Finding Evidence - Nursing Experts: Translating the Evidence - Acute & Ambulatory Nursing Care - Subject and Course Guides at University of Illinois at Chicago

The PICO Model

Defining a clinical question in terms of the specific patient problem aids the searcher in finding clinically relevant evidence in the literature.

The PICO Model is a format to help define your question.

P	Patient, Population, or Problem	How would I describe a group of patients similar to mine?
I	Intervention, Prognostic Factor, or Exposure	Which main intervention, prognostic factor, or exposure am I considering?
C	Comparison or Intvervention (if appropriate)	What is the main alternative to compare with the intervention?
O	Outcome you would like to measure or achieve	What can I hope to accomplish, measure, improve, or affect?

NLM

PubMed
Search PubMed for research studies and peer reviewed articles on all aspects of healthcare. Many nursing journals are indexed in PubMed
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This is the best general place to start looking for research studies and journal articles about your topic.

MEDLINEPlus
Consumers' health information produced by the National Library of Medicine that is authoritative and up to date.
Produced by the National Library of Medicine, MEDLINEPlus provides health professionals and consumers information that is authoritative and up to date. MEDLINEplus has extensive information from the National Institutes of Health and other trusted sources on over 500 diseases and conditions. There are also lists of hospitals and physicians, a medical encyclopedia and dictionaries, health information in Spanish, extensive information on prescription and nonprescription drugs, health information from the media, and links to thousands of clinical trials.

NCBI Bookshelf
This is a collection of online books, made available by the NLM. Great for "background" information.
Drugs and Lactation Database (LactMed)
contains information on drugs and other chemicals to which breastfeeding mothers may be exposed. It includes information on the levels of such substances in breast milk and infant blood, and the possible adverse effects in the nursing infant. Suggested therapeutic alternatives to those drugs are provided, where appropriate. All data are derived from the scientific literature and fully referenced. A peer review panel reviews the data to assure scientific validity and currency.
PubChem
PubChem is the world's largest collection of freely accessible chemical information. Search chemicals by name, molecular formula, structure, and other identifiers. Find chemical and physical properties, biological activities, safety and toxicity information, patents, literature citations and more.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) publish several journals that may be helpful in your search for evidence.

Publications include:

The CDC is also an excellent resource for statistics on U.S. health.

Cochrane Collaboration

The Cochrane Library
Subscription content (UIC netid/password required)
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A collection of seven databases with evidence based information, including the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE).
Cochrane Library (free to search)
Cochrane is a leader in Evidence-based healthcare and produces many systematic reviews. You can search for free, but will not always be able to get to the full systematic reviews. See the Finding Full Text Articles box for guidance.

Evidently Cochrane - Evidence for Nurses

And More Online Resources to Explore:

Trip - Turning Research into Practice
Trip is a clinical search engine designed to allow users to quickly and easily find and use high-quality research evidence to support their practice and/or care. There's a free version and a premium (subscription) version.
Sigma Repository
The Sigma Repository (formerly the Virginia Henderson Global Nursing e-Repository) is dedicated to sharing works created by nurses around the world. It is an open digital academic and clinical focused service that freely collects, preserves, and disseminates full-text nursing research, educational, and evidence-based practice materials in a variety of formats and item types. The repository is a resource of Sigma Theta Tau International (Sigma).

Associations and Organization for EBP resources

U.S. Preventive Services Task Force
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is an independent, volunteer panel of national experts in disease prevention and evidence-based medicine. The Task Force works to improve the health of all Americans by making evidence-based recommendations about clinical preventive services.
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Free resources including several recommendations and the ePSS Electronic Preventive Services Selector (available as a free download for Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile or Apple devices or as a mobile website accessible from any mobile device with an internet connection.)

Government Agencies, Departments, & Resources

Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ)
the lead Federal agency charged with improving the safety and quality of America's health care system. AHRQ develops the knowledge, tools, and data needed to improve the health care system and help Americans, health care professionals, and policymakers make informed health decisions.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Use the information on specific Environmental Topics and Laws and Regulations for environmental information and data.
National Institutes of Health
NIH - Health Services Research & Public Health Information Programs
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Use their HSR queries for pre-formatted PubMed searches.
NIH - National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Topics
US Department of Health & Human Services

Open Access Directories and Search Engines

Open access (OA) refers to freely available, digital, online information. Open access scholarly literature is free of charge and often carries less restrictive copyright and licensing barriers than traditionally published works, for both the users and the authors. The following links will allow you to search open access materials available from libraries, governmental resources, etc.

Digital Commons Network - Medicine and Health Sciences Commons
The Digital Commons Network brings together free, full-text scholarly articles from hundreds of universities and colleges worldwide. The link leads to the Health and Medicine content.
DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals
DOAJ is a unique and extensive index of diverse open access journals from around the world, driven by a growing community, committed to ensuring quality content is freely available online for everyone.
JURN
JURN is a unique search tool, helping you to find free academic articles and books. JURN harnesses all the power of Google, but focuses your search through a hand-crafted and curated index.

Check with your employer or local medical library about these subscription databases

Your organization may subscribe to one or more of the Nursing Evidence resources:

CINAHL
Clinical Key for Nurses
JBI EBP Database
Lippincott Advisor
Nursing Reference Center

Finding Full Text (complete) articles

PubMed contains abstracts of research articles. There are some full text articles available, but not many, and you don't want to bias your evidence search by limiting to only items readily available through PubMed.

How do you get full text articles? Start with your nearest library. If your employer / organization does not have a library:

Do you have access to a health or medical library in your community?
A larger hospital system in your area may have a library and be able to offer some help
Is there a nursing program nearby - at a community college or university? Call the Library to ask if you could use their resources onsite.
Ask your local public library if they can obtain articles through interlibrary loan
Search for a National Network of Libraries of Medicine Library near you and contact them

Nursing Management & Leadership Journals

Nurse Leader
From the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL). Contains some free content and some members only content.
Nursing Management
Contains both free and subscription only content. A variety of RSS feeds available for this journal.
The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing (OJIN)
"ANA members have the first opportunity to access the most recent OJIN topic. ... When each new topic is posted, the previous topic becomes available to all viewers. "
Voice of Nursing Leadership Magazine
From the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL). Contains some free content and some members only content.

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Nursing Experts: Translating the Evidence - Acute & Ambulatory Nursing Care

The PICO Model

NLM

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Cochrane Collaboration

And More Online Resources to Explore:

Associations and Organization for EBP resources

Government Agencies, Departments, & Resources

Open Access Directories and Search Engines

Check with your employer or local medical library about these subscription databases

Finding Full Text (complete) articles

Nursing Management & Leadership Journals

Locations

Richard J. Daley Library

Library of the Health Sciences-Chicago

Library of the Health Sciences-Peoria

Crawford Library of the Health Sciences-Rockford

Library of the Health Sciences-Urbana