The paper may be no more than 10 pages maximum, should be written in a formal scholarly style and conform to APA format. The following discussion is based on the grading rubric criteria. The use of headings is strongly recommended to organize your paper into the sections listed below:
Significance to your practice and to nursing: We want to hear from you why you think the concept is important. What is it about this concept that is significant to your practice and to nursing in general? Examine the concept from both within the lens of your personal practice and within Nursing in general. Be sure to support this section with evidence from the literature.
Identify uses and define the concept: This section is so very important! What you want to do is look at many, many different sources for uses and definitions of your concept…dictionaries, literature, thesauruses, etc. Do not stick only to the nursing or medical literature. Present the historical development of the concept and its origins in language. Gather all the definitions you can find, even those that you think are unrelated. For example, if your concept is coping, then even look at uses from the architecture literature…there are copings on buildings…coping saws, a coping garment, etc. Even though you may not think it is related to nursing, looking at a concept from as many different perspectives as possible helps you gain a thorough understanding of your concept and gives it a richness in meaning. You will be required in the rubric (guidelines) of the paper to obtain definitions from at least 5 sources and 3 different disciplines. This is a minimum expectation. Look at literature from other disciplines such as engineering, business, art, etc… Some concepts will have many more definitions/uses and remember that you want to be as thorough as possible.
Define the attributes (include antecedents & consequences): As you are looking at the uses and definitions of the concept, make a list of the characteristics you are seeing over and over. You want to try to show the cluster of attributes that are the most frequently associated with the concept and gives the analysis the broadest insight into the concept. Also include the antecedents and consequences. Antecedents are those events or incidents that must occur prior to the occurrence of the concept. Thus an antecedent cannot be a defining attribute. Consequences are those events or incidents that occur as a result of the occurrence of the concept…the outcomes of the concept. In the coping example, an antecedent was an intensely stressful stimulus …the consequence was the regaining of balance. These may be difficult to understand…be sure to refer to the concept analysis examples for further review.
Cases: Write each of these as actual scenarios, you may pull these examples from your own experience, or you may choose to “make them up”.
Model Case: The model case, also often called the exemplar case, is an example of what the concept looks like. You need to apply the concept to a clinical situation sort of like a case study. You can make this up, use an example from your clinical practice, or an example from the literature (It is not appropriate to use the cases developed by an author of a published concept analysis). Bold the defining attributes as your example includes them in the scenario.
Borderline Case: The borderline case is an example that contains some of the defining attributes but not all of them. The case is inconsistent in some way from the concept under consideration. In Chinn & Kramer (2008), they speak of an analysis of fatigue. For the borderline case, the case could include military fatigue clothing. Another example is the concept of mothering. A borderline case might be about a computer motherboard.Related Case: A related case does not contain the critical attributes of your chosen concept, but may contain similar ideas. For example, the concept quality of life may include a related case that is an example of satisfaction with life, well-being or health status. Remember, this should be a demonstration of a situation that is very similar to your chosen concept, but not exactly the same. It will not contain the defining attributes of your chosen concept.
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