Basic Information and Tutorials about EBP:
Writing your topic a PIO, PICO, PICOT question:
Note: Don't be surprised if there is not a Cochrane Report for your topic. This database is at the top of the evidence based pyramid and not every topic has been covered in this way.
Search to see if any guidelines exist for your topic, here are just a few starting places for guidelines
Journal articles form the core of nursing literature. Each of these databases focus on a different aspect of Health Care and Nursing Research. Selecting the correct database, or trying several of them, when starting your research can make a difference in finding the most rigorous, current, and reliable information.
Finding and interpreting health data can be very challenging. Many factors go into gathering, analyzing, and reporting data. Some things to think about as you look for data:
Potential starting points:
Additionally, you can search Google for additional information, e.g., "myocardial infarction" prevalence.
Then when looking through the results, think about the credibility and possible biases of the sources and trade up to better sources where you can. For example, look at the hosting websites. In the above search, as I look through the results, I see one comes from Medscape, a source I recommend using for the Microbiology Poster Projects, the NIH website, the CDC, and the National Heart Association - all likely accurate primary sources (the groups that gather the data) of heart-related health data. If you find health data in other sources, you can look at the references to see if you can get back to the primary source of the data.
1. check for subject headings for your topic. In CINAHL and MEDLINE through EBSCOhost - you can select subject headings from the top blue bar (called MeSH in MEDLINE)
2. Use the advanced search options (by clicking on Advanced Search or 'show more' on the left of the screen under the date slider. For the limiter boxes you can use the CRTL button to select multiple options from the lsit
Helpful limiters In CINAHL - look for check boxes like Any Author is a Nurse, English, Research Article, Randomized Controlled Trial - and limiter boxes:
Helpful limiters in MEDLINE - look for check boxes like Human, English Language, EBM Reviews - and limiter boxes: