RES 6041 Module 3 Synthesis Matrix Example

Five Studies, Four Questions: Building a Synthesis Matrix on How Charge Nurses Are Prepared and Turning It Into Synthesized Paragraphs

Student Name

American College of Education

RES6041: Scholarly Writing and Research Strategies

Module 3 Assignment

Instructor Name

October 26, 2026

Introduction

The Module 2 search found a small literature on how charge nurses are prepared for their role. Reading those studies one at a time produces summaries; a literature review needs synthesis, which compares what several sources say about the same point. A synthesis matrix makes that comparison possible before writing begins. This paper describes the five studies in the matrix, the four questions that form its columns, what reading across each column reveals and two paragraphs drafted from the matrix to show the difference between summary and synthesis.

The Sources

Five studies fill the rows. Wolf et al. (2022) combined survey and interview data to describe what emergency department charge nurses in the United States do and how they learned to do it. Wolf et al. (2024) drafted a competency list for the same job and then validated it with a national sample of 427 emergency nursing leaders and charge nurses, plus focus groups. Krugman et al. (2013) evaluated a charge nurse leadership program at one academic medical center across six data collection periods from 1996 to 2012, using the Leadership Practices Inventory. Rankin et al. (2016) surveyed 60 senior charge nurses in Scotland and interviewed 12 about a policy that increased their supervisory time. Mtsoeni et al. (2023) interviewed five newly qualified intensive care nurses in South Africa who served as shift leaders within a year of finishing their training. The set mixes designs, countries and settings, which is a strength for synthesis and a caution for comparison.

The Matrix Columns

Four questions form the columns, chosen because they map onto my dissertation's interest in staffing decisions. First, what does the charge nurse role require? Second, how are charge nurses prepared, formally or informally? Third, what difference does preparation make? Fourth, what gets in the way? Each cell holds a short note in my own words with a page number, so that the matrix can be used to write without reopening every article. Cells left empty matter as much as filled ones, since they show what a study did not address. A fifth column records each study's design, sample and country, so that the strength of evidence stays in view while reading across rows.

Reading Down the First Column: What the Role Requires

The studies agree that the role combines clinical judgment with management of people and flow. The emergency nursing studies are the most specific: the top-ranked competencies in Wolf et al. (2024) included nurse-patient assignment, situational awareness, moving patients through the department, communication and clinical judgment. The South African study describes the same demands from the inside, as a weight of responsibility and accountability that newly qualified nurses felt their experience did not match (Mtsoeni et al., 2023). The Scottish study frames the senior charge nurse role as clinical leadership and staff development, but participants spent much of their supervisory time managing staffing levels instead (Rankin et al., 2016). Across settings, staffing and assignment decisions appear as a core requirement, whether or not the role was designed around them.

Reading Down the Second Column: How Preparation Happens

Here the studies diverge. In the emergency department research, participants described little formal training and disagreed about which education and experience the job called for (Wolf et al., 2022). The South African nurses were expected to lead shifts immediately after graduating from intensive care training. In contrast, the academic medical center in Krugman et al. (2013) ran a formal leadership program for permanent and relief charge nurses over many years, though the authors noted that educational interventions were delivered unevenly. The Scottish senior charge nurses identified preparation and support, including induction, coaching and mentoring, as conditions for success rather than describing them as things they had received.

Reading Down the Third and Fourth Columns

Only one study measured the effect of preparation over time. Krugman et al. (2013) reported that charge nurse leadership ratings improved across the program's history and that relief charge nurses reached ratings similar to permanent ones by 2012. No study measured patient or staffing outcomes associated with preparation, the cell that matters most for my dissertation and the one left empty in every row. Barriers were reported more consistently: heavy workload, time constraints and limited support in Scotland (Rankin et al., 2016); stress, anxiety and exhaustion among new shift leaders in South Africa (Mtsoeni et al., 2023); and unclear role expectations in American emergency departments (Wolf et al., 2022).

