about 10 pages and content should be separated with APA first and second level headings.

How to perform a Boolean Search

Boolean logic is used to search methodically for information about your topic. Boolean operators (named after a mathematician Boole) are simple words (AND, NOT, OR, and AND NOT) that are used as conjunctions to either combine or exclude keywords in a search, which focus results and make them more productive. This will save the writer wasted effort and lost time by focusing on articles that are pertinent to what is being researched. Although search engines and database collections might use them differently, there are certain basic operations that are used in retrieval logic.

Proximity Operators (with, near and others) can also help you in searching.
AND—requires both terms to be in each item returned. (Narrows the search)
OR—either term (or both) will be in the returned document. (Broadens the search)
NOT or AND NOT (dependent upon the coding of the database’s search engine)—the first term is searched, then any records containing the term after the operators are subtracted from the results. (Using Parentheses—Using the ( ) to enclose search strategies will customize your results to more accurately reflect your topic. Search engines deal with search statements within the parentheses first, then apply any statements that are not enclosed.

Select keywords from your search that are specific to topic and content, as you will use these words under your abstract.