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? |
Online Resources to Explore:
The National Library of Medicine (NLM)
The National Library of Medicine provides not only PubMed and MedlinePlus, but several other useful resources.
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MEDLINEPlus
Consumers' health information produced by the National Library of Medicine.
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LitCovidFrom the National Library of Medicine : LitCovid is a curated literature hub for tracking up-to-date scientific information about the 2019 novel Coronavirus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The CDC is also a great source for statistics. For more information on this, see the Finding Statistics page.
The World Health Organization (WHO)
WHO is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system.
The Cochrane Collaboration
The Cochrane Collaboration is an international network known for providing the best possible evidence-based information.
The Joanna Briggs Institute
The Joanna Briggs Institute is an international collaborative focused on evidence-based healthcare. EBP Resources contains manuals for evidence synthesis and evidence implementation, along with critical appraisal tools. Some content is available to all for free and some requires a subscription/membership.
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Joanna Briggs InstituteEvidence-based nursing organization that provides some free content.
Public Health Associations & Organizations
The following public health associations and organizations have a variety of resources available online.
Government Agencies, Departments, & Resources
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Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)Use the information on specific Environmental Topics and Laws and Regulations for environmental information and data.
Evidence-Based Practice Websites
Resources for Practice Guidelines
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Trip DatabaseTrip 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.
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.
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Digital Commons Network - Medicine and Health Sciences CommonsThe 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.
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DOAJ: Directory of Open Access JournalsDOAJ 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.
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JURNJURN 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.
Finding Full-text Materials
Finding full-text articles to support practice can be challenging if you are an unaffiliated health professional. Here are a few suggestions on how to obtain full-text materials:
- Use free full-text filters in the databases. For example, PubMed has a free full-text filter to sort through materials that do not require a license or paying an access fee.
- Search your query in Google Scholar or Dimensions search engines. While not everything will be available, the citations may have a link to a pre-publication manuscript (a pre-print) available from an institutional repository.
- Search open access repositories or search engines. This guide page has several linked here.
- Request the article through your public library's interlibrary loan service. Contact your local library to see what may be possible for them to loan to you.
Public Health & Nursing Journals with Free Content
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BMC Public HealthOpen Access, peer-reviewed research articles in all aspects of epidemiology & public health medicine. Article alerts available.
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Evidence Based Nursing"Evidence-Based Nursing systematically searches a wide range of international healthcare journals applying strict criteria for the validity of research and relevance to best nursing practice. Content is critically appraised and the most relevant articles are summarised into succinct expert commentaries, focusing on the papers' key findings and implications for nursing practice."
Some new content and most older content is free to access. Email alerts and podcasts available. -
Journal of Public HealthSubscription journal publishing scholarly research in all areas of public health. Older content and some current articles are free to access. Article alerts are available.