NURS 1062: Contemporary Midwifery Practice – A2 - Midwifery - Guides at University of South Australia

Assessment 2: Essay - Contemporary Midwifery Practice

For Assessment 2 you will need to write an essay. This page has been created to help you start searching for resources:

Before starting please make sure you have read the full assessment criteria:

Understand your task

The Student Engagement Unit's Academic Skills website is full of resources to help with assignments. The following video (2:27) will assist you in writing essays:

Essays Overview

Plan your search

Before you start looking for information, use the following steps to plan your search:

Define any words you are unsure of.
Identify the main ideas (key concepts) in the statement. These will form the foundation of your search.
Then consider alternative words for your key concepts which you can also search for.

Note: a table can be a useful strategy for organising key concepts and alternative concepts or synonyms.

Example Question: What factors in an obstetric ultrasound contribute to the expectant mother's satisfaction?

Key concepts	Alternative concepts
obstetric	prenatal, antenatal
ultrasound	sonogram, ultrasonography, scan
expectant mother	pregnancy, pregnancies, gestation
satisfaction	satisfaction, quality of life

This table is not comprehensive, you will find more concepts as you begin to search.

Next combine your terms:

combine all the search terms for the same concept using OR
combine different concepts using AND
use "quotation marks" to keep phrases together

Example Searches:

obstetric AND ultrasound AND pregnancy AND 'quality of life'

(obstetric OR prenatal OR antenatal) AND pregnancy

Watch the video below to learn more about how to plan your search:

How to plan your search

Start your search

You can search for information using a range of tools, including the Library Catalogue and databases, Google Scholar, and internet search engines. Choose the sources that are best suited to your need.

Select the plus symbols below to learn more about different search options.

Basic search
This is the default option when searching in the Library Catalogue.

1. Add in one keyword for each concept, combining them with AND.
Note: Searching for more general terms will find more results.
2. Select Search.
3. Swap your keywords with your alterative terms to see different results.

Advanced search
If you would like to do a more comprehensive search, use the Advanced search.

1. Put each concept on a new line
2. Add your alternative words, combining them with OR.
3. Select Search.

Filters

Use the filters on the left to limit and refine your results.
You could try limiting to:

Tick box Peer-reviewed journals
Full text online
Resource types
Publication date range

Emcare
Searching in Emcare is different to searching in the Library Catalogue.

1. Type your first concept and alternative words into the search box.
2. Untick the box labeled Map to Subject Heading.

3. Select Search.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 for your next concepts.
5. Tick the boxes next to each of your concept lines.
6. Select Combine with AND.

7. Scroll down to see your results.

Learn more about searching in Emcare by working through the interactive Emcare tutorial.

Scopus
You can do a basic or advanced search, just like in the Library Catalogue.

1. Type all your keywords for your first concept into the search box.
2. Select the plus symbol to the right to add a line for your next concept.
3. Add all your keywords for your second concept into the search bar.
4. Repeat steps 2-3 until you have used all your concepts.
5. Select Search.

More useful databases:

Health Collection
The Health Collection includes research articles, reports and case studies of practical support to anyone studying or working in therapeutic, diagnostic and preventative health roles
MEDLINE (via Ovid)
The US National Library of Medicine database. Covers medicine, nursing, bio-medicine, pharmacy and allied health. Can filter by publication type.
ScienceDirect
For peer reviewed articles on a large range of subjects including health

Google Scholar
You can search Google Scholar in the same way as a Catalogue basic search.

Access Google Scholar through the Library website
Follow the instructions to link your session to UniSA
Use the basic search box like the Library Catalogue
Look for the PDF links or Fulltext at UniSA links to access the resource

Select appropriate references

Remember in the requirements you have been asked to use peer reviewed journal articles. The video below explains more:

Key points from the video

Credible references are articles from peer reviewed journals that are of high quality and can be used to support arguments that you are presenting.
Articles in peer reviewed journals must go through an evaluation process with experts in the field before being published.
The terms refereed, scholarly and academic are also sometimes used to indicate quality journals.

Write your assignment

View the Student Engagement Unit's Study Help website for help writing your assignment, or to make an appointment with SEU staff.

Study help: Writing and academic language
Printable resources and videos to help you structure, format and write your assignment using appropriate language.
Study help: Writing essays
SEU's help page on writing academic essays

Reflective writing

During your course you will also need to write reflectively. To find out more about what reflective writing involves look at the resources below from Study Help: