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Research Tools

The purpose of this web page is to provide healthcare clinicians with one location for most all of their research needs. 

 Resources to Support Nursing Research

Johns Hopkins School of Nursing  - The Johns Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice (JHNEBP) model is a powerful problem-solving approach to clinical decision-making, and is accompanied by user-friendly tools to guide individual or group use.  It is designed specifically to meet the needs of the practicing nurse and uses a three-step process called PET: practice questions, evidence, and translation.  The goal of the model is to ensure that the latest research findings and best practices are quickly and appropriately incorporated into patient care.

JHNEBP Model Evidence-Based Practice Examples

Lee Health

Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) - Critical Appraisal - Checklists

EBSCO Health  - Critical Appraisal of a Randomized Trial 

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

  • Patient Safety (PSNet) - - "...Near Miss" section includes journal articles. reviews and studies focused on "near miss, "good catch", or "Swiss Cheese" situations that allow clinicians the ability to simulated Root Cause (RCA) or Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) processes.
  • National Guidelines Clearinghouse (NGC) - supports AHRQ's mission to produce evidence to make health care safer, higher quality, more accessible, equitable, and affordable by providing objective, detailed information on clinical practice guidelines, and to further their dissemination, implementation, and use in order to inform health care decisions.
    • NOTE: The AHRQ National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC, guideline.gov) Web site will not be available after July 16, 2018, because federal funding through AHRQ will no longer be available to support the NGC as of that date. AHRQ is receiving expressions of interest from stakeholders interested in carrying on NGC's work. It is not clear at this time, however, when or if NGC (or something like NGC) will be online again. In addition, AHRQ has not yet determined whether, or to what extent, the Agency would have an ongoing role if a stakeholder were to continue to operate the NGC. We will continue to post summaries of new and updated evidence-based clinical practice guidelines until July 2, 2018. For any questions, please contact Mary.Nix@ahrq.hhs.gov.
    • To find the guidelines you need, search the topic of your interest, and then display accompanying guidelines in any of these databases: Clinical Key or Up-To-Date.
  • National Quality Measure Clearinghouse (NQMC) -  "...public resource for summaries of evidence-based quality measures and measure sets."

U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) - "The World's largest biomedical library, NLM maintains and makes available a vast print collection and produces electronic information resources on a wide range of topics...supports and conducts research, development, and training in biomedical informatics and health information technology."

Virginia Henderson Global Nursing e-Repository (STTI) - "...global digital service that collects, preserves and shares nursing research and evidence-based practice materials.

National Institute of Nursing Research - Branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)  that is "...dedicated to improving the health and health care of Americans through funding of nursing research and research training."

The National Academies Press (NAP) - "...publishes the reports of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The NAP publishes more than 200 books a year on a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and medicine, providing authoritative, independently-researched information on important matters in science and health policy."

Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) - International Nursing organization dedicated to the development of nurses in the areas of leadership, scholarship, and service
 

Medical Library Databases                

PubMed - Full Database

  • Using PubMed in Evidence-Based Practice (Training Course)
  • PubMed and the Evidence-Based Universe
  • Clinical Queries - ready-to-use search strategies:
    • Clinical Study categories use built-in filters that limit retrieval to articles reporting research conducted with specific methodologies, including those that report applied clinical research.
    • Systematic Reviews cover a broad set of articles that build consensus on biomedical topics
    • Medical Genetics find citations related to topics in medical genetics
    • Comparative Effectiveness Research is the conduct and synthesis of research comparing the benefits and harms of different interventions and strategies to prevent, diagnose, treat and monitor health conditions in "real world" settings. The purpose of this research is to improve health outcomes by developing and disseminating evidence-based information to patients, clinicians, and other decision-makers, responding to their expressed needs, about which interventions are most effective for which patients under specific circumstances. The purpose of the search strategies presented here is to help inform discussions on or relating to comparative effectiveness by providing retrieval of a full range of studies on the efficacy-effectiveness-effectiveness in the "real world" continuum.
    • Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), Qualifiers/Limits  - use to search PubMed for evidence-based material

Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Evidence-Based Practice Database -  Systematic reviews that complement those found in the Cochrane Library.  Published by the international not-for-profit research and development organization – includes evidence in various formats for nursing, allied health, and medical professionals.  It also supports patient education. Documents include:

  • Evidence Summaries - literature reviews that summarize existing international literature on common healthcare interventions
  • Evidence-Based Recommended Practices - databases of procedures that describe and/or recommend practice on various clinical topics
  • Best Practice Information Sheets - series of information guideline sheets produced specifically for practicing health professionals
  • Systematic Reviews - comprehensive systematic reviews of international research literature
  • Consumer Information Sheets - standardized summaries for patients and other clients
  • Systematic Review Protocols - developed by experts from more than 40 countries
  • Technical Reports - documentation of all aspects of the development of Best Practice Information Sheets
    • NOTE - There is no mobile application for this database, but it may be accessed on IntraLee (databases) without passwords and remotely via Athens.  In order to use JBI tools, a user has to first create his/her personal OVID account on OVID home page on IntraLee.  (JBI is part of OVID collection) It is different than OVID passwords used to open full-text articles from e-mailed table of content of journals service.
  • Supporting Documents for the JBI Database
  • Video Tutorials

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 

CINAHL Complete: Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature 

ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source 

Other Databases

Writing and Publishing

The Basics of APA (American Psychological Association) -free tutorials on basics of APA style based on the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. It shows users how to structure and format their work, recommends ways to reduce bias in language, identifies how to avoid charges of plagiarism, shows how to cite references in text, and provides selected reference examples.

APA Style Blog

Excelsior College OWL

Purdue Online Writing Lab

How to Write your Nursing Dissertations

Citations

Citation Builder

Copyright Law - Tools & Documents
 

Nursing and Allied Health Research Theories 

The online resources below provide a broad overview of the most common grand, middle-range, and practice-level theories and models. Discipline-specific areas include Adult, Perinatal, Critical Care (Adult and Neonatal), Pediatric, Rehabilitation, and Home Health nursing. Additional complimentary research theories are included from other disciplines.

Nursing Theory

Additional Nursing Theories

Communication Theories

Psychology Theories

Useful Print and E-Books in Medical Library Collection -  to find additional recommended resources on research, nursing theory, statistics, validation of research, writing, click on Library Books Catalog

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