Evidence Based Practice

1. Check your Spelling
   Most search engines cannot interpret typo errors or spelling mistakes

2. Use Simple Search Terms
   More search terms will yield fewer results. For e.g., a search for osteoarthritis AND women AND (older OR elderly) (19,408 results) will get you far fewer results than using only osteoarthritis (97,506 results)

3. Use Quotation marks around phrases

   "continuous passive motion" tells the search engine to find all of those words in a row, exactly as you typed them, rather than looking for those words separately in the document

4. Use the generic name of drugs when possible

   PubMed and many database index drugs by their US generic names. However, when trying to verify information about a specific formulation of a drug, search by trade name and be careful to spell it correctly

5. Use AND to combine search terms
   Most search engines interpret osteoarthritis AND women or osteoarthritis  women  as being the same, i.e. BOTH words will appear in your results

6. Use Search Limits to get more relevant articles
   Limiting your results to year of publication, source type or languages can help reduce the number of irrelevant citations

Weinfield, J.M., & Finkelstein, K. (2005). How to answer your clinical questions
more efficiently. Family Practice Management,12(7). 37-41.

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) are part of a controlled vocabulary designed specifically to index biomedical information in such a way that it can be more easily found. It was created and is kept updated by the US National Library of Medicine (NLM). 

Boolean operators

Boolean operators are commonly used in databases to connect your search words together to either narrow or broaden your set of results. The three basic boolean operators are: AND, OR, and NOT.

To NARROW a search and include both terms - paramedics AND epinephrine

To BROADEN a search and include any or all terms - children OR adolescent

To ELIMINATE unrelated terms - rock NOT music

Phrase Searching " " - search the words together in a sentence, not as separate keywords

“cardiac arrest”, “rock climbing”

Truncation *

educat* finds educate, educates, education, educating

Wildcard ?

psych????y finds psychiatry, psychology (but not psychotherapy)

Different databases use different truncation symbols so it is important to check the database 'Help' information or 'Search Tips' for details about which symbol to use.

Professional organizations are a great place to start looking for current events, issues facing practitioners, and conflicts within the health law arena.

Policy
A formal written statement detailing the particular action to be taken in a particular situation that is contractually binding.
SAMPLE ARTICLE : [ Policy ]

Regulation
The essence of the legislation was to empower the public with the right to make life or healthcare decisions. It is important for you to understand the related regulations so as to make binding, legally enforceable decisions for yourself and for your patients.
SAMPLE ARTICLE : [ PHMC Act ]

Source : NHS Wales Informatics Service. (2006). Using protocols, standards, policies and guidelines to enhance confidence and career development. Crown Copyright.

Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) practice recommendations based on the best available evidence; written by healthcare organizations. Guidelines are meant as recommendations for patient care based on the available evidence.

Specific

General

Systematic reviews focus on peer-reviewed publications about a specific problem. Rigorous, standardized methods for selecting and assessing articles are used to limit bias in the assembly, critical appraisal, and synthesis of all relevant studies on a specific topic.

A systematic review may or may not include a meta-analysis, which is a quantitative summary of the results.

A Critically Appraised Topic (CAT) is a short summary of the best available evidence, created to answer a specific clinical question. it is liked a concise and less rigorous version of a systematic review.

Some examples of CAT:-

• CAT: Impact of AAC Intervention on Natural Speech Production in Learners with Autism
• Physiotherapy in acute lateral ligament sprains of the ankle

Critically Appraisal articles refer to a structured abstract and expert commentary for a particular topic. In certain databases, they are also also known as Review Articles. 

Protocol
An agreed framework outlining the care that will be provided to patients in a designated area of practice. They do not describe how a procedure is performed, but why, where, when and by whom the care is given.
SAMPLE ARTICLE : [ Protocol ]

Standard
A statement, reached through consensus, which clearly identifies the desired outcome. Usually used within audit as a measure of success.
SAMPLE ARTICLE : [ Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes ]

Guideline *
Systematically derived statements that help practitioners to make decisions about care in specific clinical circumstances. These should be research or evidence based.
SAMPLE ARTICLE : [ Jaundice in newborn babies under 28 days ]

Note : * Similar resources

Source : NHS Wales Informatics Service. (2006). Using protocols, standards, policies and guidelines to enhance confidence and career development. Crown Copyright.