1. Describe your clinical problem and choice of electronic index. How did the index facilitate (or impede) your ability to construct an efficient search? How time consuming was your search? Would there be barriers to using the index in daily practice?
The clinical problem that I chose was visiting hours in intensive care units. I chose this topic because currently the intensive care unit where I work is in the middle of changing our visiting hour’s policy. In the past I have done searches in EBSCO, CINAHL and Medline. I chose to use the PubMed database because I need to become familiar with new databases and how to use them. Another reason why I chose PubMed is because it is easy to access from a remote location, making it easier to do searches from my own home. This database was simple to use with lots of information. It is easy to use, however; you must use the Boolean operators or the truncation operators to limit your search to pertinent information or you will get all kinds of non-pertinent articles. It only took me about seven to twelve minutes to perform my search and narrow it down into a specific criteria. This database is easy to export into ENDNOTE which I am also starting to use.
Using this PubMed in everyday practice may not be the best choice but as long as you had access to the internet and are able to link on through a university library you will be able to find lots of valuable articles. I would venture to say that the more you used the database the better you would become. Being one of the most reliable and prominent databases in the medical field helped me to be confident and positive about doing research. One hurdle that almost all databases have is that if you do not know how to search effectively you may be searching for a while through articles that aren’t useful. With PubMed specifically it is hard to gain access to full text articles. This requires the usage of other databases or ordering the article which can be time consuming and because of this PubMed may not be the best choice for daily practice.
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Hey Jeremiah,
ReplyDeleteCan I just say that I am glad you posted Module 2!
I too chose PubMed. I just need to clarify something. You do not need to go through the University or any University website to get access...I just checked! You had me scared!! I loved this site, but now that I have read your post I am wondering just how many articles I retrieved that had full text. I'll have to check on that. One way to get around this problem is to go to your "Limits" area and place a check mark in the box for "Full Text" or "Links to Full Text." This may narrow your search some but if its full text you desire then at least you'll have access to it. I looked up my history, as you mentioned it took you about 12 minutes to retrieve your information. It took me 20 minutes and 18 seconds. I had to twist my words around and around and did use truncation as well as parentheses...this did help. I must say that I concur with your claim that effective searching takes practice, as I know that the more I search the better I will become. Great post!