Evidence Based Practice

The Answerable Question
After a clinical practice problem has been identified and converted into an answerable EBP question using PICO, the search for evidence begins with the following steps:

1. Identify the keywords contained in the EBP question and list them on the Question Development Tool (Appendix B). Include also any synonymous or related terms.  
2. Identify the types of information needed to best answer the question and list the sources where such information can be found. What database(s) will provide the best information to answer the question?
3. Develop the search strategy.
4. Evaluate search results for relevance to the EBP question.
5. Revise the search strategy as needed.
6. Record the strategy specifics (terms used, limits placed, years searched) on the Question Development Tool and save the results.

Keywords are the words or phrases that describe the central ideas, or the main concepts of your topic.

Keywords are used for two very good reasons:

1. Keyword searching is easy - just type in a few words and click the search button.
2. You get results

Keyword searching has a big weakness, however.  When you use databases or search engines, they only retrieve what you type in, nothing more and nothing related. It is up to you to think of which words an author might use to describe key concepts.  

It's helpful to create a chart to stay organized. Place your PICO elements at the top of a column, then write the possible synonyms in the row(s) below.

Clinical Question:
In teenagers, is hypnotism effective for smoking cessation?

Keyword/Synonyms Chart:

These videos from McMaster University will provide you with knowledge of the database tools and features that are necessary for effective and efficient searching.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

So why not use only Google? 

Evidence based medicine depends on finding the most current research to make informed clinical decisions.  Well, Google is an internet web search engine.  Some of the medical information you can find on Google are scholarly research articles articles, clinical trials, conference proceedings and medical information for patients. However it is not generally considered an academic research tool and not all information is available nor is it free. This is where the medical library can step in and provide you with important research from medical databases, electronic and print books and journals.

ZDogg talks about Dr. Google