DNP Evidence-Based Practice Project: Library Resources: Evidence Synthesis

Evidence synthesis involves bringing together the key findings from research studies in an organized, structured, and methodical way. Synthesis can be accomplished using a variety of methods. For your DNP-EBP project, you will be required to write a literature review section in your paper and include an evaluation table. 

This page provides access to recommended articles and books related to literature reviews and evidence synthesis. These resources are meant to increase your understanding of evidence synthesis and its importance within the evidence-based practice process. Click the links below to jump to specific sections of this page:

• Recommended Articles on Writing a Literature Review
• Print Books & E-Books from the UToledo Libraries on Literature Reviews 
• Creating an Evaluation Table 

Click the links below to access articles in full-text.

After clicking the links below, proceed to the full-text by either clicking the PDF Full-Text or FindIt@UT icons. 

• Baker, J. D. (2016). The purpose, process, and methods of writing a literature review. AORN Journal, 103(3), 265–269. 
• Bowden, V. R. (2022). Types of reviews - Part 3: Literature review, integrative review, scoping review. Pediatric Nursing, 48(2), 97–100. (Refer to the Literature Review section on pp. 97-98)
• Fineout-Overholt E., Melnyk B.M., Stillwell S.B., & Williamson K.M. (2010). The process of synthesis: Seeing similarities and differences across the body of evidence. American Journal of Nursing, 110(11), 43–51 (Although this article was published over ten years ago in 2010, it is widely recognized as a classic resource on evidence synthesis. The principles are timeless and applicable in today's EBP environment. This article provides a good example of an evidence synthesis table.)
• Sutton, A., Clowes, M., Preston, L., & Booth, A. (2019). Meeting the review family: Exploring review types and associated information retrieval requirements. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 36(3), 202–222. https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12276 (Refer to Table 3 on pp. 206-10 for helpful descriptions of various review types)
• Wakefield, A. (2015). Synthesising the literature as part of a literature review. Nursing Standard, 29(29), 44–51.

Below is a template for creating your Evaluation Table. This table is for ALL studies, NOT one table per study.

This template was developed by Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt and is included on pp. 848-849 in the 5th edition of their text Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing & Healthcare: A Guide to Best Practice (2023). This text is required for the DNP program and is also available on Reserve at the Mulford Library. It provides additional details and prompts to help you populate your table with information from your included "keeper" studies. 

Add as many rows as needed to your table