Authors
Abstract
Introduction: There has been an accumulation of qualitative studies in nursing, but the findings from
many of these investigations have remained largely obscure, and they have had little impact on clinical
practice and policy formation. As pressure increased toward ensuring an evidence-based practice across
diverse contexts and disciplines and as the finding of any qualitative research will reflect a piece of the
health and disease aspects, being familiar with meta-synthesis in nursing research is very important. This
paper discusses the purpose, stages, application, and challenges of meta-synthesis, and strategies for their
solution.
Method: This review article was carried out by non-time-limited search literatures related to “metasynthesis
and nursing” keywords using PubMed, CINAHL, Proquest, Blackwell, Science Direct, SID, and
Magiran databases. Finally, 57 articles were included in the range of 1984 to 2012.
Results: Meta-synthesis is integrations that offer more than the sum of the individual data sets because
they provide new interpretations of the findings. These interpretations are inferences derived from
examining all of the articles in a sample as a collective group, presenting findings/interpretations which
are not found in any of the articles. Despite existing different approaches to meta-synthesis, evidence
synthesis mechanisms are not well suited to consideration of qualitative research. Moreover, qualitative
meta-synthesis should not be undertaken by novices. Meta-synthesis can help nurses understand the
meaning of relative phenomena and clinical decision making regarding evidence-based practice.
Conclusion: The future of meta-synthesis depends on its acceptance and utility in the evidence-based
nursing practice. If the results of meta-synthesis provide evidences for the clinical nursing, nursing
researchers will embrace this approach more.
Keywords
)