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Nursing Research Resources

 

Research Process

Net Library e-books

Websites

Video

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Research Process

1. Beginning your research

• Determine the scope & issues of your topic
• Identify terms useful for finding information

Resources for beginning your research

Finding background information

Medical Encyclopedias
Gale Encyclopedia of Nursing and Allied Health
Medline Medical Encyclopedia

Websites
Include HONcode as a search term to limit your search to credible Web sites

Conducting A Literature Review
Libraries of Adelphi University

Glossary of Terms in Evidence-Based Medicine 
Descriptions of common terms used in discussions about evidence-based medicine.

National Guideline Clearinghouse
The National Guideline Clearinghouse is "a public resource for evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. The NGC mission is to provide physicians, nurses, and other health professionals, health care providers, ... and others an accessible mechanism for obtaining objective, detailed information on clinical practice guidelines and to further their dissemination, implementation and use".

Tutorial for Protecting Participants
National Cancer Institute

 

2. State your research topic in the form of one or more questions

Resources for developing research/clinical questions

Evidence Based Practice Tutorial for Nurses
Penn State University Libraries

Evidence-Based Practice Asking the Clinical Question
Cushing/Whitney Medical Library

PICO

PICO is a mnemonic used to describe the four elements of a good clinical foreground question.
P--Patient   I--Intervention   C--Comparison   O--Outcome

Element of the clinical question	Patient Describe as accurately as possible the patient or group of patients of interest	Intervention (or cause, prognosis) What is the main intervention or therapy you wish to consider? Including an exposure to disease, a diagnostic test, a prognostic factor, a treatment, a patient perception, a risk factor, etc.	Comparison (optional) Is there an alternative treatment to compare? Including no disease, placebo, a different prognotic factor, absence of risk factor, etc.	Outcome What is the clincial outcome, including a time horizon if relevant?
Example	In patients with acute bronchitis,	do antibiotics	none	reduce sputum production, cough or days off.?
Example	In children with cancer	what are the current treatments		in the management of fever and infection?
Example	Among family-members of patients undergoing diagnostic procedures	does standard care,	listening to tranquil music, or audiotaped comedy routines	make a difference in the reduction of reported anxiety.

Source: Evidence-Based Practice: Asking the Clinical Question

3. Broaden your search

• Include synonyms and connect them with OR
• In library article databases, truncate terms nutriti* = nutrition, nutritious, nutrition, nutritional

PICO example
bronchitis AND acute AND (reduc* OR decreas* OR diminish* OR benefi*) AND (sputum* OR cough* OR days off )

• Search all databases that may include health information
  
  Library Article Databases
  Search all possible subject databases that may include your topic
  (health, education, psychology, sociology, business, etc.)
  
  PubMed
  
  Google Scholar

• Use terms you find in the literature to modify and refine your search
  

4. Find a review article

Library Databases
Add review or meta-analysis as search terms

PubMed
Limits tab – In the Type of Article box, check Meta-Analysis and Review boxes

5. Evaluate sources

Resources for evaluating sources

Guidelines for Critiquing Research Articles
From Polit, Beck and Hungler: Essentials of Nursing Research

Hierarchy of Evidence
From Duke University Center Library

How to Read a Paper
Articles by author Trisha Greenhalgh on the different types of scientific evidence reported in the medical literature.

Evaluating Web Pages
Tips on what to look for to determine if information on a Web page is credible.

6. Locate relevant sources cited in papers

Articles
Check the Full Text Periodical Finder for full text sources
Request the article through inter-library loan if the full text is not available

Books
Check WorldCat for books that are not in the Alvernia Library
Request WorldCat books that are not in the Alvernia Library by following the Borrow this item link

OR

Request books by submitting an inter-library loan request

 

7. Schedule an appointment with a librarian

Tel: 610 796-8223

Reference Research Assistance

8. Start early and enjoy the learning experience

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Selected Net Library e-books

To search Net Library from off-campus, you must first create a free account on Net Library from a computer on the Alvernia University computer network. Several examples of books about nursing research are listed below:

Brockopp, D. Y. & Hastings-Tolsma, M. T. (1995). Fundamentals of nursing research. Boston, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers, Inc.

Gillis, A. & Winston, J. (2002). Research for nurses : Methods and interpretation. Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company.

Ireland, L. & Glasper, E. A. (200). Evidence-based child health care: Challenges for practice. London: MacMillan Press, LTD.

Martin, C. R. &Thompson, D. R. (2002). Design and analysis of clinical nursing research studies. New York: Routledge.

Reynolds, S. (2000). Evidence-based practice: A critical appraisal. Malden, M:. Blackwell Science

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Websites

• Disease Related
• Economics
• Government Sponsored Agencies
• Health Related
• Just for Fun
• Nursing Research
• Research in General
• Science Related
  

Disease Related

Arthritis Foundation
P.O. Box 7669
Atlanta , GA 30357-0669

National Cancer Institute
NCI Public Inquiries Office
6116 Executive Boulevard
Room 3036A
Bethesda, MD 20892-8322

The American Lung Association®
61 Broadway, 6th Floor
NY, NY 10006

Economics

The World Bank
1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433 USA

Government Sponsored Agencies

The Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave, SE Washington, DC 20540

Health Related

Research! America
1101 King Street, Suite 520
Alexandria, VA 22314-2960
Nation’s largest not-for-profit public education and advocacy alliance working to make research to improve health a higher national priority.

Just for Fun

Improbable Research
Research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK

Nursing Research

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Office of Communications and Knowledge Transfer
540 Gaither Road, Suite 2000
Rockville, MD 20850

American Nurses Association
8515 Georgia Avenue Suite 400
Silver Spring, MD 20910-3492

Cleveland Clinic Nursing Division
9500 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44195

Eastern Nursing Research Society
100 N. 20th Street 4th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19103

Nursing Research
Official Journal of Eastern Nursing Research Society and Western Institute of Nursing

Nursing Center
Nursing Center was created in 1986 as an electronic Bulletin Board Service to help spread clinical information to nurses in rural areas who would otherwise not have access to the latest journals.

Nursing & Nursing Research
Hardin Library for the Health Sciences
University of Iowa

Sigma Theta Tau International
550 West North Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202

Sigma Theta Tau International
Virginia Henderson International Nursing Library
550 West North Street Indianapolis, IN 46202

Research in General

Research Matters
Harvard University Office of News and Public Affairs
Holyoke Center 1060 Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
Research Matters is the public entry to the latest news about medical treatments, societal research, basic science, technological advances, and earth and space exploration.

Science Related

IBM Corporation
1 New Orchard Road Armonk
New York 10504-1722

Smithsonian Institute
Smithsonian Information
PO Box 37012 SI Building, Room 153, MRC 010
Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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Video

Nurse Scientists
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6590978098377178734&hl=en

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Updated: August 19, 2008

Your comments are welcome.