Locating Credible Databases And Research

Locating Credible Databases and Research

Research is a vital tool in the ongoing effort to improve the quality and safety of patient care. Patient care is continually improving, thanks to the efforts of healthcare staff and researchers in discovering new methods to improve treatment and putting the findings into practice.

However, before applying the evidence into practice, there is a prodromal period of significant effort to find appropriate resources, sift through for credible material, and choose which one best meets the patient’s requirements. Baccalaureate nurses get training in nursing research to equip them with skills in obtaining and putting evidence into practice to prepare them for a dynamically changing healthcare environment.

Recognizing the significance of research in patient care, the purpose of this paper, which employs a nursing practice scenario, is to emphasize the importance of obtaining credible databases and information, as well as fundamental communication and collaboration tactics, to solve a nursing practice situation.

The Role of a Baccalaureate-Prepared Nurse in Supervising Clinical Staff Nurses

Summary of the Nursing Practice Scenario

As a registered nurse (RN) in the medical-surgical ward of a local teaching hospital, I am bestowed with the task of overseeing three nurses. One day, after giving the nurses their patient assignments and completing the shift report, a new nurse who had just completed orientation and training a week before approaches me and says he has encountered a patient with a diagnosis he is unfamiliar with and thus lacks the confidence to continue the assessment and treatment. Knowing the importance of using the best evidence to improve patient outcomes, my role as a supervisor is to help the nurse locate research and reliable material that may be used to deliver the best care for the patient.

Communication and Collaborative Strategies

Healthcare values communication and collaboration as essential cornerstones of the industry. People go from amateurs to connoisseurs in the healthcare industry, just as they do in any other subject. The trip is worthwhile, even if it is a long road, especially in health, to become an expert. As a supervisor of nurses in the medical-surgical ward, one of my responsibilities is to assist them in identifying areas of weakness and developing suitable ways to improve them.

A nurse encounters a 57-year-old male patient on the ward who has a longstanding history of smoking and now has dyspnea, chronic productive cough, and physical examination reveals increased bilateral resonance on percussion, diminished breath sounds, and crackles at the lung bases on auscultation. The nurse suspects the patient has a chronic respiratory condition but is unclear whether it is a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or another diagnosis.

I would dedicate time to teaching the nurse about taking a comprehensive patient history and doing a physical examination on individuals suspected of having respiratory diseases. The education would take the form of a bedside tutorial in which the nurse would be able to ask the patient pertinent questions and execute the different procedures for a focused respiratory exam.

Regardless of the healthcare hierarchy, everyone is regarded as a colleague, whether junior or senior (Parkinson, 2018), and so talking with the nurse most respectfully sustains the relationship as well as professionalism. I would also educate the nurse on credible medical and nursing databases where relevant information may be found. This training will take place in the hospital’s computer lab, which gives free access to medical research databases.

The many reputable databases, what sources to look for, and tactics, such as key phrases, to access the articles will be among the instructional subjects. To establish a collaborative atmosphere, treating lower-ranking professionals with the decency and respect they deserve, recognizing where they have done well, and continuing medical education are all effective strategies.

Best Places to Complete Research and Types of Resources to access to find Pertinent Information

Besides being a teaching and a leading hospital in education, the institution is proud to have one of the nationally known computer laboratories, which enables access to vast resources that may influence clinical decision-making. The computer lab offers free internet access and free logins to different credible medical databases, which any healthcare professionals, students, and trainees linked with the organization may use to obtain pertinent information.

Aside from the computer lab, other areas of the hospital with computers and reliable internet access that can be used to access relevant data include the research department, medical-surgical floor, nurses and physician workstations, theatre, IT/health informatics room, patient monitoring room, and imaging department.

According to Kim et al. (2020), the search for credible information starts with knowledge of the relevant databases and the subject or healthcare issue in question. As a result, the first step necessitates considerable work in obtaining evidence from appropriate databases, and it determines whether the subsequent stages of evidence application into practice will be productive.

