How to synthesise original findings back into the literature: a reintroduction to concurrent analysis
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

How to synthesise original findings back into the literature: a reintroduction to concurrent analysis

Linda Kelly Clinical Nurse Advisor, Vygon UK, Swindon, England
Austyn Snowden Professor in Mental Health, School of Health and Social Care, Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland

Why you should read this article:
  • To understand how concurrent analysis can be used to integrate any new literature with the study findings

  • To recognise the role concurrent analysis can play in synthesising relevant literature with primary data

  • To show how this process can increase, not decrease, the originality of the study, and its transferability

Background All studies need to integrate their findings back into the literature to explain how the new knowledge changes understanding. This process can be anxiety-provoking, especially when new literature appears to threaten the originality of the study.

Aim To reintroduce ‘concurrent analysis’ (CA) – a method of synthesising relevant literature with primary data.

Discussion CA treats all data as primary data. To illustrate the technique, the authors synthesise relevant literature with findings from a doctoral study of patients’ experiences of vascular access devices.

Conclusion CA raised new questions that would otherwise have remained unasked. For example, it revealed cultural differences in the way patients react to suboptimal treatment.

Implications for practice Nurse researchers are best placed to influence policy and practice when they can articulate the transferability of their findings. CA is a practical method of achieving this.

Nurse Researcher. doi: 10.7748/nr.2020.e1710

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and has been checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

a.snowden@napier.ac.uk

Conflict of interest

None declared

Kelly L, Snowden A (2020) How to synthesise original findings back into the literature: a reintroduction to concurrent analysis. Nurse Researcher. doi: 10.7748/nr.2020.e1710

Published online: 30 April 2020

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