Searching the Literature for Evidence to Support

DNP ProjectsStephanie J. Schulte, MLIS

Assistant Professor/Education and Reference Services CoordinatorPrior Health Sciences Library

Electronic texts: Core25 Books via Prior Web site

Micromedex: Detailed drug information UpToDate: Point of care answers to clinical

questions covering 7400 topics in 13 specialties. Available on campus only.

MDConsult: another point of care tool available to you.

Mosby’s Nursing Skills; current policies, procedures, and protocols

Good Background Information Sources

Medline/PubMed (1950 forward) Millions of journal article citations Mainly biomedical, some nursing though Can do keyword searching or MeSH terms Handy limits in EBSCO interface (found in Advanced

Search in PubMed): English, Humans, Nursing journal subset, publication type (for specific kinds of studies)

CINAHL Focused on nursing and allied health Contains records for all kinds of content, not just

journal articles, so pay attention to the record Can do keyword searching or use CINAHL subject

headings Handy limits: date of publication, Research article,

many publication types

Main Databases

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews◦ Full-text systematic reviews◦ Mostly medical topics (care issues not addressed as

much)◦ Updated regularly◦ Studies included are usually selected by rigorous

criteria◦ You may find these in a PubMed search. You have to

go into the database itself to get the full text (the Find It button doesn’t work in PubMed for these)

◦ Full text= EBP topic review

More databases

Sociological Abstracts◦ indexes 1800 journals covering sociology since

1974, and dissertations since 1986.

PsychInfo◦ International literature in psychology and related

disciplines. Includes journals and dissertations from 1967 to present; book chapters from 1987 to present.

Sociological and Psychological Databases

BOOLEAN OPERATORS: AND, OR, NOT

Using Boolean operators can make your searches more successful.

AND Narrows and focuses your

search Finds articles with all of the

terms connected by AND Google does this

automatically, but many databases require you to add

the term

Example: bone density AND carbonated beverages

OR Expands and broadens your

search Finds articles with one or

more of the terms connected by OR

Use when there are several terms used in the literature

for the same topic

Example: bone density OR osteoporosis

NOT Rarely used

Narrows search by excluding a term

Example: carbonated beverages NOT soft drinks

PARENTHESES: These are useful for grouping terms so that certain terms are searched in the correct order. Just like algebra, what appears on the inside of the parentheses is completed first before combining with the next set of terms.

Example: (bone density OR osteoporosis) AND (carbonated beverages OR soda OR pop)

In the dehydrated elderly, is subcutaneous hydration as effective as intravenous hydration for restoring fluid balance?◦ P◦ I◦ C◦ O

A theoretical search strategy: (P OR P OR P) AND (I OR I OR I) AND (C OR C OR C) AND (O OR O OR O)

Question