7 STEP PROJECT:  STEP 3
The Literature Review :  Summarising succinctly what is known and where the gaps are for a topic of your choice
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Objective:
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1

The Literature Review

 You need to consult the scientific literature about one or more hazards and/or their linkages to an adverse health outcome of your choice from the range of prioritised hazards in your hazard scan.

Once you have chosen your  research topic you need to summarise what is known and where the gaps in knowledge are, and then to relate these to your project which will typically be to measure the risk, or effect or the exposure-response relationship.

The best way of proceeding with a literature review is to find a good or reputable recent review article or perhaps chapter in a textbook on the topic.  This can be accomplished by searching the ILO Encyclopaedia or searching Pubmed.    Usually the review will cover all individual studies up to that date so you can then search forwards for studies after that.   At the end of this you will have a good idea of what is the state of existing knowledge and what are the gaps in knowledge about risk, effect, or both.

Hand in by Monday November 10th

 

 

 

Learning activities:  An example 

A LITERATURE REVIEW OF NEEDLESTICK INJURIES IN A HOSPITAL PAEDIATRIC WARD shows an approach where a short precis of each reference is given with an overall  summary of the topic  at the end. 

This is one way of doing a literature review but not really adequately developed. 

You still need to knit together all the relevant references into a description of the problem you are studying.  It would be preferable therefore to characterise the problem, use the references to show what is known, what is not known, summarise all of this in a concentrated statement and proceed to the aims and objectives of research that could answer some of the questions that arise.  This could be your next step or could simply be left to others to study in the future. 

 

 

 Evaluation: 

Steps 1 through 6 will count  3  marks each (3x6  = 18), the final report 3 marks, and the final presentation oral 3 marks. This gives a total of 24 marks.

Marks   will be allocated as follows:

3 = Complete, 2 = Progress, 1 = Markedly incomplete, 0 = no hand-in on time

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