Introduction
to literature
searching
Nursing October 2014

Today we are going to cover...
• Finding the evidence
• Searching effectively for journal articles
• Evaluating information for your assignments

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

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

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)

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
databases

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 terms for
the same ideas?

Finding resources
myUniHub > My Study > My Library
Remember this from
Essential Library Skills?

Library Subject Guides

Exercise 3
• Use InterNurse and Summon to search for
articles on culture and professional practice
• Remember to try other related keywords too

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?

The C A R P test

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, propaganda,
academic, etc.

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

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

Referencing – style guide

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

Need help?
• Librarians in the StudyHub (1st floor) during
core hours Monday - Friday
• Ask a Librarian http://askalibrarian.mdx.ac.uk/
• Nursing Library Subject Guide
http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/nursing