| Course | NURS 6001 Foundations of Graduate Study |
|---|---|
| Week | Week 3 |
| Paper type | Search trail |
| Length | About 540 words, 4 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Walden University |
| Program | Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NURS 6001 Week 3
Search Trail: Teach-Back at Discharge and Readmission in Heart Failure
Student Name
College of Nursing, Walden University
NURS 6001: Foundations of Graduate Study
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Search Trail: Teach-Back at Discharge and Readmission in Heart Failure
Question
Does nurse-led teach-back education at hospital discharge reduce readmission among adults with heart failure?
The question comes from my telemetry unit, where patients with heart failure are often back within a month. Teach-back, where the nurse asks the patient to restate the plan and then fills whatever gaps appear, is already on our discharge checklist, but no one on the unit has looked at whether it changes readmission.
Concepts
Table 1
Concepts, Synonyms and CINAHL Subject Headings
| Concept | Synonyms and variants | CINAHL heading |
|---|---|---|
| Heart failure | heart failure, cardiac failure, CHF | Heart Failure+ |
| Teach-back | teach-back, teach back, show-me method, closing the loop | Patient Education+; Teaching Methods |
| Readmission | readmission, rehospitalization, hospital return | Readmission |
Search Log
Table 2
Searches in Order
| # | Database | String | Limiters | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CINAHL Complete | (MH "Heart Failure+") OR "heart failure" OR "cardiac failure" | None | 61,480 |
| 2 | CINAHL Complete | S1 AND ((MH "Patient Education+") OR educat*) | None | 4,912 |
| 3 | CINAHL Complete | S2 AND (readmi* OR rehospitali*) | 2010 to present; English; peer reviewed | 618 |
| 4 | CINAHL Complete | S1 AND ("teach-back" OR "teach back" OR "show-me") | 2005 to present; English; peer reviewed | 57 |
| 5 | CINAHL Complete | S4 AND (readmi* OR rehospitali*) | Same as 4 | 24 |
| 6 | PubMed | ("Heart Failure"[MeSH] OR "heart failure") AND ("teach-back" OR "teach back") AND (readmission* OR rehospitalization) | English; 2005 to present | 31 |
Lines 2 and 3 show the search that returned too much. Education is a broad concept, and even with the readmission term and date limits, search 3 produced 618 records, most about general discharge programs. The narrowing move was to replace the education concept with the specific method, teach-back, in line 4, and then add readmission in line 5. OR joins synonyms within a concept, AND joins concepts, and the asterisk truncates word endings, so readmi* finds readmission, readmissions and readmitted.
Articles Selected
1. Oh et al. (2021): a systematic review whose meta-analysis of three studies found lower odds of 30-day readmission with teach-back discharge education, while warning of high selection bias; kept as the best summary of the question.
2. Ha Dinh et al. (2016): a review pooling studies that used teach-back to educate people living with chronic illness; kept for its evidence on adherence and self-management, the pathway through which teach-back might affect readmission.
3. White et al. (2013): a prospective cohort of 276 hospitalized patients with heart failure; kept because it measured both knowledge retention and readmission and reported the nonsignificant readmission result honestly.
4. Peter et al. (2015): a quality improvement project using teach-back with patients hospitalized for heart failure; kept as a practice example of implementation, not as strong evidence.
5. Koelling et al. (2005): a randomized trial of a one-hour nurse educator session at discharge for heart failure; kept because it shows the effect of structured nurse-led discharge teaching, although teach-back is not named as its method.
Note on Databases
PubMed (line 6) returned 31 records, but after removing duplicates it added no relevant article that CINAHL had not already found. For a nursing education question, CINAHL's subject headings for patient education and teaching methods did most of the work. PubMed remains worth checking for medical trials of discharge interventions, which is how the Koelling trial was confirmed.
References
Ha Dinh, T. T., Bonner, A., Clark, R., Ramsbotham, J., & Hines, S. (2016). The effectiveness of the teach-back method on adherence and self-management in health education for people with chronic disease: A systematic review. JBI Database of Systematic Reviews and Implementation Reports, 14(1), 210-247. https://doi.org/10.11124/jbisrir-2016-2296
Koelling, T. M., Johnson, M. L., Cody, R. J., & Aaronson, K. D. (2005). Discharge education improves clinical outcomes in patients with chronic heart failure. Circulation, 111(2), 179-185. https://doi.org/10.1161/01.CIR.0000151811.53450.B8
Oh, E. G., Lee, H. J., Yang, Y. L., & Kim, Y. M. (2021). Effectiveness of discharge education with the teach-back method on 30-day readmission: A systematic review. Journal of Patient Safety, 17(4), 305-310. https://doi.org/10.1097/PTS.0000000000000596
Peter, D., Robinson, P., Jordan, M., Lawrence, S., Casey, K., & Salas-Lopez, D. (2015). Reducing readmissions using teach-back: Enhancing patient and family education. Journal of Nursing Administration, 45(1), 35-42. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNA.0000000000000155
White, M., Garbez, R., Carroll, M., Brinker, E., & Howie-Esquivel, J. (2013). Is "teach-back" associated with knowledge retention and hospital readmission in hospitalized heart failure patients? Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 28(2), 137-146. https://doi.org/10.1097/JCN.0b013e31824987bd
Reading the NURS 6001 Week 3 instructions
The third NURS 6001 week usually asks you to document a library search using Boolean logic. You state a question, break it into concepts, build strings with AND, OR and NOT, record each search with its results and explain the articles you selected. Faculty grade reproducibility. Cite library guides and the selected articles in APA 7. Result counts will differ when searches are rerun. CINAHL and PubMed are common choices. Sources found outside the library should be labeled as such. NURS 6001 faculty want each concept shown with its synonyms, each string copied exactly and each search given its database, limits, date and count. Explain why each selected article fits the question.
