Searching for information in Health (Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health))

Whether you are doing a simple or advanced search it is important to prepare for your search and be clear about what you need before you begin. This will save you time and make sure you have covered everything you need.

The first step is to identify the key concepts / key words you are interested in. This could be from your question or topic.

Then, you will need to think of related keywords (or synonyms). If you struggle with this, here are some top tips to help:

• use a textbook to get an overview of your subject
• use a medical dictionary or encyclopaedia for a definition of your key concept
• check The Developing Keywords guide and The University of Suffolk Health Thesaurus
• check references you already have - what terms have they used to describe your topic?
• describe your topic aloud to someone else – it can help you think of synonyms
• carry out some scoping searches (for example, basic searches in Discovery) - this can help you find out which keywords bring back the best results.

Finding the most effective keywords for your search usually involves some trial and error. However, you can continue to add to your list of keywords as you find out more about your topic.

Finally you will need to combine your search terms with the correct Boolean operators (there is more information about those below).

The tutorial and video below will guide you through the steps to planning a search and creating a search strategy. The tutorial includes activities and the video shows how to search with keywords in an online database called Scopus.

Evidence Based Practice (EBP) is about using the best available evidence on the effectiveness of healthcare interventions as a basis for professional decision making in practice. The evidence from the research should be used in conjunction with clinician expertise and patient choice.

See the Evidence Based Practice LibGuide for some useful resources to help with EBP.

5 stages of Evidence Based Practice:

This guide focuses on the first two stages, with a link out to some guidance on the third.

1. Formulate a clear and focused research question - see the PICO / PIO / PEO section of this guide
2. Search the literature (published research) for relevant clinical articles related to your specific area of practice - see the Structured Searching section of this guide
3. Critically evaluate the research evidence in terms of methodological strengths and weaknesses - there is some support for this on the Critical Appraisal LibGuide
4. Implement critically appraised (useful findings) into clinical practice
5. Evaluate and Review Changes Introduced into Clinical Practice

Once you have a clear idea of your research topic and you have identified some suitable keywords for your search strategy, it is time to start your structured search in the online databases.

There are a number of techniques you can use to improve the thoroughness of your searches.

There is lots of support and help for you, so please ask if you need any advice.

Using Boolean operators

Here is an example research question:

Does handwashing among healthcare workers reduce rates of hospital acquired infection?

The main keywords have been highlighted in bold - they are the important aspects which need to come back in any search results.

The next step is to think about those main keywords in more detail. Think ... are there other ways to say them (synonyms)? For the best results you need to identify as many synonyms for each concept. There might be lots of other ways to say your keywords or there may only be one way. Don't forget about alternative spellings (UK/US) and abbreviations.

For the example question above we might consider the following alternative keywords:

• handwashing / hand hygiene
• healthcare workers / nurses
• hospital acquired infections / inpatient infections.

Then the Boolean operators are used to connect the useful keywords to ensure nothing useful is missed.

The main Boolean Operators which we use in the online databases are OR and AND.

OR:

OR helps you to get more results. It’s important to think about all the ways an authors could have described a topic, in order to make sure all the possible, useful research articles come back in your search. In literature searching this is called Sensitivity. It shows you are trying to find all the relevant research for your topic.

This means the database will look for articles which contain one OR the other of your keywords. You will get more results than if you had just used one of the terms

This is an example of two ways to say handwashing. Handwashing OR Hand hygiene. Hand hygiene is a synonym for handwashing

AND:

Once you have made each part of search bigger using OR, you need to narrow it down by connecting the terms together with AND.

Using AND will reduce the number of results you get, but should make them more specific to your research topic, as the results which comeback should contain a combination of all of you keywords.

In literature searching this is called Specificity and it shows you have conducted a focused search.

This is an example of three searches which have been broadened out with OR, now being brought together with AND.

For more help and support with how this works in the online databases, see the written guide or watch the short video.

Using advanced Searching Techniques

The main advanced searching techniques we use in the online databases are truncation (*) and phrase searching ("").

Truncation:

The truncation symbol is an asterisk * It can help you to get more results quickly and easily. It is also known as “stemming”.

If one of your key words has different, but useful endings, simply type the beginning of the word and then replace the ending with the asterisk (*).

For example: a search for nurs* would find nurse, nurses and nursing.

Phrase searching:

Phrase searching helps to keep your search terms together using the double speech marks “ ”. It reduces your results but can make them more specific/focussed.

For example: "heart attack"

Using truncation and phrase searching together:

In some of the databases you can use truncation and phrase searching together.

For example: a search for “hand wash*” would keep your two keywords together, in the same order, as well as finding hand-washing and hand washing.

For more help and support with how this works in the online databases, see the written guide or watch the short video.