LibGuides: Evidence-Based Practice Toolkit for Nursing: Searching for Articles, Guidelines, and Resources

Searching for EBP Articles, Guidelines, and Resources

The short video below walks you through basic steps for effective searching in PubMed, but this is just the tip of the searching iceberg. The second video in the list of links showcases different search techniques. Schedule a consultation to get personalized assistance from library experts. OHSU librarians and staff are available to address and support your information needs, including literature searching and citation management.

Overview of Search Techniques: YouTube
This video also provides an excellent overview of additional and helpful database searching techniques.
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If no official EBM review has been done on your topic, these filters and hedges may be helpful in reducing the amount of literature you need to analyze.

PubMed (MEDLINE)
PubMed Filters: From the PubMed homepage, linked above, click on "Clinical Queries" in the left frame. The objective of filtering is to reduce the retrieval of a search in PubMed to articles that report research conducted with specific methodologies.

CINAHL
Database with access to journal articles spanning various disciplines in nursing and allied health, along with evidence-based care sheets, quick lessons, and more.
ClinicalKey for Nursing
A clinical reference platform that includes content from evidence-based nursing monographs, books, journals, practice guidelines, and core measures with nursing recommendations as well as Procedures Consult and Clinical Skills topics. This resources provides information to support nursing care in areas such as administering medication, managing nurse policy, monitoring for complications, and providing patient education.
1. Set up a Personal Account
2. Request Remote Access
3. Download the free ClinicalKey app from the Apple App Store or Google Play
4. At the Choose Role screen, select ClinicalKey for Nursing
5. Launch the app and log in with your Personal Account credentials
Clinical Skills (Elsevier)
An evidence-based database of nursing skills and procedures. The content is updated regularly to reflect changes in practice, and includes both quick and extended summaries, videos, checklists and more.
Davis' Drug Guide
Davis’s Drug Guide delivers comprehensive and practical information on over 5,000 trade name and generic drugs. This up-to-date resource contains everything you need to provide premium care to patients including information on dosing and administration, safety, interactions, and patient teaching. Contains integrated calculators, including a link directly from a drug monograph to a built-in dosing calculator.
1. Download the free UCentral app from the Apple App Store or Google Play
2. Access Davis' Drug Guide via the OHSU Library
3. Click on the Mobile link at the top toolbar of the resulting page. First time users can register for an account. Once you register, you can log in to use mobile or to personalize your web experience.
4. Using the login information you created when you registered, login to the app on your device.
Nursing Reference Center Plus
Nursing Reference Center Plus is an evidence-based point-of-care resource designed specifically for nurses. It provides access to nursing care plans, nurse management and leadership topics, nursing skills checklists, continuing education credits, and more.
NOTE: If you have the Nursing Reference Center app installed on your device, you must uninstall it before installing the Nursing Reference Center Plus app.
1. Download the free Nursing Reference Center Plus App from the Apple App Store or Google Play.
2. Access Nursing Reference Center Plus via the OHSU Library.
3. Click on the NRC Plus Mobile App Access link from Nursing Reference Center Plus at the bottom of the page and enter your email address. An authentication key will be emailed to you.
4. Open the Nursing Reference Center Plus email from your device.
Within 24 hours, tap on the link in the email to authenticate the app.
Note: If the app is not authenticated after 24 hours, you will need to request a new authentication key.
MEDLINE (Ovid)
Ovid's MEDLINE and PubMed both offer tools for searching MEDLINE, the National Library of Medicine’s database for journal articles in life sciences with a concentration on biomedicine.
PsycINFO (Ovid)
Provides access to abstracts, citations, articles, books and dissertations in the psychological, social and behavioral sciences. Produced by the American Psychological Association.
PubMed (MEDLINE)
PubMed and Ovid's MEDLINE both offer tools for searching MEDLINE, the National Library of Medicine’s database for journal articles in life sciences with a concentration on biomedicine.
Scopus
Citation and abstract database of peer-reviewed literature that can be used by researchers to determine the impact of specific authors, articles/documents and journals.
SocINDEX
Database of sociological research. Covers sub-disciplines and related subject areas including social work, substance abuse, social policy, social psychology and related health topics.
Trip
Trip is a clinical search engine of evidence-based content designed to support clinical practice and care. It includes research evidence and other content types including images, videos, patient information leaflets, educational courses and news.

Evidence-based guidelines are the basis for evidence-based practice. Below are a few tips on how to find current guidelines:

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) guidelines - "The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) mission is to produce evidence to make health care safer, higher quality, more accessible, equitable, and affordable, and to work within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and with other partners to make sure that the evidence is understood and used."
U.S. Preventive Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations - USPSTF "is an independent panel of experts in primary care and prevention that systematically reviews the evidence of effectiveness and develops recommendations for clinical preventive services."
Professional Organizations such as the American Heart Association, the National Cancer Institute, the American Psychiatric Association or the American Academy of Pediatrics may post relevant evidence based medicine reviews or practice guidelines based on EBP reviews on their Web sites.
ClinicalKey for Nursing contains full text guidelines published in Elsevier journals only.
To find guidelines in DynaMed and UpToDate, select a topic, then scroll down in the left column to Guidelines and Resources or Society Guidelines respectively.
Find guidelines in Library databases such as PubMed and CINAHL:
- In PubMed:
  - After conducting a topic search, use the Publication Type filters: Guideline, Practice Guideline, Consensus Development Conference, or Consensus Development Conference NIH
  - Or search for the topic and combine with a search for ("practice guideline"[Publication Type] OR "practice guidelines as topic"[MeSH] OR ("guideline"[Publication Type] OR "guidelines as topic"[MeSH] OR ("consensus development conference"[Publication Type] OR "consensus development conferences as topic"[MeSH])
- In CINAHL:
  - Search the topic and click on Edit to the right of the results in search history, then select Practice Guideline as a Publication Type.
  - Or combine your topic search with a search for the CINAHL heading - Practice Guidelines.