How this NURS 6001 Week 3 example is built
A single question heads the document: whether nurse-led teach-back at discharge reduces readmission for adults with heart failure. Beneath it sits a concept table, three columns wide, listing each concept with its synonyms and the CINAHL subject heading that matches it. The search log follows as numbered lines, each carrying the exact string, the database, the limiters applied and the number of results returned. Boolean logic is visible in the strings themselves: OR joins synonyms inside a concept, AND joins the concepts, and truncation catches word endings. Two lines show a search that returned too much and the narrowing move that fixed it. The trail ends on five selected articles, each with a single sentence on why it survived, and a note on which database added nothing new.
Reading the NURS 6001 Week 3 rubric
Reproducibility is where this piece wins or loses. A marker should be able to take any logged line into the library and land on a similar result set, so strings are written exactly, including quotation marks around phrases and asterisks for truncation. Operator use is checked next: OR inside concepts, with AND between them, with NOT used rarely and explained when it appears. Limiters earn credit when they are justified, such as a five-year window tied to changes in discharge practice, rather than applied by reflex. Logs tend to lose credit through vagueness, reporting that the author searched CINAHL for heart failure articles, and through shortlists containing items that never appear in the log. Formatting the final article list in APA 7 is a small row that rewards consistency with the rest of the program's writing.
Common NURS 6001 Week 3 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Search trails lose credit when strings are described rather than recorded. Copy them exactly. Another common gap is misusing Boolean operators, such as OR between concepts that must all appear. Use AND between concepts and OR within them. Writers also skip limits and dates. Record both. Avoid listing articles without a reason for selection. Explain the database choice. Keep the question focused. Close with the article you will read first. Writers also forget truncation and phrase searching, which change results a lot. Use them and note them. Another frequent slip is a question too broad for one search. Narrow it. Keep the log in a table.
Get a NURS 6001 Week 3 example written to your instructions
Tell the desk what your Week 3 prompt asks, attach the rubric, and name the clinical topic you want searched. A trail gets built around that question in the databases your instructor expects. No charge for the first one, returned in 24 to 48 hours with strings you can rerun and adjust yourself.
More NURS 6001 papers and MSN samples
- NURS 6001 Week 1: Academic Network Roster
- NURS 6001 Week 2: Paraphrase Comparison Set
- NURS 6001 Week 4: Scholarly Source Screen
- NURS 6001 Week 5: Research Article Pair Analysis
- NURS 6001 Week 6: APA Reference Repair
- NURS 6001 Week 7: Study Time Budget
- NURS 6001 Week 8: Scholarly Paragraph Rebuild
- NURS 6001 Week 9: Three-Source Synthesis
- NURS 6001 Week 10: Program Milestone Map
- NURS 6001 Week 11: MSN Success Plan
- NURS 6002 Week 3: Nursing Philosophy
- DNRS 6521 Week 3: Pharmacogenomic Memo
- NURS 6050 Week 3: Legislation Analysis
- DNRS 6501 Week 3: Case Analysis
NURS 6001 Week 3 questions, answered
Are the result counts in the example real?
They reflect the searches as they ran when the sample was built, and they will not match a search run on another day, because databases add records constantly. The counts matter for what they show about narrowing, not as fixed numbers. When your own trail is written, the counts come from live searches on your topic, and your instructor will expect some drift if anyone rechecks them.
Which databases does the trail use?
CINAHL carries most of the example, with a comparison run in PubMed using its MeSH headings, since those two index much of the nursing literature MSN courses expect. Your section may name different databases or require the library's multi-database search tool instead. The structure of the log stays the same whichever combination is used, and the trail you receive is built in the ones your prompt specifies.
Can the trail include sources found outside the library?
Yes, if they are logged the same way. The example records one Google Scholar search used to catch an article the databases indexed late, with the string and date noted like every other line. What loses credit is a shortlist item with no search behind it. If your prompt restricts searching to library databases, the sample keeps to that rule and leaves outside tools out entirely.
Where can I find a free NURS 6001 Week 3 sample paper?
The teach-back search trail is printed here with the question, concepts, every string in the log, the selected articles and the database note.
What question does the NURS 6001 Week 3 search answer?
Whether nurse-led teach-back at discharge reduces readmission among adults with heart failure.