This week you will do a written article critique. The purpose of the paper is for you to locate a report of an original research project (review of the literature or meta analysis will not be accepted) that is pertinent to nursing care at “end of life care” (hospice care, palliative care) The article should be less than 5 years old and be from a peer reviewed nursing journal. The research must have been completed in the United States.

Proper APA format is required (be sure to include title page and headings as appropriate).

The paper should be submitted through Safe Assign and have less than 30% similarity identified.

Include the following sections in your paper:

APA Style Reference:  place the APA style reference for the article you are critiquing in this section.

Current Clinical Relevance:  How does this article relate to the care of patients either in your current nursing role or a nursing role that you are interested in.

Summary:  This should not be the abstract, paraphrase what they studied, how they did it, what they found, be complete but succinct.

Critique: What you think, not just what the author thinks-must include the following 1) sample size (is it adequate for the study? Is it too small? Why? Pilot studies and qualitative study sample size is usually small. 2) Type of study (qualitative/quantitative/retrospective/etc.) Is this appropriate? Why or why not? 3) Literature review (the literature review may be in the introduction section and not labeled as a literature review). 4. Strengths (What do YOU think the strengths of the study are?) 5) Limitations (What do YOU think the weaknesses of the study are?) 6) Tables/graphs (are there any? Are they helpful or confusing?) 7) Reproducibility (could someone else take the information from the report and replicate the study?)

Application to Practice:  How will this impact YOUR current or future nursing practice?

The paper should be 4-5 pages (not including the title page)

Remember that all papers should begin with an introduction paragraph that includes a clear purpose statement (The purpose of this paper is …). Also, each paper should end with a conclusion/summary paragraph.

Your article critique should be submitted by Friday of Week 7 at 12:00 pm (noon) CST.