NURS 3030: Evidence-Based Practice in Nursing

Current information and research evidence on clinical topics can be identified from a variety of resources, including journal articles, health statistics, reputable websites, healthcare organizations, and more.

This LibGuide page is designed to assist your EBP team in locating current information on your clinical topic. View this video for a tutorial on how to locate clinical topic information. 

Connect to recommended resources for answering the following five questions:

An important note about Google:

You are permitted to utilize information from reputable websites. You may find some of these websites via a Google search. Please exercise caution before utilizing a website that you locate after "Googling" information on your clinical topic. There are a variety of helpful criteria that you can use to determine a website's reliability and credibility. Consult the Evaluating Information LibGuide for guidance on evaluating internet resources. 

United States

Global

The following reputable websites are from healthcare associations, centers, institutes, and organizations with information related to the clinical topics assigned in NURS 3030. 

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

• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality - Health Literacy 
• American Academy of Pediatrics - Hospice/Palliative Medicine
• Healthy People 2030 
• National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion 
• National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
• National Institute on Aging
• National Institutes of Health
• Plain Language Action and Information Network - Plain Language in Healthcare
• Safe to Sleep - National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Your PICOT Question and Database Search assignments provided you with a lot of great skills that you can now apply to searching for journal articles on your clinical topic. 

The best types of articles for finding information on a clinical topic include individual research studies, general literature review articles, and systematic reviews. 

To locate specific information related to the questions you need to answer about your clinical topic, you can use the following recommended search strategies in any library research database, including CINAHL.

Simply add your specific keywords at the beginning of each search string, then copy and paste into a database search box. You can customize each search with additional keywords as needed, or remove some as needed. These search strategies are designed to get you started. 

Incidence/Prevalence

(fill in the blank with your keywords) AND (incidence OR prevalence) 

(fill in the blank with your keywords) AND (incidence OR prevalence) AND epidemiolog*

(fill in the blank with your keywords) AND (incidence OR prevalence) AND statistic*

Morbidity/Mortality

(fill in the blank with your keywords) AND (morbidity OR mortality) 

(fill in the blank with your keywords) AND (morbidity OR mortality) AND epidemiolog*

(fill in the blank with your keywords) AND (morbidity OR mortality) AND statistic*

Financial Costs

(fill in the blank with your keywords) AND (cost* OR economic* OR financ*)

Impact on Individual and/or Healthcare System

(fill in the blank with your keywords) AND (individual* OR patient*) AND (impact OR outcome* OR quality of life OR well-being OR wellness)

(fill in the blank with your keywords) AND (healthcare system* OR health care system* OR hospital* OR insurance)

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

To narrow your search to clinical practice guidelines, follow these recommended steps:

CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature)

1. After conducting your search, click the Show More link on the left side of the screen underneath Publication Date
2. 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)

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

ClinicalKey

1. After conducting your search, you should see a variety of limits/filters on the left side of the screen.
2. Under Source Type, check the Guidelines limit

To find information addressing the importance of a clinical topic to nursing (Question 5), 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 detailed Articles in Nursing Journals page on the main Nursing LibGuide.