In this course, you'll be exploring a health informatics question. The questions provided are very broad, and it is expected that you will focus your question to be more narrow in scope. Once you have built a proper PICOT question, you will then begin to find evidence to help answer your question.
This module will help guide you through the research portion of this assignment, specifically in finding and accessing evidence, as well as how to document your search using a PRISMA flowchart and citing in APA format.
If you are brand new to using the library databases and would like to see a general library orientation, please review the following resources.
A crucial part of creating your search strategy is choosing which databases to search. The database(s) you choose to search will be determined by the type of evidence you require.
Book ► The Foley Library Catalog
Clinical Research ► PubMed, CINAHL
Systematic Review ► Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, PubMed, CINAHL
Expert Opinion ► Pubmed, CINAHL, and any article databases that includes academic and trade journals (such as Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition, SPORTdiscus, and Biomedical Reference Collection)
Clinical Practice Guideline ► DynaMed, Clinical Key for Nursing, ECRI Guidelines Trust™
Unpublished Clinical Trials ► clinicaltrials.gov, World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform
Health Statistics & Data Sets ► CDC National Center for Health Statistics, World Health Organization, HealthData.gov
If you are new to the Foley Library, this online orientation will guide you through the basics of using library resources, logging into your account and more.
If you are new to medical research, this guide will introduce you to the basics of finding and accessing biomedical research
For this assignment, you will choose a broad topic (as provided by your instructor). The PICOT questions provided are intentionally very vague, and it is recommended that you narrow your focus on a particular aspect of the topic. You don't want to end up with 2,000 results to comb through! Instead, work on narrowing this down to a manageable number.
You will also need to limit your results to just articles from the past 5 years. You can do this by using the date of publication filter, found on the left side of your search screen.
As you begin your assignment, here are a few other tips to keep in mind:
Too few results?
Too many results?