Competency 9: Internet

Using Google, I found the United States National Institutes of Health National Library of Medicines website. It provides information about and links to information that is of concern to healthcare professionals (genetics, environmental health and toxicology, grants and funding, PubMed, Medline Plus, ToxTown, etc.), the public, researchers, librarians, and publishers.

The website also has webpages dedicated to resources for medical librarians and libraries. I particularly found the Health Services Research Methodology Core Library Recommendations 2007 webpage to be useful for medical librarians. This webpages provides information on core and desired medically-related databases, core and desired health services research methods websites, core and desired books in health services research methods, core journals in health research methods, etc.

I chose this website because it seems especially useful for medical librarians to know about this site since it helps them to expand their knowledge of online and offline resources that are available to assist the librarian in their efforts to find information for their healthcare practitioner clients.

Competency 8: Research Visual/Multimedia

Understanding evidence-based medicine is considered to be important for physician assistants according to research. On a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the highest value, evidence-based medicine was rated 4.5/5, which places it in first place. The ability to search databases, including Medline, was rated second at 4.4/6 with critique of research studies rated third at 4.3/5.

Since my topic is ebm, I selected this image because it demonstrates the importance of evidence-based medicine in the training curriculum of physician assistants, which demonstrates the increasing importance that ebm plays in medicine. Therefore, it is necessary for the healthcare practitioners to understand what ebm is and to learn about it during their training.

Copyright Information: Hegmann, T., & Dehn, R. (2004). Models of Research Instruction in Physician Assistant Education. Retrieved October 22, 2008, from http://www.paeaonline.org/ResearchInstitute/ABS_PAPERS_04/Hegmann_files/frame.htm.

Competency 7: Image

I found this image by searching evidence-based medicine on Google Images.

I chose this image because I think it demonstrates the best of the images that I found what ebm is about and allows for easy understanding of the ebm concept. This image comes from Florida State University's webpage tutorial on evidence-based medicine (ebm).

According to Sackett et al., ebm is a systemic approach to solving clinical problems that integrates patient values and expectations with individual clinical expertise and the best research-based evidence available. (Sackett DL, Strauss SE, Richardson WS, et al.(2002). Evidence-based medicine: how to practice and teach EBM. London: Churchill-Livingstone).

Competency 6: Building Block Search Strategy

For the search, I searched: (evidence or topic) and based and (librarians or library). When I used the () around (evidence or topic) I didn't have any hits in Academic Search Complete. When I removed the () around the terms, I received hits. I decided to narrow it a little more so I added medicine to the search terms. I think the building block (BB) strategy helped me to find information. However, I think it also returns many items that are not really related to the information you are looking for. I do think the BB strategy helps you to narrow down your topic to what you are truly looking for though.

Competency 6: Browsing Search Strategy

Reflection: I searched LibLit. I clicked on Thesaurus and then entered medical librarians. Then I clicked on medical librarians (22 records). I found an article on Ethics and the Role of the Medical Librarian by browsing the contents and then selecting what I wanted. By using browsing, I find information on my topic that I might have found after many searches. I also found information that I might now had considered before that I found relevant to my topic at hand. I also found information that I thought might be informative to me at a later date (when writing a paper, etc.). However, I think this strategy requires more time than other strategies, since you're browsing and basically performing an "if and hope" search as I call it (if I find something, I hope I find something).

Competency 6: Successive Fractions Search Strategy

I searched the ERIC database using:
keyword searching (medical library) AND (hospital)
full-text available search
publication year: 2000-2007

Evaluation: I searched ERIC using the successive fractions search strategy. I find the ERIC database much easier to use than Dialog and to be more user friendly. The successive fractions search strategy proved to be successful in it's ability to find relevant information for my topic. By starting off with keywords, which proved to be too general, and using successive searches to narrow the keywords used, I was able to find information that greatly related to my topic. However, a few times my terms proved too narrow and I did not receive any hits or I received too few hits.

Competency 6: Specific Facet Search Strategy

Reflection: Before I started searching, I thought about what I wanted to search and decided on medical library and evidence-based medicine as my most specific facet. That was too narrow and returned no results. I tried several searches and combinations of hospital/evidence based medicine/medical library/medical librarians. I was trying to find information concerning evidence based medicine and medical librarians but this particular database did not have any information that I could find. I combined the searches. Filters did not help; too few, if any, searches were returned.

I find Dialog hard to use and not very user intuitive. I think more familiarity to use this service effectively is necessary. I think most of the information found in Dialog can be found easier in databases other in Dialog.