Five Sources of Online Information that provide the Best Evidence for the Chosen Diagnosis

CINAHL, PubMed, Medline, ProQuest, and the Cochrane Library are among the medical databases that will be useful. The search terms will include “epidemiology of COPD,” “risk factors of COPD,” “clinical features of COPD,” “assessment and evaluation of patients with COPD,” and “management of COPD.” Journal articles, guidelines from national ministries or health organizations such as WHO, and data from credible websites such as the CDC will be utilized. Utilization of the aforementioned search techniques generated the five articles listed below.

Ruvuna, L., & Sood, A. (2020). Epidemiology of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Clinics in Chest Medicine, 41(3), 315–327. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccm.2020.05.002
Celli, B. R., & Wedzicha, J. A. (2019). Update on clinical aspects of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The New England Journal of Medicine, 381(13), 1257–1266. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMra1900500
Safiri, S., Carson-Chahhoud, K., Noori, M., Nejadghaderi, S. A., Sullman, M. J. M., Ahmadian Heris, J., Ansarin, K., Mansournia, M. A., Collins, G. S., Kolahi, A.-A., & Kaufman, J. S. (2022). Burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and its attributable risk factors in 204 countries and territories, 1990-2019: results from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.), 378, e069679. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-069679
Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease. (2018). Global Strategy for the Diagnosis, Management, and Prevention of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease 2018 Report. Goldcopd.org. https://goldcopd.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/GOLD-2018-v6.0-FINAL-revised-20-Nov_WMS.pdf
Mirza, S., Clay, R. D., Koslow, M. A., & Scanlon, P. D. (2018). COPD guidelines: A review of the 2018 GOLD report. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Mayo Clinic, 93(10), 1488–1502. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2018.05.026

Why the Sources provide the Best Evidence for the Chosen Diagnosis

The sources cited are from the most credible medical databases and were authored by medical cognoscenti. Furthermore, some of the sources are published by globally known health organizations that have long been relied on to give credible medical information.

Moreover, the sources obtained were published within the previous five years, guaranteeing that the information is current and practical. The reasons given above forecast the reliability and credibility of the sources and, hence why they were selected to influence practice in relation to the nursing practical scenario provided

Conclusion

Healthcare research has been around since antiquity, and if anything has changed, it has only become better and more advanced. Healthcare practitioners are urged to apply research-based findings to provide consistently improved patient care. This demands the ability to search credible medical and nursing databases to obtain relevant information that can be applied in practice.

To foster research competence, baccalaureate curricula have included nursing research into the pedagogy, preparing nurses for dynamically evolving patient care. While significant progress has been made, there is still a gap, particularly in the treatment of chronic illnesses such as COPD, where many specialists may provide opposing views on care.

The competing viewpoints highlight the importance of a healthcare professional’s ability to acquire reliable resources and sift through them to discover the best justified research-based conclusions that match the requirements of their patients.

References

Celli, B. R., & Wedzicha, J. A. (2019). Update on clinical aspects of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The New England Journal of Medicine, 381(13), 1257–1266. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMra1900500

Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease. (2018). Global Strategy for the Diagnosis, Management, and Prevention of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease 2018 Report. Goldcopd.org. https://goldcopd.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/GOLD-2018-v6.0-FINAL-revised-20-Nov_WMS.pdf

Kim, M., Mallory, C., & Valerio, T. (2020). Statistics for evidence-based practice in nursing (3rd ed.). Jones and Bartlett. https://books.google.at/books?id=5LEEEAAAQBAJ

Mirza, S., Clay, R. D., Koslow, M. A., & Scanlon, P. D. (2018). COPD guidelines: A review of the 2018 GOLD report. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Mayo Clinic, 93(10), 1488–1502. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mayocp.2018.05.026

Parkinson, M. D. (2018). The healthy health care workplace: A competitive advantage. Current Cardiology Reports, 20(10), 98. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11886-018-1042-3

Ruvuna, L., & Sood, A. (2020). Epidemiology of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Clinics in Chest Medicine, 41(3), 315–327. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccm.2020.05.002

Safiri, S., Carson-Chahhoud, K., Noori, M., Nejadghaderi, S. A., Sullman, M. J. M., Ahmadian Heris, J., Ansarin, K., Mansournia, M. A., Collins, G. S., Kolahi, A.-A., & Kaufman, J. S. (2022). Burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and its attributable risk factors in 204 countries and territories, 1990-2019: results from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.), 378, e069679. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2021-069679

Assessment 1 Instructions: Locating Credible Databases and Research

Create a 2-4 page resource that will describe databases that are relevant to EBP around a diagnosis you chose and could be used to help a new hire nurse better engage in EBP.

