search the lit the beginning 2016

Searching the Literature:the Beginning

MARY SHAH, MLS, AHIPHORBLIT HEALTH SCIENCES LIBRARYDANBURY HOSPITALMARY.SHAH@WCHN.ORG

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Search StrategyPlan your search at first: the

process will be more effective. 1.Focus on what you seek & think about which resources would best have the answer.2.Break down the query in basic terms.3.Choose the research method.4.Search each point separately.5.Combine these subjects with AND, OR, NOT (these are Boolean Operators).6.Focus your search with limits.

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PICO

PICO can be used to help break down your question

• Patient or Population: How would I describe a group of patients similar to mine?

• Intervention: Which main intervention, prognosis, or exposure am I considering?

•Comparison: What is the main alternative to compare with the intervention?

•Outcome: What can I hope to accomplish, measure, improve or affect?

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Where to search?

• Basic Reference = Search engine like Google

• Background or Introduction = textbook• Research Article = database like

CINAHL or Pub Med• Practice = Cochrane, DynaMed,

Nursing Reference Center

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Choosing the Evidence

Meta‐analyses

Systematic reviews

Randomized controlled trials

Cohort studies

Case‐control studies

Case series and case reports

Animal and laboratory research

Higher Quality Percentage of the

literature

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What does this mean?Evidence-based practice is the

systemic application of scientific findings to clinical practice and

decision making.

Tools already exist to rate the quality of

study and its ability to inform the scientific

community.

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Boolean? Halloween meat?

George Boole brought together philosophy and math by inventing a logic that worked well with computers: the answer is either true or false.

For your search, this means you can combine two search terms using the connectors: AND, OR, NOT.

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Combining search termsAND

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Another possibilityOR

Fall*

Patientcancer

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Another possibilityNOT

Fall*

Patientcancer

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Truncation?! Are we going someplace w/ an elephant?

• Truncation is a short-cut to include all the possibilities:

fall*= fall, falls, falling, fallen, and so forth…

• Wildcards fill in for variations:

Reali?e = realize, realise

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Not just for dialogue any more

Quotation marks force the database to look for that specific combination of words.

In CINAHL:

• Practice Guideline without quotes: 90,812 results• Practice Guideline with quotes: 3,656 results

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10 Minutes

If you’re taking more than ten minutes to find what you need, stop and contact us. You are the health professional and we are the information specialists. Fax, phone or email—it’s not interrupting, it’s our job.

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Horblit Health Sciences Library

Amanda Pomeroy, MLS203-739-7279amanda.pomeroy@wchn.org

Mary Shah, MLS, AHIP203-739-7035mary.shah@wchn.org