Searching for references and guidelines

For module three, we searched three different resources to look for references and practice guidelines pertaining to a clinical problem of interest.

Each search strategy had benefits and limitations. Electronic indexes are very helpful when looking for evidence based studies that have been conducted on almost any health care topic imaginable. Searching these indexes can be a bit difficult at times. Coming up with the correct terminology can make searching challenging. The MeSH terms can help with this, but it still takes time to review those and come up with an effective search. It can also be frustrating finding an abstract that fits, just to find out that access to the full article is restricted.

The guideline index we used was also a bit difficult to navigate. I used the National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC) web site and tried to search for “preterm hypotension management”. I tried several different terms, but was never able to find a guideline. The search results provided topics that did not relate to my topic very closely. At work, we have access to Micromedix, which is a database that is easy to use and provides an easy way to search for evidence based management of thousands of conditions. On this database, I was able to find treatment guidelines for managing hypotension, including a list of the studies used to develop the guidelines.

Web search engines are limited in their effectiveness. They bring up thousands of hits, but trying to narrow a search and limit the search to evidence based practice can be challenging. I would probably resort to the web as a last resort and only go to those sites that I know to be credible.