Evidence Based Nursing
Intro to EBN
EBN TOOLS
EBN in Practice
EBN Resources
*Books
*Websites
*Articles
Front Page
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EBN IN PRACTICE
Step 2 - AQUIRE:
Selecting Resources and Conducting the Search. In this step, you will locate the highest quality, relevant information from the medical literature to answer your question. To do this, you need to select the databases and journals you will use to find the answer to your question. Information about these databases and journals is available in the "EBN Utilities" section.
Some resources, such as the Cochrane databases are "prefiltered". This means that the authors of the database have already systematically reviewed the articles to make sure that they are relevant and of high quality. Systematic reviews are an overview of all of the evidence addressing a focused clinical question. Other resources, such as MEDLINE and CINAHL, are "unfiltered". This means that you conduct a search based on your question and filter through the results yourself.
You should examine your search strategy based on the tool you are using. Some databases, such as MEDLINE, have a controlled vocabulary. For example, instead of classifying "cancer", they classify "neoplasm". When using their controlled vocabulary, you may receive greater accuracy in terms or the topic on which you are searching. See the MEDLINE tutorials in the "EBN Utilities" section for assistance and more information.
PubMed/MEDLINE search:
Let's perform a PubMed/MEDLINE search to find articles related to our managerial clinical situation. To access PubMed, go to the Health Sciences Library website http://www.hsl.unc.edu. From there, click on the MEDLINE (Via PubMed) link. Accessing through this link both on campus and off campus (if connected through the proxy server) will allow you to access any of UNC's electronic journals and resources.
A possible set of search terms that could be used include: nurses' aides AND staffing AND patient outcomes Three of the resulting articles are listed below.
Sovie MD, Jawad AF.
Hospital restructuring and its
impact on outcomes: nursing staff regulations are premature.
J Nurs Adm. 2001
Dec;31(12):588-600.
Go to UNC's E-Journal finder website, then search
for "Journal of Nursing Administration" to find the article.
Blegen MA, Vaughn T.
A multisite study of nurse
staffing and patient occurrences.
Nurs Econ. 1998 Jul-Aug;16(4):196-203.
http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp?an=935648&db=afh
Needleman J, Buerhaus P, Mattke S, Stewart M, Zelevinsky
K.
Nurse-staffing levels and the quality of care in
hospitals.
N Engl J Med. 2002 May 30;346(22):1715-22.
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/346/22/1715
Go to Next Step: (3) APPRAISE
Further Reading:
Cullum N. Users' guides to the nursing literature: an introduction
Evidence-Based Nursing July 1, 2000; 3(3): 71 - 72
http://ebn.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/3/3/71
McKibbon KA, Marks S. Searching for the best evidence. Part 1: where
to look [editorial].
Evidence-Based Nursing 1998 Jul;1:68-70.
http://ebn.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/1/3/68
McKibbon KA, Marks S. Searching for the best evidence. Part 2: searching
CINAHL and Medline [editorial]
Evidence-Based Nursing 1998 Oct;1:105-7.
http://ebn.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/1/4/105
Roberts J, Dicenso A. Identifying the best research design to fit the
question. Part 1: quantitative designs
Evidence-Based Nursing January
1, 1999; 2(1): 4 - 6.
http://ebn.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/2/1/4
Ploeg J. Identifying the best research design to fit the question. Part
2: qualitative designs [editorial].
Evidence-Based Nursing 1999
Apr;2(2):36-7.
http://ebn.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/2/2/36