From Matrix to Paragraph

A summary paragraph built one source at a time might read: "Wolf et al. (2022) studied emergency charge nurses and found minimal training. Krugman et al. (2013) evaluated a leadership program. Rankin et al. (2016) studied senior charge nurses in Scotland." Each sentence starts with an author and none connects to the others.

A synthesized paragraph drawn from the second column reads: "Formal preparation for the charge nurse role appears to be the exception rather than the rule. Nurses in emergency departments reported minimal training and inconsistent expectations (Wolf et al., 2022), and newly qualified intensive care nurses in South Africa led shifts without preparation for the responsibility (Mtsoeni et al., 2023). Where structured programs exist, as at one academic medical center, their delivery can be uneven even when leadership ratings improve (Krugman et al., 2013). Senior charge nurses in Scotland described induction, coaching and mentoring as what they needed to succeed (Rankin et al., 2016), suggesting that the gap between need and provision is not confined to one country." The synthesized version makes a claim in its first sentence and uses four studies as evidence for it.

A Second Synthesized Paragraph

From the third column: "Evidence about what charge nurse preparation achieves is limited. A longitudinal evaluation found gains in self-reported leadership practices among charge nurses at a single center (Krugman et al., 2013), and validated competency frameworks now describe what preparation should cover in emergency settings (Wolf et al., 2024). No study identified in this review linked preparation to staffing decisions or patient outcomes, a gap that matters because charge nurses make staffing and assignment decisions on every shift." This paragraph ends by naming the gap, which is the purpose of a literature review in a dissertation.

Cautions in Synthesis

Synthesis can overreach. The five studies differ in country, setting and design, and a pattern drawn from a five-participant qualitative study and a 427-person survey does not carry equal weight from each. The paragraphs above use hedges such as appears and suggesting for that reason, and the full review will note each study's design when it supports a claim. The matrix also reflects only the first search; studies found in CINAHL, ERIC and citation searching will be added as new rows, and the synthesized paragraphs will be revised if they change the picture.

A last caution concerns my own expectations. I began the matrix expecting to find that formal preparation improves staffing decisions, and it would have been easy to read that conclusion into the Krugman et al. (2013) leadership ratings. Writing the cell notes before drafting any paragraph, and keeping the empty outcome cell visible, made it harder to claim more than the studies show.

Conclusion

Setting five studies against four questions showed agreement about what the charge nurse role requires, wide variation in how nurses are prepared for it, a single study measuring preparation's effects and an empty cell where staffing and patient outcomes should be. Two synthesized paragraphs show how the matrix becomes an argument. Module 4 turns to paraphrase and integrity in writing those paragraphs.

References

Krugman, M., Heggem, L., Kinney, L. J., & Frueh, M. (2013). Longitudinal charge nurse leadership development and evaluation. Journal of Nursing Administration, 43(9), 438-446. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNA.0b013e3182a23b26

Mtsoeni, L., Matlala, S., & Downing, C. (2023). Newly qualified intensive care nurses' lived experiences of being a shift leader in a private healthcare institution in Gauteng, South Africa. International Journal of Nursing Sciences, 10(3), 351-358. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnss.2023.06.007

Rankin, J., McGuire, C., Matthews, L., Russell, M., Ray, D., & Leading Better Care Research and Evaluation Group. (2016). Facilitators and barriers to the increased supervisory role of senior charge nurses: A qualitative study. Journal of Nursing Management, 24(3), 366-375. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.12330

Wolf, L., Delao, A., Simon, C., Clark, P., & Burchill, C. N. (2024). Ensuring throughput: Development and validation of charge nurse competencies for United States emergency care settings. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 50(4), 523-536. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jen.2024.02.009

Wolf, L., Perhats, C., Delao, A., Burchill, C. N., Clark, P., Callihan, M., Edwards, C., Frisch, S., Moon, M., & Strout, T. (2022). Role and training of emergency department charge nurses: A mixed methods analysis of processes, needs, and expectations. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 48(4), 390-405. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jen.2022.03.009