When You Decide To Purchase A New Car, You First Decide What ✓ Solved
When You Decide To Purchase A New Car You First Decide What Is Import
When you decide to purchase a new car, you first decide what is important to you. If mileage and dependability are the important factors, you will search for data focused more on these factors and less on color options and sound systems. The same holds true when searching for research evidence to guide your clinical inquiry and professional decisions. Developing a formula for an answerable, researchable question that addresses your need will make the search process much more effective. One such formula is the PICO(T) format.
In this Discussion, you will transform a clinical inquiry into a searchable question in PICO(T) format, so you can search the electronic databases more effectively and efficiently. You will share this PICO(T) question and examine strategies you might use to increase the rigor and effectiveness of a database search on your PICO(T) question. To Prepare: Review the Resources and identify a clinical issue of interest that can form the basis of a clinical inquiry. Review the materials offering guidance on using databases, performing keyword searches, and developing PICO(T) questions provided in the Resources. Based on the clinical issue of interest and using keywords related to the clinical issue of interest, search at least two different databases in the Walden Library to identify at least four relevant peer-reviewed articles related to your clinical issue of interest.
You should not be using systematic reviews for this assignment, select original research articles. Review the Resources for guidance and develop a PICO(T) question of interest to you for further study. It is suggested that an Intervention-type PICOT question be developed as these seem to work best for this course. *Library tip : Walden Library recommends starting your search broadly with one concept or search word and adding more elements one at a time. Depending on your topic, the evidence will not necessarily address all the aspects of your PICO(T) question in one article. Select the most important concepts to search and find the best evidence available, even if that means assembling evidence from multiple articles.
Post a brief description of your clinical issue of interest. This clinical issue will remain the same for the entire course and will be the basis for the development of your PICOT question. Describe your search results in terms of the number of articles returned on original research and how this changed as you added search terms using your Boolean operators. Finally, explain strategies you might make to increase the rigor and effectiveness of a database search on your PICO(T) question. Be specific and provide examples.
Sample Paper For Above instruction
Clinical Issue of Interest:
My clinical issue of interest revolves around the management of chronic lower back pain in adult patients. Chronic lower back pain is a prevalent condition that affects a significant portion of the adult population, impacting quality of life and functionality. Evidence-based management strategies are critical to optimize patient outcomes while minimizing adverse effects.
Development of the PICO(T) Question:
Based on this clinical issue, I formulated an intervention-focused PICOT question: "In adults with chronic lower back pain, does the use of physical therapy compared to pharmacological treatment improve pain reduction and functional ability over a 12-week period?"
Search Strategy and Results:
Initially, I started my search with the key concept 'chronic lower back pain' in the PubMed database, which yielded approximately 1,200 articles. To refine this, I added 'adults' and 'intervention' keywords, applying Boolean operators: 'chronic lower back pain' AND 'adults' AND 'physical therapy'. This narrowed the results to about 350. Further adding 'randomized controlled trial' as a filter narrowed the papers to 50 articles of high relevance, specifically original research studies.
Repeating the process in CINAHL, I began with the broad term 'lower back pain' and progressively added keywords such as 'chronic,' 'adults,' and 'intervention.' This approach reduced the search results from over 1,000 articles to approximately 40 relevant studies after applying similar criteria and filters. This process demonstrates how adding specific search terms and filters refines the search, increasing the specificity and relevancy of articles retrieved.
Strategies to Increase Search Rigor and Effectiveness:
- Using Boolean operators effectively—AND, OR, NOT—to combine or exclude keywords enhances search precision.
- Incorporating Medical Subject Headings (MeSH terms) to align search terms with database indexing improves retrieval accuracy.
- Applying filters such as publication date ranges, article type (e.g., randomized controlled trials), and peer-reviewed status narrows results further to the most relevant evidence.
- Starting with broad search terms and gradually adding specific keywords prevents early narrowing that might exclude relevant studies.
- Utilizing truncation symbols (e.g., pain* to include pain, pains, painful) broadens search scopes.
- Reviewing reference lists of key articles can uncover additional relevant studies not retrieved through database searches.
These strategies help ensure a comprehensive and rigorous search, critical for evidence-based practice in nursing and healthcare.
References
- Melnyk, B. M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2023). Evidence-based practice in nursing & healthcare: A guide to best practice (5th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
- Davies, K. S. (2011). Formulating the evidence based practice question: A review of the frameworks for LIS professionals. Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 6(2), 75–80.
- Stillwell, S. B., Fineout-Overholt, E., Melnyk, B. M., & Williamson, K. M. (2010). Evidence-based practice, step by step: Asking the clinical question: A key step in evidence-based practice. American Journal of Nursing, 110(3), 58–61.
- Walden University Library. (n.d.-a). Databases A-Z: Nursing. Retrieved September 6, 2019, from https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/library/databases/nursing
- Walden University Library. (n.d.-c). Evidence-based practice research: CINAHL search help. Retrieved September 6, 2019, from https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/library/cinahl
- Walden University Library. (n.d.-d). Evidence-based practice research: Joanna Briggs Institute search help. Retrieved September 6, 2019, from https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/library/JBI
- Walden University Library. (n.d.-e). Evidence-based practice research: MEDLINE search help. Retrieved September 6, 2019, from https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/library/Medline
- Library of Congress. (n.d.). Search/browse help - Boolean operators and nesting. Retrieved September 19, 2018, from https://www.loc.gov/search-help/
- Stillwell, S. B., Fineout-Overholt, E., Melnyk, B. M., & Williamson, K. M. (2010). Evidence-based practice step-by-step: Searching for evidence. American Journal of Nursing, 110(5), 41-47.