Introduction

Evidence-based practice (EBP) integrates the best evidence available to guide optimal nursing care, with a goal to enhance safety and quality. EBP is crucial to nursing practice because it incorporates the best evidence from current literature, along with the expertise of the practicing nurse. The concern for quality care that flows from EBP generates a desired outcome. Without these factors, a nurse cannot be an effective leader. It is important to lead not only from this position but from knowledge and expertise. To gain the knowledge, you require a good understanding of how to search for scholarly resources, as well as identify which databases and websites are credible for the purposes of implementing evidence-based changes in practice.

Your Online e-Portfolio

Creating an ePortfolio is not required in the BSN program, but you may find it helpful to create one to attach to your professional resume while job hunting. Online ePortfolios serve two key purposes: 1) to support learning and reflection, and 2) to be used as a showcase tool. Your learning journey can be documented, and ePortfolios contribute to lifelong learning and growth through reflection and sharing. Online ePortfolios can also be shared with employers and peers to present artifacts that demonstrate your accomplishments at Capella.

Professional Context

As a baccalaureate-prepared nurse, you will be responsible for providing patient-centered, competent care based on current evidence-based best practices. You will be required to do research, analysis, and dissemination of best evidence to stay abreast of these best practices. Understanding where to go to find credible sources and locate evidence, as well as which search terms to use, is the foundation of incorporation of best practices.

Scenario

You are supervising three nurses working on the medical-surgical floor of a local teaching hospital. This hospital is nationally recognized as a leader in education and has a computer lab with an online library where staff has access to medical research databases (that is, CINAHL, PubMed, Medline, and Cochrane library) and online sources of all hospital policies, procedures, and guidelines, and computers at nurse workstations that also have access to these resources. (For this scenario, use the Capella University Library to simulate the hospital’s online library.) You have given the nurses their patient assignments and you have all participated in shift report. A new nurse who just completed orientation and training a week ago approaches you and tells you that one of the assigned patients has a diagnosis he or she is very unfamiliar with. Knowing that patient-centered care based on best practices is imperative to positive patient outcomes, you want to assist this nurse to find research that can be utilized to provide the best care for this patient. Describe how you would communicate with this nurse to encourage him or her to research the diagnosis. Assume you will assist in the quest to locate evidence, then describe where you would go within the facility and what resources you would look for. These resources may include websites, journals, facility policies or guidelines, or any other sources of online information.

You may choose the diagnosis for the patient in this scenario or health care issue/diagnosis of your choice. Or you may choose something you would find interesting to research or that applies to a clinical problem/diagnosis you would be interested in addressing. Create a list of at least five sources that could be used to find evidence, with the best source listed first, and explain why the sources you chose are best to find evidence for the diagnosis you chose and the clinical scenario. You are only evaluating the sources of evidence (database, website, policy database or website, journal article, et cetera). You are not actually completing a search and selecting evidence. Consider the following examples: a nursing journal in CINAHL may not be the best source of evidence for information on how to administer medications through a central-venous catheter, whereas a hospital policy database found on a website may not be the best source of information on caring for a patient with a rare chromosomal abnormality.

Preparation

To help ensure you are prepared to complete this assessment, review the following resources related to the Capella library. These resources will provide you an overview of the types of tools, resources, and guides available in the library. This may be useful in forming a better understanding of the library to apply to the hypothetical situation laid out in the scenario of this assessment.

Remember, it is also appropriate to look toward databases and resources outside of the Capella library, such as organizational policies, professional organizations, and government health care resources.

