NURS 6052 Week 4 Discussion Searching Databases
NURS 6052 Week 4 Discussion Searching Databases
Evidence-based practice, also known as EBP, can be discovered in many different places, including journals, textbooks, databases, and so on. When conducting research, one must make certain that the information that they are looking for and evaluating comes from a reputable source. If credible resources are utilized, the evidence and study will have a greater potential to be held to a higher level. It is possible to acquire resources on your own or through places of employment or educational institutions. Unfortunately, policymakers continuously signal that dependable resources are required to ensure that patients are receiving the greatest patient care that is available from their healthcare providers; however, resources are not always available without constraints as required (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2018).
What is PICO(T)?
The population of interest (P), intervention or issue of interest (I), comparison of interest (C), the outcome expected (O), and time for an intervention to achieve the outcome (T) is PICOT (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2018). PICOT questioning is a method of research that is utilized to identify the clinical evidence that is of the highest quality for use in practice. This is accomplished by conducting investigations in a manner that is both objective and productive (Ford & Melnyk, 2019). The researcher has the ability to employ a form of research known as PICOT questioning in order to reduce the outcomes of the evidential investigation to a more manageable level. The use of opioids in patients who are suffering from severe shortness of breath is an area of clinical interest that is both exciting and interesting.
—In patients that are suffering from severe dyspnea during end-of-life (P), can the use of opioids (I) be a beneficial intervention, compared to those not near end-of-life (C), to reduce the feeling of breathlessness (O), within a period of 2 weeks or less (T)?
Research With and Without The Boolean process is a method that is utilized that inserts a variety of phrases (such as OR, AND, etc.) between the primary terms that helps to limit down the search results by processing them in a given order. This method is called the Boolean method (Library of Congress, n.d.). Within the Walden Nursing Library, a search for publications using the key phrases “opioids for dyspnea” resulted in the retrieval of 486 different articles. When searching for “opioids for dyspnea AND end-of-life AND morphine,” only nine articles were retrieved. This was the result of employing the Boolean approach. When the primary search terms were altered to read “opiates for dyspnea AND morphine sulfate,” only one result was discovered. 313 articles were found when searching for “dyspnea OR breathlessness AND opioid use.” There were twenty publications discovered when the search terms “dyspnea OR breathlessness, AND opioid use, AND efficacy” were used. Last but not least, using the search terms “dyspnea OR breathlessness, AND opioid usage, AND end-of-life care,” 62 articles that are linked to this topic were found.ut the Boolean Process
Strategies for an Effective Database Search
When looking at the differences in the numbers that resulted from the searches that were carried out, it is obvious to see that the utilization of various words and the combination of these phrases can provide a variety of different results. When looking for particular publications, it is essential to be certain that the researcher is use the appropriate terminology in their search. When looking for particular articles that are associated with the administration of opioids during end-of-life care, there are quite a number distinct word combinations that can be searched for. Some of these combinations include: The researcher ought to make use of combos that will bring about the most specific materials, for as employing “dyspnea OR breathlessness, AND opioid use,” in conjunction with “AND effectiveness” or “AND end-of-life care.” These two searches appeared to turn up a number of articles that would be useful in compiling information on the topic at hand. The researcher’s inability to obtain sufficient information, in addition to the aggravation that comes from having to read a large number of articles in order to amass a relatively small quantity of new information, can undermine the thoroughness of the investigation. The level of rigor can be maintained so long as the researcher makes it a point to keep in mind the vast number of papers that have been written on each and every subject. The researcher merely needs to keep up the pace and keep seeking until all of the relevant material is located and validated.
References
Gallagher Ford, L., & Melnyk, B. M. (2019). The Underappreciated and Misunderstood PICOT Question: A Critical Step in the EBP Process. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 16(6), 422–423. https://doi.org/10.1111/wvn.12408
Library of Congress. (n.d.). Search/browse help – Boolean operators and nesting. Retrieved December 21, 2021, from https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/ui/en_US/htdocs/help/searchBoolean.html
Melnyk, B. M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2018). Evidence-based practice in nursing & healthcare: A guide to best practice (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.
