LibGuides: NURS 5910 (MSN) &amp; 7910 (DNP): Advanced Nursing Research &amp; Evidence-Based Practice: Clinical Topic Info

Resources for Clinical Topics

The following resources are good starting points to locate background information on a clinical topic. These resources and databases provide syntheses of various clinical topics, based on the current best available evidence.

Evidence-Based Care Sheets (in CINAHL)
To access, click "Evidence-Based Care Sheets" in the blue toolbar at the top of the page in CINAHL. Check the box next to a topic, and click the Search button, then click the PDF Full-Text link.
Evidence-Based Care Sheets (EBCs) are summaries of clinical topics focused on nursing practice.
Quick Lessons (in CINAHL)
To access, click "Quick Lessons" in the blue toolbar at the top of the page in CINAHL. Check the box next to a topic, and click the Search button, then click the PDF Full-Text link.
Quick Lessons are clinically organized nursing overviews of diseases/conditions, with information on signs and symptoms, assessment, treatment goals, red flags, and what to tell the patient or the patient’s family.
UpToDate
Contains expert-based/evidence-based overviews of disease topics. For off-campus access to UpToDate, register for a personal account while on-campus (click Register in the upper right corner)
ClinicalKey
Point-of-care, clinical information designed for all healthcare professionals. To narrow your search in ClinicalKey to background information, limit your results to Clinical Overviews, Books, or Guidelines.

The following resources are additional good starting points to locate background information on a clinical topic.

StatPearls
StatPearls is an extensive reference resource providing general background information on diseases and conditions, including etiology, epidemiology, pathophysiology, history and physical (symptoms), treatment/management, complications and prognosis.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - Diseases & Conditions
The CDC website provides general information, facts and figures, and data and statistics on a variety of diseases/conditions.

Health statistics include data on disease/condition incidence and prevalence, as well as morbidity and mortality.

Additional health statistics may also be found in any of the resources listed under the Clinical/Resources Databases or General Web Resources tabs.

United States

Global

Statistical Reports - World Health Organization (WHO)

The following links provide information on specific diseases and conditions, including treatments, from reputable healthcare associations, institutes, and organizations of relevance to some of the clinical topics assigned in NURS 3290.

To explore a comprehensive list of healthcare organization websites, visit the Organizations page from MedlinePlus.

Finding Review Articles and Practice Guidelines on Clinical Topics

Review articles (or literature review articles) provide detailed information on various clinical topics based on current evidence in the literature. These types of articles provide summaries, syntheses, or overviews of essential information about clinical topics, diseases/conditions, and clinical problems.

Practice guidelines also provide in-depth summaries of clinical evidence and can be a rich source of information for healthcare providers on diseases, conditions, interventions, treatments, and more.

To narrow your search to review articles and/or practice guidelines, follow these recommended steps:

CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature)

After conducting your search, click the Show More link on the left side of the screen underneath Publication Date
From the window that pops up, locate the Publication Type menu and select Practice Guidelines or Review, then click the yellow Search button (located at the top or bottom of the menu)

PubMed @ UT (the National Library of Medicine's search interface for MEDLINE)

After conducting your search, you should see a variety of limits/filters on the left side of the screen
Click the Guideline or Review limit

Finding Articles from Nursing Journals and/or Articles Written by Nurses

You may also be required to address these questions when locating clinical topic information:

How is the clinical topic related to nurses/nursing/nursing care? What is the importance of the clinical topic to nursing?

To find information addressing the importance of a clinical topic to nursing, it is suggested that you search for articles published specifically in nursing journals and/or articles written by nurses. These types of articles can provide direct insight on implications for nursing practice.

For instructions on searching, see the Articles in Nursing Journals page on the main Nursing LibGuide.