Educational objectives

The course aims to provide students with the minimum knowledge to start researching, critically reading and appraise the results of national and international nursing, bio-medical and socio-health research, in order to propose solutions to the healthcare problems, using relevant literature and applying a rigorous method. The intent is to offer key concepts to understand nursing research and Evidence-Based Practice within the Italian professional cultural context, contributing to the improvement of the quality of care in their future work environments.

Expected learning outcomes

At the end of this module the student will be able to:
1. Know Italian Nursing Research development, norms mentioning nursing research, and the different levels of training provided.
2. Learn the basic tools to identify specific problems and/or research areas of nursing interest in clinical experiences.
3. Select, depending on the topic one is going to study, the most specific and authoritative bibliographic sources, both national and international.
4. Find, select, read and evaluate relevant literature in order to make decisions and answer questions arising from nursing care and clinical practice.
5. Distinguish research articles and research reports of quantitative studies from those using a qualitative or mixed approach.
6. Identify, in scientific articles, research process phases and, more precisely: topic and research problem; literature review; the approach chosen by the researcher and the theoretical framework of the study; the research question or hypothesis and/or objectives; research design, sampling strategy and data collection tools; limitations of the study; the results obtained and the implications for professional practice.
7. Critically evaluate literature reviews/knowledge synthesis, in order to distinguish their characteristics and to identify their typology.
8. Learn about the Evidence-Based Practice method, included in the broader topic of Clinical Governance, in order to finalize it at improving the quality of nursing care.

Prerequisites
This course is scheduled during the 3rd year and students are therefore expected to know the resources in the Insubria Medicine and Science Library and to be able to access them even from their own home.

CONTENTS
1. Research, nursing research and research methodology.
1.1 The evolution of nursing research in Italy and abroad.
1.2 Nursing research in legislation and research training levels.

2. The continuum of qualitative and quantitative research: approaches, types of study and research designs; the types of research mainly used by nurses.
2.1 A way to approach the different phases of the research process.
2.2 Types of Knowledge Synthesis: clarifications on terminology and, in particular, Literature Review, Scoping Review and Systematic Review.
2.3 Outline of the Evidence Based Practice methodology.
2.4 The critical reading of research articles (Critical Appraisal).
2.5 Dissemination of results: preparation of posters, oral presentations and suggestions for writing a scientific article.

3. “The big picture” of clinical governance and clinical audit.
3.1 Summary of teaching contents and links with other disciplines / courses of the Nursing degree according to the future work activity.

EDUCATIONAL METHODOLOGY
Distance lectures in streaming or deferred (based on the resources available) and guided discussions of scientific articles with continuous links with other teaching activities of the three-year Nursing Degree. The learning objectives and the expected learning outcomes will be easily achieved with the active participation in the activities proposed at a distance (single and in groups), the critical use of the textbook adopted, the consultation of the suggested bibliography, the reading of the articles reported and other activities offered throughout the year.

EVALUATION METHODS

The exam is oral. On January 27th, at the end of the lessons, from 2.00 pm to 3.