Class 2 PICO, Searching CINAHL and APA Citation

Question 1

Why is Evidence-Based Practice Important for Nurses? 4

Answer 1

“Patients depend on nurses to do the best on their behalf. As part of their professional accountability, nurses must continually examine the best way to deliver care” (CNA website, 2018)

Numerous well-founded positive effects of EBP described in the literature. Often leads to higher quality of care and better patient outcomes

Promotes greater consistency of care and contributes greatly to quality and patient safety agendas

Also benefits health care providers: greater sense of autonomy, reduced work stress when EBP guidelines are enacted, improved cost-effectiveness

Question 2

Is reading evidence enough

what is needed to be done

what are barriers to EBP

Answer 2

“Reading” evidence is not enough

Finding, evaluating, and critically appraising evidence is extremely important

Barriers to EBP for nurses often cited as lack of knowledge, lack of confidence in critical appraisal skills, lack of knowledge and skills to confidently conduct computer based literature searches and utilize the research process, nurses feeling overwhelmed by the volume of evidence, lack of educational preparation (CAN website, 2018)

Question 3

What does the PRELIMINARY SEARCH FOR INFORMATION include

Answer 3

Google Scholar!

Take note of the vocabulary being used in the sources you are finding

Question 4

Background Questions is looking for what

Answer using

Have what kind of answers

You need to know what before answering a research question

Answer 4

Looking for general information about a certain disease, condition, disorder, treatment, phenomenon, etc.

Answer using: Encyclopaedias, textbooks, point-of-care summaries, dictionaries, etc.

Background questions have definite/known answers

You need to know the background information before proceeding on to answer a research question

Question 5

What is PICOT, Spider, and when is spider useful

Answer 5

Use PICO to help you formulate a research question and search strategy

Population/patient 
Intervention/Interest 
Comparison/Clinical Context 
Outcome 
PICOT used for time dependent questions (T = Time) 

SPIDER used for qualitative research questions

Sample 
Phenomenon of Interest 
Design 
Evaluation 
Research Type

Question 6

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX WHEN IT COMES TO SEARCH TERMS 3

Answer 6

Broad concepts/terms will retrieve broad results

When you have a big concept, think in terms of measures, desired outcomes, even challenges to the concept
-Eg “Accountability”

If your search term is not finding a good Subject Heading match, you can always search as a keyword alone OR think of the core elements of your search term and look for these instead
-Eg. Burnout – exhaustion, stress, withdrawal, etc.

Question 7

Boolean Operators

What does OR do 3
What does AND do3

Answer 7

• Combines like terms (synonyms and alternate phrases)
• Broadens search
• Tells database ANY search terms can be present in results
• Eg (soda OR pop OR “soda pop” OR cola OR …)
• AND – combines unlike terms (different concepts)
• Narrows search
• Tells database ALL search terms must be present in results
• Eg (soda OR pop OR “soda pop” OR cola) AND cavities

Question 8

“Phrase” Searching
-does what 2

• Truncation/Wild Card Searching 1 each

Answer 8

• Use quotes to search exact phrases
• Keeps the phrase together, rather than combining them with AND (automatic operator of most databases)
• Eg. “Emergency medicine” – 81819 results
• Eg. Emergency medicine – 146318 results

Using * at the end of a word root lets you search the variant endings/spellings of a word
Eg. Nurs* will bring back nurse, nurses, nursing (also nursery)

Using ? or ! or # lets you search wildcards by replacing a single letter
Often used to find US vs Anglo spelling variations
Eg. Behavio#r will bring back behavior or behaviour

Question 9

Keywords 5 vs Subject headings 4
-What are they2

A good search will use a combination of subject headings and keywords!

Answer 9

• Easy to define
• Use natural language
• Allow for searching new topics/techniques where SH is not always available
• Less time consuming
• SH might not fully represent your topic
• SH provide the “true” meaning of the term where a word might be used in more than one context
• SH include synonyms so will search related terms for you
• Eliminate homonym problems, spelling variations
• Can lead to finding alterative search terms that better suit your information needs

CINAHL Headings are specialized, controlled vocabulary used to index articles in CINAHL
-Tree/branch like structure moves from very broad to narrow – allows searching at various levels of specificity

Question 10

Explode (+) VS Major Concept

Answer 10

Explode function is used to search your main concept OR any of the narrower associated terms

Major Concept is used when you want to make the concept one the primary subjects of the articles you are finding. Articles are indexed with primary or secondary subjects (primary are marked with *), the primary subject being the most relevant to the overall article content.
-Use this sparingly. This is not an effective way to limit the number of results you are getting, it should be used to increase the relevancy of your retrieval. Often used when the body of literature you are working with is very extensive.

Question 11

Subheadings

Answer 11

Good way to easily focus your search on a specific avenue of research and further describe a particular aspect of the subject heading concept

Question 12

Limits/Filters to stay away from 6

Answer 12

Full-Text (its not what you think it is)
Abstract Available
References Available
Research Article
PDF Full Text
Exclude Pre-CINAHL or Exclude MEDLINE records

Question 13

What is grey literature

Answer 13

Anything written by a non-publishing body

Government websites,
thesis and dissertations, conference proceedings, research reports

Question 14

use CRAAP to weed out un-scholarly material

Answer 14

Currency – when was the info published/posted? When was it last updated? Are the links functional?

Relevance – does the info relate to your topic or answer your question? Is the info at an appropriate level for your needs?

Authority – who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor? Author credentials or organizational affiliations? Contact information available? Does the URL reveal anything about the source (.com .edu .gov .org .net)

Accuracy – where does the info come from? Are sources cited? Has the info been reviewed/refereed? Is the information wildly different than other sources on your topic? Does the tone seem unbiased? Are there spelling, grammar or typographical errors?

Purpose – why does this info exist? To inform, teach, sell, entertain, or persuade? Is the info fact or opinion? Are there apparent political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional or personal biases?