This document provides an introduction to literature searching and evaluating evidence for nursing practice. It covers finding high-quality evidence from sources like guidelines and peer-reviewed journal articles using specialized databases. Students learn keywords and search techniques for their topic, "culture and professional practice." Criteria like currency, authority, relevance and purpose are introduced to evaluate search results. The importance of referencing is discussed to avoid plagiarism and support arguments. Help from librarians is available for any questions.

1. Introduction
to literature
searching
Nursing October 2017

2. Today we are going to cover...
• Finding the evidence!
• Searching effectively for journal articles
• Is it good enough? Evaluating what you find
• Citing and referencing

3. Evidence
Exercise 1 - Discuss in pairs
• What is “evidence”?
• Can you think of some situations where
evidence would be useful in healthcare
practice? Why?

4. What Is Evidence?
“Information or signs indicating whether
something is true or valid”
Compact Oxford Dictionary for Students (2006)
You will need to provide appropriate
evidence to support any claims or arguments
made in your assignments

5. Evidence-Based Practice
“…involves the conscientious use of current
best evidence in making decisions about
patient care…”
Evidence-based practice in nursing & healthcare: a guide to
best practice (2005)

6. Where’s the evidence?
• Guidelines for practice, e.g. NICE clinical
guidelines are based on research evidence
from specialist resources
• High quality, peer-reviewed research in
journal articles
• Articles can be found using specialist subject
search engines or databases

7. Today we’re going to search for
literature on...
Culture and professional practice
What are the important concepts in your
learning log topic? Are there other words for
the same ideas?

8. Exercise 2: Thinking about your
keywords
• Go to slido.com and enter 8988 as the event code
• Which words or short phrases could you use to search
for information on the topic above? Type in your
answers
• You can submit as many answers as you can think of
• Are there other words for the same ideas? Can you
narrow down the topic? Add them too!

9. Finding resources
myUniHub > My Study > My Library
Access all sorts of
online resources here!

10. My Subject – library guides

11. Exercise 3: Finding journal articles
• From the 1st year Nursing page…
• Use InterNurse and Summon to search for
articles on culture and professional practice
• Remember to try the other keywords from the
word cloud too

12. Evaluating what you’ve found
Is it what you need and is it trustworthy?
What criteria would you use to assess the
relevance and quality of the information?

13. The C A R P test

14. C A R P
• Currency - How old is the information?
When was it last updated?
• Authority - Who is the author / site creator?
What is their background? Is the article
published in a scholarly/peer reviewed
journal?
• Relevance - Is this what I need? Will it
answer my question? Is it at the right level?
• Purpose - What is the purpose of the
information e.g. financial gain, guidelines for
practice, academic research, etc.

15. Exercise 4
• Work in groups
• 4 resources and evaluation sheet
• For each resource, decide as a group if it
meets the criteria.
• No need to read the whole thing!

16. Referencing
• Is very important
• Acknowledges other people’s work (avoids
plagiarism)
• Shows you’ve read around the subject
• Supports your discussion and arguments
• Gets you better marks!
• Enables others to find your references

17. Referencing – style guide

18. What we’ve covered
• Using evidence-based resources
• Searching effectively for journal articles
• Critically evaluating information
• Any questions?

19. Need help?
• Librarians in the StudyHub (1st floor) Monday –
Friday 9-5
• Ask a Librarian
https://unihelp.mdx.ac.uk/askalibrarian
• Nursing Library Subject Guide
http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/nursing