Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Aug;26(5):427-438.
doi: 10.1177/1744987121997907. Epub 2021 Aug 5.

Conducting integrative reviews: a guide for novice nursing researchers

Shannon Dhollande  1 , Annabel Taylor  2 , Silke Meyer  3 , Mark Scott  4
Affiliations

Conducting integrative reviews: a guide for novice nursing researchers

Shannon Dhollande et al. J Res Nurs. 2021 Aug.

Abstract

Background: Integrative reviews within healthcare promote a holistic understanding of the research topic. Structure and a comprehensive approach within reviews are important to ensure the reliability in their findings.

Aim: This paper aims to provide a framework for novice nursing researchers undertaking integrative reviews.

Discussion: Established methods to form a research question, search literature, extract data, critically appraise extracted data and analyse review findings are discussed and exemplified using the authors' own review as a comprehensive and reliable approach for the novice nursing researcher undertaking an integrative literature review.

Conclusion: Providing a comprehensive audit trail that details how an integrative literature review has been conducted increases and ensures the results are reproducible. The use of established tools to structure the various components of an integrative review increases robustness and readers' confidence in the review findings.

Implications for practice: Novice nursing researchers may increase the reliability of their results by employing a framework to guide them through the process of conducting an integrative review.

Keywords: integrative literature review; methodology research; nursing; research design.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Integrative review framework (Cooke et al. 2012; Riva et al. 2012).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Example PRISMA flow diagram (Bakon et al. 2019; Moher et al. 2009).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Attride-Stirling J. (2001) Thematic networks: An analytic tool for qualitative research. Qualitative Research 1(3): 385–405.
    1. Aveyard H, Bradbury-Jones C. (2019) An analysis of current practices in undertaking literature reviews in nursing: Findings from a focused mapping review and synthesis. BMC Medical Research Methodology 19(1): 1–9. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bakon S, Taylor A, Meyer S, et al. (2019) The provision of emergency healthcare for women who experience intimate partner violence: Part 1 An integrative review. Emergency Nurse 27: 19–25. - PubMed
    1. Boell S, Cecez-Kecmanovic D. (2010) Literature reviews and the Hermeneutic circle. Australian Academic & Research Libraries 41(2): 129–144.
    1. Boell S, Cecez-Kecmanovic D. (2015) On being systematic in literature reviews. Journal of Information Technology 30: 161–173.