Med-Surg Nursing Research Paper

[PSyChRnBSn]

I need to write a professional paper on any of the following topics:

(Pulmonary embolism, acute lung injury, cardiac rhythm disorders, disorders of myocardial perfusion, inflammatory diseases, valvular heart disease, trauma, shock, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, acute hepatic failure, AIDS, Burns, organ donation/transplantation, pancreatic and gallbladder problems, UTI, glomerulonephritis, renal failure, acute kidney injury, or problems of the endocrine glands).

Our professor just told us to go on nursing databases (PubMed, Cinahl) and type in these general terms and pick a topic with a lot of nursing research on it. I have spent hours searching websites for common topics, but they all seem different. The example topic we were given was "quality of life after MI in women".

I was just wondering if anyone had read any interesting research on any of these topics? Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks!

[gM_2010, MSN, PhD, RN, NP]

Two suggestions:

1. Contact a librarian at your school to help you narrow your search.

2. Pick something specific about the topic that's interesting to you or you want to know more about. The more you narrow it down, the easier it will be.

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

Good suggestion to utilize your librarian.

When writing research papers I would go on Google Scholar (it seemed to yield about the best results for one who had to do my homework at home...I was a working mom of a largish family, so had very limited library time. But I digress.)

I would start the research with a broad topic, and then narrowed it down. If you decide beforehand that you're going to investigate the effects of Reiki post-NSTEMI in single Iranian-American women in their 50s who care for their aging parents and earn $50- $60K per year...........you'll probably have a difficult time.

For patho class, I wrote a paper on pressure ulcers -- one of 5 or 6 conditions we could choose from. I started my search simply "pressure ulcers," with the results limited to the past 5 years. From there I found articles on prevention; from there I found articles specific to ICU patients, LTC residents etc. I found articles on the effects of PUs; the financial aspect, the quality-of-life aspect, etc.

For public health, I researched motorcycle helmet use. From there I got info on the types of injuries, prevalence of injuries in helmeted vs non, effects such as quality of life/prognosis/financial cost post injury, evidence based interventions for increasing helmet use (and from there, public health nursing AND legislative interventions).

Basically, start the search broadly and see where the research takes you....rather than choose something so specific that you can't find any info on it.