Research Guides: Nursing: Special Topics

Select any tab below for additional resources on that topic.

What is Evidence-Based Practice?

"Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a problem-solving approach to the delivery of health care that integrates the best evidence from studies and patient care data with clinician expertise and patient preferences and values. When delivered in a context of caring and in a supportive organizational culture, the highest quality of care and best patient outcomes can be achieved."

(Melnyk, Fineout-Overholt, Stillwell, & Williamson, 2009, p. 49)

"The PICOT format provides an efficient framework for searching electronic databases, one designed to retrieve only those articles relevant to the clinical question."

(Melnyk, Fineout-Overholt, Stillwell, & Williamson, 2010, p. 52)

Patient Population (P)

Intervention or area of interest (I)

Comparison intervention or group (C)

Outcome (O)

Time (T)

Resources and References

7 Steps to the Perfect PICO Search
This white paper from EBCSO explores the importance of evidence-based nursing practice, explains the PICO process, and demonstrates PICO in the context of a CINAHL search.

American Journal of Nursing: Evidence-Based Practice, Step by Step Article Series

Another article series on Evidence-Based Practice:

Facchiano, L., & Snyder, C. H. (2012). Evidence-based practice for the busy nurse practitioner: Part one: Relevance to clinical practice and clinical inquiry process. Journal Of The American Academy Of Nurse Practitioners, 24(10), 579-586. doi:10.1111/j.1745-7599.2012.00748.x
Facchiano, L., & Snyder, C. H. (2012). Evidence-based practice for the busy nurse practitioner: Part two: Searching for the best evidence to clinical inquiries. Journal Of The American Academy Of Nurse Practitioners, 24(11), 640-648. doi:10.1111/j.1745-7599.2012.00749.x
Facchiano, L., & Snyder, C. H. (2012). Evidence-based practice for the busy nurse practitioner: Part three: Critical appraisal process. Journal Of The American Academy Of Nurse Practitioners, 24(12), 704-715. doi:10.1111/j.1745-7599.2012.00752.x
Facchiano, L., & Snyder, C. H. (2013). Evidence-based practice for the busy nurse practitioner: Part four: Putting it all together. Journal Of The American Association Of Nurse Practitioners, 25(1), 24-31. doi:10.1111/j.1745-7599.2012.00751.x

Doing a title search for "Evidence-based practice for the busy nurse practitioner" in CINAHL will retrieve all four articles. Full-text is available.

References:
Melnyk, B., Fineout-Overholt, E., Stillwell, S., & Williamson, K. (2009). Evidence-based practice: step by step. Igniting a spirit of inquiry: an essential foundation for evidence-based practice: how nurses can build the knowledge and skills they need to implement EBP. American Journal Of Nursing, 109(11), 49-52. doi:10.1097/01.NAJ.0000363354.53883.58

Melnyk, B., Fineout-Overholt, E., Stillwell, S., & Williamson, K. (2010). Evidence-based practice: step by step. The seven steps of evidence-based practice: following this progressive, sequential approach will lead to improved health care and patient outcomes. American Journal Of Nursing, 110(1), 51-53. doi:10.1097/01.NAJ.0000366056.06605.d2

Grey Literature Resources

Grey Literature Web Conference Series
Archived 3-part web conference series on Grey Literature
CADTH.ca: Grey Matters: a practical tool for searching health-related grey literature
- "Grey Matters Light" provides the "Top 14 Resources for Evidence-Based Medical Grey Literature Searching from CADTH's Grey Matters Document"
- "Grey Matters: a practical tool for searching health-related grey literature" is an in-depth checklist for searching the grey literature from the Information Services team at the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH)

Find Theses, Dissertations, Conference Papers, and Conference Proceedings

PapersFirst
A searchable index of papers presented at conferences worldwide from OCLC FirstSearch.
Proceedings
A searchable index of worldwide conference proceedings from OCLC FirstSearch.
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global
Collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, spanning from 1743 to the present day.
Scholar Works at UT Tyler
A repository of the scholarly and artistic work of the UT Tyler community; including theses, dissertations, and submitted faculty publications. (Access to some materials are restricted due to the authors' wishes.)

Selected Sites

Listed below are selected sites that may be helpful in locating grey literature (with an emphasis on U.S. sites).This list is meant to serve as a starting off point and is not comprehensive by any means.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
AHRQ's mission is to produce evidence to make health care safer, higher quality, more accessible, equitable, and affordable, and to ensure that evidence is understood and used. We accomplish our mission by focusing on health systems research, practice improvement, and data & analytics.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
The nation’s leading science-based, data-driven, service organization that protects the public’s health.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
CMS is the federal agency that provides health coverage through Medicare, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, and the Health Insurance Marketplace.
ClinicalTrials.gov
Database of clinical studies. Provided by the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Google Scholar
Govinfo: Discover U.S. Government Information
A service of the United States Government Publishing Office (GPO) providing free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government.
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
Independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
The National Academies Press
NAP publishes for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on a wide range of topics. It provides authoritative, independently researched information on important matters in science and health policy.
National Academy of Medicine (NAM) Perspectives
Browse the papers from this health periodical which provides a venue for leading health, medical, science, and policy experts to reflect on issues and opportunities important to the advancement of the NAM’s mission.
NIH: Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools (RePORT)
Allows users to search a repository of NIH-funded research projects and access publications and patents resulting from NIH funding.
Pan American Health Organization (PAHO): Publications - PAHO/WHO
A gateway to publications related to the Americas’ most pressing public health issues.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
World Health Organization (WHO)
The directing and coordinating authority on international health within the United Nations system. Search fact sheets, statistics, infographics, news, and publications by health topic.

Selected Clinical Research Resources

ClinicalTrials.gov
Database of clinical studies. Provided by the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
ClinRegs
"online database of country-specific clinical research regulatory information"
A website from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
Code of Federal Regulations
The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Ethical Codes & Research Standards
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
Office for Human Research Protection
Health Information Privacy
Information about HIPAA from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

Nursing

Open Access Resources