Developing a search strategy

Question 1

state the steps of the 5 sep model of evidence based practice

Answer 1

1. ASK the question
2. FIND the evidence
3. APPRAISE the evidence
4. ACT on the evidence
5. EVALUATE your performance

Question 2

How can you find information for a question you want to answer?

Answer 2

Develop a search strategy

Utilise various literature searching techniques

Question 3

How do you search for information on your chosen question

Answer 3

1. Break down the research question into its main/key topics
2. Choose a database
   3 For each idea identify possible words and phases which might be used (ie synonyms)
3. Using various searching techniques to maximise the return of reverent publications

Question 4

For example if your question was: Are psychological interventions effective in reducing dental anxiety?
State the main concepts

Answer 4

1. Dental anxiety

2. Psychological intervention

Question 5

If you place an * what does that symbolise and how does it help?

Answer 5

It is a truncation
It helps you find variant endings
eg Dent* will find: Dentist, Dentsitry, Dentine, Dental

Question 6

If you place a ? what does that symbolise and how does it help?

Answer 6

It is a wildcard
It can be substituted foe oe or no letters
Eg Colo?r, Behavio?r

Question 7

If you place “adj” what does that symbolise and how does it help?

Answer 7

It is an adjacency

It helps you find words pithing a distance of each other

Question 8

If you place () what does that symbolise and how does it help?

Answer 8

It is nestling
It can be used to group words together
eg (tooth or teeth)

Question 9

What does subject healing searching used in?

Answer 9

It’s used in databases to describe the content of articles in a consistent way regardless of terminology used by the author

Question 10

What are the benefits of subject heading searching

Answer 10

It enables you to search for articles about a topic rather than just those that specifically meting note topic in the title or abstract

Question 11

When do you write “OR” in your search bar ?

Answer 11

When you want to combine all the related terms/synonyms within one concept
eg Psychotherapy OR Hypnosis OR Behavioural therapy

Question 12

When do you write “AND” in your search bar ?

Answer 12

Use AND to get a final collection of references on both topics you wants
eg If you want to find everything that includes dental anxiety and psychological interventions use AND and it’ll show articles mentioning both

Question 13

What factors can we use to limit results we get ?

Answer 13

We can limit them by:

1. Language
2. Age group
3. Publication type