When you decide to purchase a new car, you first decide what is important to you. If mileage and dependability are the important factors, you will search for data focused more on these factors and less on color options and sound systems.
The same holds true when searching for research evidence to guide your clinical inquiry and professional decisions. Developing a formula for an answerable, researchable question that addresses your need will make the search process much more effective. One such formula is the PICO(T) format.
In this Discussion, you will transform a clinical inquiry into a searchable question in PICO(T) format, so you can search the electronic databases more effectively and efficiently. You will share this PICO(T) question and examine strategies you might use to increase the rigor and effectiveness of a database search on your PICO(T) question.
To Prepare:
Review the Resources and identify a clinical issue of interest that can form the basis of a clinical inquiry.
Review the materials offering guidance on using databases, performing keyword searches, and developing PICO(T) questions provided in the Resources.
Based on the clinical issue of interest and using keywords related to the clinical issue of interest, search at least two different databases in the Walden Library to identify at least four relevant peer-reviewed articles related to your clinical issue of interest. You should not be using systematic reviews for this assignment, select original research articles.
Review the Resources for guidance and develop a PICO(T) question of interest to you for further study. It is suggested that an Intervention-type PICOT question be developed as these seem to work best for this course.
By Day 3 of Week 4
Post a brief description of your clinical issue of interest. This clinical issue will remain the same for the entire course and will be the basis for the development of your PICOT question. Then, post your PICO(T) question, the search terms used, and the names of at least two databases used for your PICO(T) question. Describe your search results in terms of the number of articles returned on original research and how this changed as you added search terms using your Boolean operators. Finally, explain strategies you might make to increase the rigor and effectiveness of a database search on your PICO(T) question. Be specific and provide examples.
By Day 6 of Week 4
Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days and provide further suggestions on how their database search might be improved.
Click on the Reply button below to reveal the textbox for entering your message. Then click on the Submit button to post your message.
Reply Quote
Clinical inquiry is the first process in Evidence Based Practice (EBP). It involves the clinical questioning of why and how something is done (Laureate Education (Producer), 2018). Health care is founded on the research that is derived from clinical inquiry. It is becoming prevalent to use clinical inquiry to challenge the status quo. When we want change, we first question how and why we need it. Before anything can be implemented safely into practice, it must first be proven through research to be effective and yield positive results. I decided my clinical inquiry will address the use of nonpharmacological interventions in mental health populations. In order for nonpharmacological approaches to be perceived as reliable and trustworthy practice, it would first have to be supported by the evidence of its success. To help guide research, formulating the clinical inquiry in PICO(T) form gives a basis for keywords to use when searching databases (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt (2018). My clinical inquiry in PICOT form is as followed: In mental health populations, are nonpharmacological interventions just as effective as pharmacological interventions in yielding positive mental health outcomes during treatment process?
The data base I decided to use first was CLINAHL Plus with full text. I first started broad then added more words or phrases to narrow down the results. The first word I looked up was “nonpharmacological interventions”. This gave me 532 results of nonpharmacological interventions in all specialties. Next, I decided to use the Boolean operator feature. Using Boolean operators assist with searching a combination of words by either retrieving records of all terms, records containing one or more terms or excluding records containing the term associated with NOT (Library of Congress, n.d). I continued with this method by now adding “AND mental health”. My results were now reduced to 21 results. I decided to modify my search by adding “OR medication” to my search on top of the other two phases. To my surprise, results have now been broadened to 120,976 results.
Strategies to help strengthen my search would involve leniency to the terms used for mu search. Using a variation of phrases and words would help produce different results. I won’t use “OR” when trying to condense results since it will now possibly choose only one phrase instead of all phrases that were typed. Also, if I struggle to find supporting articles, I can look to changing the wording of my PICOT question. I can also try different data bases to see if different articles will appear.
Resources
Laureate Education (Producer). (2018). The Value of Clinical Inquiry [Video file]. Baltimore, MD: Author.
Library of Congress. (n.d.). Search/browse help – Boolean operators and nesting. Retrieved September 19, 2018, from https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/ui/en_US/htdocs/help/searchBoolean.html
Melnyk, B. M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2018). Evidence-based practice in nursing & healthcare: A guide to best practice (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.
