dissertation

pshs_2000 · Mar 8, 2009

Make sure you're using professional journal databases such as PubMED, CINAHL, and Cochrane. What is the main topic of your research? Use a few words to search that topic. Example: I'm doing a paper on Hepatitis B vaccination among patient receiving hemodialysis. So I searched hepatitis b and dialysis in pubmed. Look over the abstract and see if the article is relevant to your topic. If it is, then read the article focusing on the introduction, results, and discussion/conclusion sections. Also look in the bibliography to see if there might be other helpful articles. The articles you find may also give you other keywords that you can use to search. Also, it's important to identify the gaps in literature regarding your topic. This can be used to create a defense on why your research is important. Example: Hepatitis b is recommended for high risk groups. It's been relatively studied well among health care professionals, but there are gaps in the literature about other high risk groups that may not have "free" access to the vaccine. You can usually find info about gaps in the intro and in the discussion (usually limitations). And you should be able to go to your campus library and ask the research librarian for some lit review tactics. I've spent a few days looking up a topic and find nothing but once I ask for help, they me other keywords and ideas that generate alot more results. Your school's library website may also have research guide information.

magners · Mar 8, 2009

hi thanks so much for you help my dissertation topic is limb salvage versus limb amputation due to trauma, i will do this through evaluating the benifits and limitations of lower limb amputation. i would just like to ask you more about gaps in research and limitations of studies that i find. What kind of limitations could there be in a study. For example i can only think of when there is onl one hospital used for the research, or when only one group of participants are used like elderly.

thanks so much for your help

pshs_2000 · Mar 8, 2009

oh there can be all kinds of limitations! the study design is the first one that comes to mind. is it randomized controlled trial, case-control, cohort, etc.? the study design can introduce different types of bias and can also limit sample size. one-site studies and population age good examples of limitations. what about salvages that later turn into amputations? a study may not be able to capture it due to the study's timeframe. different hospitals/physicians may have varying criteria for salvaging vs. amputation. there may be gender-related or racial/ethnic-related disparities. also occupation or activity at time of trauma may be confounders to the type of surgery. the first thing that i though of was military/war trauma (which may be primary young men) vs construction workers. if they do then it can limit how much you can compare results. see if you can find a meta-analysis or systematic review article that combines results from multiple studies.

how are you defining "benefits"? is it by quality of life, years lived post-surgery, cost-benefit analysis, etc?

read the literature, see what the trends are, and that should help you better define what you thinking