All of the resources above are linked to below.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Guidelines
"The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ) mission is to produce evidence to make health care safer, higher quality, more accessible, equitable, and affordable, and to work within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and with other partners to make sure that the evidence is understood and used."
U.S. Preventive Task Force (USPSTF)
USPSTF "is an independent panel of experts in primary care and prevention that systematically reviews the evidence of effectiveness and develops recommendations for clinical preventive services."
American Heart Association
American Psychiatric Association
National Cancer Institute
American Academy of Pediatrics - Clinical Practice Guidelines

ClinicalKey for Nursing
Click Guidelines from the homepage under "Diagnose and Treat Your Patients With Confidence"
1. Set up a Personal Account
2. Request Remote Access
3. Download the free ClinicalKey app from the Apple App Store or Google Play
4. At the Choose Role screen, select ClinicalKey for Nursing
5. Launch the app and log in with your Personal Account credentials
DynaMed
Select a topic, then scroll down in the left column to Guidelines and Resources
1. Make sure your device is connected to your institutions' wifi. If you're off-campus/outside of the institutional IP range, be sure to access Best Practice via your institution's referral URL or library portal.
2. Download the free DynaMed Plus App from the Apple App Store or Google Play
3. Create an account and start searching
UpToDate
Select a topic, then scroll down in the left column to Society Guidelines
1. Download the free mobile app from the Apple App Store or Google Play
2. Access UpToDate via the OHSU Library
3. Click on the Log In/Register link on the resulting page. First time users can register for an account to use on a mobile device or to use the CME feature.
4. Once you register, you can login to the app using the UpToDate username and password you created from step #3 above.
PLEASE NOTE: You will occasionally be asked to re-verify your affiliation with OHSU. You will need to use your UpToDate username and password.
PubMed (MEDLINE)
After conducting a topic search, use the Publication Type filters: Guideline, Practice Guideline, Consensus Development Conference, or Consensus Development Conference NIH
Or search for the topic and combine with a search for ("practice guideline"[Publication Type] OR "practice guidelines as topic"[MeSH] OR ("guideline"[Publication Type] OR "guidelines as topic"[MeSH] OR ("consensus development conference"[Publication Type] OR "consensus development conferences as topic"[MeSH])
CINAHL
Search the topic and click on Edit to the right of the results in search history, then select Practice Guideline as a Publication Type.
Or combine your topic search with a search for the CINAHL heading - Practice Guidelines.

Citation Guidelines:

Systematic reviews can be found by searching PubMed or CINAHL by using the following strategies:

In PubMed:
- After conducting search on a topic, select Additional Filters, show Article Type Meta-Analysis or Systematic Review, and click on both to narrow down your search.
- Conduct the search on your topic, then another search using the following strategy:
  "systematic review"[Publication Type] OR "systematic reviews as topic"[MeSH Terms] OR "systematic review"[All Fields] OR "meta analysis"[Publication Type] OR "meta analysis as topic"[MeSH Terms] OR "meta analysis"[All Fields]
  and using AND to combine the two searches.
In CINAHL:
- Conduct the search on your topic, then another search using the following strategy:
  (MH "Meta Analysis") OR "meta analysis" OR (MH "Systematic Review") OR "systematic review" OR (MH "Cochrane Library")
  then combine the two searches using AND.
- Search for your topic, then click on Edit to the right of the search results in the Search History. Scroll to Publication Type and select Meta Analysis and Systematic Review. You can select both at the same time by holding down the Control key in Windows or the Command key on the Mac.
Systematic reviews can also be found by searching for topics directly in the Cochrane Library Database or in Joanna Briggs Institute Journals found below.

Cochrane Library
A source for evidence based healthcare information. Includes Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Database of Abstracts of Reviews, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Methodology Reviews, Cochrane Methodology Register, Health Technology Assessment Database, and NHS Economic Evaluation Database.
The Cochrane Library app is the perfect format for catching up on the latest evidence from the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. The app includes exclusive monthly issues containing the best of the previous month’s Cochrane Reviews, specially chosen by the Cochrane Library Editor in Chief.

Other features include:

Downloadable Cochrane Review content for reading offline.

A Bookmark feature for creating your own topic-based collections of Cochrane evidence.

Abridged Cochrane Reviews for the best possible tablet and phone reading experience

Download for Android or Apple

JBI (Joanna Briggs Institute) Journal: Evidence Synthesis

For information about the OHSU Nursing Clinical Inquiry Council, see our webpage on the Ozone:

Councils & Committees: Nursing Staff
To contact the council for advice or information about getting involved, in the OHSU Outlook email client, send a message to "Clinical Inquiry Council".