Purpose of Literature Review
For nurses, performing literature reviews on existing research helps to build knowledge about particular topics. Reviewing literature can help the researcher find existing research on their particular topic. The primary purpose of a literature review is to review current research about a particular topic and to gain an understanding of existing research in terms of what has already been done and areas for improvement (Gray et al., 2017).
Approaching the Topic
When conducting my literature review, I will thoroughly read through each article. I will then address specific criteria in terms of methods, sampling, participants, purpose, outcomes, and instruments of the study. I will analyze the selected articles for validity and reliability and determine which articles present the best evidence to answer my PICOT question.
Useful Information
Other than nursing literature, studies regarding population health would be useful for my proposal. These would help view hypertension in various populations with different races, cultures, and/or ethnicities. This would offer a different perspectives than hypertension in the United States. Another source of information that would be useful is the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website due to statistics on hypertension that it presents.
Incorporating into Proposal
This information could be implemented in two ways. First, information from the CDC would provide useful background for hypertension prevalence here in the U.S. Secondly looking at population health literature may be useful as a comparison for hypertension management for other cultures, races, and ethnicities. This would help myself to incorporate different lifestyle modifications from different populations for management of hypertension.
Article Example
A study done in Nigeria focuses on addressing whether or not hypertension can be managed with lifestyle modifications alone (Eze et al., 2021). The authors used a systematic random sampling technique to randomly assign participants to a control and experimental group. There were 379 Nigerian men and women in the study. The authors used a questionarre to ask participants about changing their lifestyle modifications including lower alcohol consumption, healthier eating, more exercise, and stress management. The blood pressure readings were taken once at the start of the study and then again at the end (six weeks). The authors of the study found lifestyle changes have a moderate effect on reduction in blood pressure (Eze et al., 2021).
