Search for clinical background/expert opinion sources in the library catalog
Encyclopedias, dictionaries, textbooks, handbooks, and other resources help you discover basic information—names, dates, definitions, summaries, etc. These are good places to start when narrowing or choosing your topic and when beginning research on an unfamiliar subject.
Elements of the clinical question |
Patient, Problem, Population Describe as accurately as possible the patient or group of patients of interest
Veteran with PTSD |
Intervention or Issue of Interest What is the main intervention or therapy you wish to consider? Including an exposure to disease, a diagnostic test, a prognostic factor, a treatment, a patient perception, or risk factor. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) |
Comparison(optional) Is there an alternative treatment to compare? Including no disease, placebo, a different prognostic factor, absence of risk factor, etc.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) |
Outcome What is the clinical outcome, including a time horizon if relevant? Decrease in PTSD symptoms |
Foreground questions ask for specific knowledge about managing patients with a disease and have 3 or 4 essential components (PICO - listed above). These questions require secondary sources (i.e.scholarly journal articles) accessed through databases such as CINAHL and MEDLINE.
askMEDLINE - free text, natural language search engine and tools to search PubMed from your mobile device and formulate PICO questions.
Controlled Vocabulary - Medical Subject Headings [MeSH] Database
EBPH Glossary of Studies - Descriptions of Randomized Controlled Trials, Cohort Studies...
Medline, PubMed, PubMed Central (PMC) - How are they different?
Evidence-Based Practice Network
Evidence-Based Practice Step-By-Step
Guide to Clinical Preventive Services
Institute for Healthcare Improvement
Grey Literature - Penn Libraries Guide
Nursing World - Research Tool Kit
Penn State University Libraries
The Evidence for Evidence Based Practice Implementation
Virginia Henderson International Nursing Library's Online Research Repository