Johns Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice Thrid Edition: Model and Guidelines

(^94) Johns Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice: Model and Guidelines, Third Edition
When revising a search, consider these questions:
■■ When was the last search conducted? If the search is several years old,
you need to consider changes that may have happened in the field that
were missed by the previous search.
■■ Have new terms been developed related to your search question? Terms
often change. Even controlled vocabulary like MeSH is updated annually.
Make sure to search for new controlled vocabulary and new keywords.
■■ Did the search include databases beyond the nursing literature? Are there
databases outside of nursing that are relevant to your question? Does
your question branch into psychology or physical therapy? Were those
databases searched previously?
■■ Are the limits used in the first search still appropriate? If an age range
limit was used in the last search, is it still relevant? Were there restrictions
on publication type or methodology that are no longer useful?
After a successful search strategy is created, teams or individuals should keep a
record of the work. Often individuals research the same topic throughout their
career, so saving search strategies assists in updating work without duplication
of effort. Most databases have a feature that allows saving a search within the
database; however, it is always a good idea to keep multiple copies of searches.
Microsoft Word documents or emails are a great way to keep a record of work.
PubMed is an example of a database that allows multiple searches to be saved.
My NCBI, a companion piece to PubMed, permits users to create an account,
save searches, set alerts, and customize preferences. Search results can also be
saved by exporting them into a citation management software program such as
EndNote, RefWorks, Zotero, Mendeley, or Papers. Though some citation man-
agement programs are free, others need to be purchased; some may be provided
for free by an organization. The function and capabilities of the various pro-
grams are similar.
After the citations are identified, the next step is to obtain the full text. If the full
text is not available online, request the local library to obtain the information