NURS 6363 Guide Ask Us

National Library of Medicine training: Develop a Clinical Question

Choose appropriate databases to search: You have many academic databases to choose from, but we suggest starting with CINAHL and PubMed as they're the go-to nursing/health/medical databases. You're not limited searching only these databases. Think about who else or what other disciplines might study and write about your topic what and consider searching in those related databases (find additional databases here). 

Key Resources

Consider broadening your search for evidence to include diverse voices and researchers who are underrepresented: Databases covering research outputs from the global south

Step by step instructions on linking your Google Scholar search results to UNB Libraries' holdings - once you've linked your account, use the "Check for Fulltext @ UNB" links to either get access to the full-text article or request it if it's not in our holdings. 

Saving results using Zotero

CINAHL (Cumulative Index for Nursing & Allied Health) 

PubMed

Brainstorm terms to use as keywords in databases: Before you start searching on your topic, it's helpful to consider the various possible keywords you could use in searching. Here's why:

• The more words you put in a database search, the fewer results you'll get, so breaking down your research question or topic down into the most important keywords is critical
• Most databases are clueless and don't know that certain words are used interchangeably. For example, they might not know that a word like salary means the same thing as earnings, wages, or pay, so it's important to think of terms that mean the same things
• The terms you naturally think of when you think about your topic may not be the same words that experts use to write about the topic

This requires you to think not only of the terms that naturally come to mind, but to brainstorm terms that mean the same thing or are related. You can identify other keywords by looking for a Wikipedia entry on your topic or simply doing a Google search on your topic and seeing what related or synonymous words are used in the titles of titles. Try to think of as many synonyms or related terms as you can.

Search the databases using keywords: Your goal when searching is to find relevant articles that relate to your topic and could be a good fit to use in your paper or assignment.

Review your search results: Scan through the results on the first page or so, reading the title/abstracts to find potentially relevant articles.

How do you know if an article is relevant? Just because an article is in the results doesn't mean it'll provide the information you need for your practice problem. Look at the article title and abstract to get a summary of what the article is about, and save it to read fully later if it appears to meet your inclusion criteria.

Redo your search as needed: if you're not finding relevant article try using different search terms or another database; this is completely normal and expected.

Advanced search tips

Critical appraisal (also called 'risk of bias assessment') is a step used in evidence-based practice in which research publications are appraised for quality and likelihood of bias. There are many critical appraisal tools available, with some tools being preferred by (or more appropriate in) certain disciplines.  Here is a selection of the more common tools:

• JBI Critical Appraisal Tools  
  • 12 checklists – one each for 12 different kinds of studies  
  • Their “Checklist for text and opinions” can be used for grey literature 

• Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) Checklists 
  • 8 checklists  
  • No checklists for grey literature

• Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM) Checklists 
  • 6 Checklists 
  • Some checklists available in multiple languages (including Chinese, German, Lithuanian, and Persian)  

• Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) Checklists 
  • Major producer of clinical practice guidelines 
  • 6 Checklists