You are encouraged to complete the Evaluating the Credibility of Evidence activity. This activity offers an opportunity to practice evaluating the credibility of evidence. These skills will be necessary to complete Assessment 1 successfully and is for your own practice and self-assessment. Completing this activity is also a way to demonstrate course engagement.

Instructions

The purpose of this assessment is to understand where to find evidence that can be applied to clinical scenarios and to learn effective communication and collaboration with clinical staff during the process of evidence location. As a baccalaureate-prepared nurse, you will not only use research for self-improvement in your clinical role, but you will also serve as a mentor to supervised nursing staff. Therefore, you will need to be able to communicate and collaborate effectively to guide them toward resources to find research, as well as support them through the initial evidence location process. In doing so, nurses can gain access to evidence that can be analyzed and utilized to stay current on best practices. This allows them to provide safe, patient-centered care and improve patient outcomes.

For this assessment:

Describe your role as a baccalaureate-prepared nurse supervising clinical staff nurses with regard to communication and collaboration in locating evidence for application to a nursing practice scenario.
Compile a list of five online databases or other online sources (that is, websites, journals, facility policies or guidelines, et cetera) that can be used to research evidence to apply to this scenario or clinical practice issue/diagnosis and describe to which of these you would direct a nurse colleague to search for evidence.
Describe where you might go in the work place to complete this research and how you would access the desired, relevant research within research databases or other online sources.

Be sure to address the following in this assessment, which correspond to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. Please study the scoring guide carefully so that you will know what is needed for a distinguished score.

Describe communication strategies to encourage nurses to research the diagnosis/practice issue, as well as strategies to collaborate with the nurses to access resources.
Describe the best places to complete research and what types of resources you would want to access to find pertinent information for the diagnosis/health care issue within the context of a specific health care setting.
Identify five sources of online information (medical journal databases, websites, hospital policy databases, et cetera) that could be used to locate evidence for a clinical diagnosis/practice issue.
Explain why the sources of online information selected should provide the best evidence for the chosen diagnosis/health care issue.
Communicate using writing that is clear, logical, and professional with correct grammar and spelling using current APA style.

Note: While you are not selecting and evaluating specific evidence to help with the clinical diagnosis/practice issue, you should still be citing the literature and best practices to support your description of your communication and collaboration approach. Additionally, it is appropriate to cite best practices related to EBP and evaluating databases to support your explanation as to why you selected the five sources of online information that you did.

Example Assessment: You may use the following to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like:

Assessment 1 Example [PDF].

Additional Requirements

Your assessment should meet the following requirements:

Length of submission: 2-4 pages (not including the title page or the reference page) description of communication, collaboration, and evidence location process, including a list of databases or other sources with description of why they are appropriate for clinical scenario diagnosis/health care issue (that is, something that would be useable in professional practice for other nurses). Be sure to include an APA-formatted reference page at the end of your submission.
Number of references: Cite a minimum of three sources of scholarly or professional evidence that supports your findings and considerations. Resources should be no more than five years old.
APA formatting: References and citations are formatted according to current APA style.

Competencies Measured

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:

Competency 1: Interpret findings from scholarly quantitative, qualitative, and outcomes research articles and studies.

- Explain why the sources selected should provide the best evidence for the chosen diagnosis/health care issue.

Competency 2: Analyze the relevance and potential effectiveness of evidence when making a decision within the context of a specific health care setting.

- Describe the best places to complete research within the workplace environment and what types of resources one would want to access to find pertinent information for the diagnosis/health care issue.

Competency 4: Plan care based on the best available evidence.

- Identify five sources of online information (medical journal databases, websites, hospital policy databases, et cetera) that could be used to locate evidence for a diagnosis/health care issue and three out of five should be specific to the diagnosis/health care issue.

Competency 5: Apply professional, scholarly communication strategies to lead practice changes based on evidence.

- Describe communication strategies to encourage nurses to research a diagnosis/health care issue, as well as strategies to collaborate with the nurses to access resources.

- Organize content so ideas flow logically with smooth transitions; contains few errors in grammar/punctuation, word choice, and spelling.

- Apply APA formatting to in-text citations and references exhibiting nearly flawless adherence to APA format.