Research Review

Conducting Research—Helpful Tips

Daryl Boucher, MS, RN, CCEMT-P; EMS Coordinator, Northern Maine Community College

Published in the Winter 2005 edition of the Maine EMS I/C News

Following last quarter’s article on evidence-based and research-based teaching, several people have e-mailed or called me to ask for help with finding specific articles or for help searching for topics they were currently teaching. This article will address how and where instructors (and students) can find EMS articles of interest.

How can I find appropriate resources?

A search strategy begins with your topic, or sometimes research questions. The first step in using an electronic research database is knowing the capabilities of the database and what articles are available. You also need to know the age of the available information. (I recently did a search on spleen injuries and EMS, and found most of the data to be greater than 10 years old—certainly not a help when trying to teach current evidence.) Second, you have to be sure you are searching the correct database using the correct search engines. If you need to find articles about spinal immobilization but are unwittingly looking on a political science database, you will waste valuable time.

Every database comes with some sort of online help. Read the screens carefully for toolbars, help buttons, or banners that help identify which journals are included in the database. Additionally, use librarians or others (information specialists) who regularly do research for help.

Can I use the Internet to do a search?

Though the Internet provides large collections of data, there is no guarantee on the accuracy or quality of all of the data. Much of what is available on the Internet has not been peer reviewed for validity or reliability. Without this peer review process, you are taking what the author has written as the truth, whether it is or not. However, the Internet does provide access to many online journals that are peer reviewed. Examples include the Western Journal of Nursing Research, the Journal of Emergency Nursing, and to some extent even JEMS. (You will find that most journals that have articles of interest to EMS instructors are not available for free on line.) A lot of college web sites also provide great advice on how to perform effective database searches.

Many web based journals offer access to education or EMS articles either free or for a nominal charge. I especially like the following:

§ Prehospital Emergency Care Journal

§ Journal on Excellence in College Teaching

§ Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine

§ A collection of free medical journals

So, where should I search?

Finding articles can be a frustrating and arduous process until you get good at it. Don’t get discouraged; instead, find someone who can help you find the article you want. As far as databases and search engines, there are a few good ones that can save a lot of time. There are two that I really like. The first is the MARVEL site. It is free for anyone in Maine. It allows you to search most nursing, allied health and medical journals. You can expand or limit your search by specifying that you want only full text articles, or those within certain, dates, etc. You also can search multiple domains at once, so I search MEDLINE, Nursing/Academic Edition, and MasterFILE. With these, I can generally find enough full text items that I don't need to order any additional articles. With this particular database, there is an easy onetime registration process.

Sometimes, if I can't get the full text article I want, I just order it from the local community college library using the abstract I printed. I have also ordered articles from my hospital library as well. Because I am an employee, I am not charged fees at either place. Most high school libraries will also do this for those who teach at their location. The second site I discussed earlier is the one at <http://infonet.maine.edu/>. It is also free, and permits access to EBSCO databases, which allows you do both basic and advanced searches. (Ed. note: EBSCO is Elton B. Stevens Co., a company that says it provides information access and management solutions.)

What if I can’t find my articles on a free database?

There are many sites that charge for articles, and most of the more reputable medical journals such as JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, Neurosurgery, and Emergency Physician charge a significant fee for reprints (up to $20.00 each). However, if cost is a problem, most of these articles are available for free or for a minimal charge from your local hospital or community library. I do the search using MARVEL, print the bibliography page, and take it to my library where I can read the articles, or have them photocopied. Some of the newer journals give copyright permission to a third party, who provides the reprints. After subscribing to the service, you can access a huge number of journals. I recently learned that many libraries subscribe, and are more than willing to get articles for users.

Additionally, some journal “pay” sites have a limited number of articles you can order for free, or offer free seven-day trial memberships. Finally, many libraries subscribe to online journal sites and provide free links. For example, Northern Maine Community College has links to the most common journals such as AJN, RN, and Advance for Nurses. One of the best sites for education and medical research is the Western Journal of Nursing Research; all articles are free and available in full text format. The site also provides a link to similar articles using the related search words.

I can access databases, but can never find the article I want.

When you search, the keywords you use are called a query. If you learn how to group terms and limit and expand your query, you can save time and frustration. Start broad, using multiple indexes at once. (See the example, below.) Once you have results, begin to limit them based on what you are looking for. When you find an article you like, use the key words from that article to find more of what you are looking for.

If your results seem uneven—too few or too many results—click on the advanced search strategies tab on the database. This will allow you to do a Boolean search or use proximity connectors, both of which allow you to link search terms such as:

§ AND: all terms must be present (fracture and sprain)

§ OR: at least one term must be present (fracture or sprain

§ NOT: first term present, but not the next (fracture not sprain

So, if I wanted to look up spinal injuries that are fractures, I might use the key terms Spine AND Injury AND fracture NOT Sprain. Every article that contains spine and injury and fracture would be displayed. Be sure to check with the help button on the database on which words to use as connectors, as these vary from database to database.

Finally, look carefully at the way the search is performed. For example, if you type in “psych,” will the program automatically expand your word to be psychiatric or psychological, or psychology, etc? (This feature, called nesting, is important in expanding the number of results you get.) If not, be sure you type words in correctly.

Now, let me demonstrate a sample search. See if you can do the same or a similar search.

§ Step 1: Go to MARVEL.

§ Step 2: Choose EBSCOHost Database Collection. Register and then proceed to log in.

§ Step 3: Choose a database. For our search, choose Academic Search Premiere, MasterFILE Premier, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition, MEDLINE, and Nursing and Allied Health Collection. You can choose as many or as few as you want.

§ Step 4: Hit “Continue.” This brings you to the search page.

§ Step 5: Basic search: Type “paramedic” in the first find box, and leave the search in the default fields. Type “spine” in the second box, separated by the word “and.” Hit search and note the results. I only got ten results (however, when I changed paramedic to EMS I got 16, and when I changed it to emergency, I got over 1000 results.) This is the key to an effective search.

§ Step 6: From your list, choose an article. Notice that some are full text. Once the bibliography page comes up, notice the author-supplied key words and the subject terms. If you click on one of these, related articles are displayed. By “playing” a little, you can find exactly what you are looking for. Also, if you click on the journal title, all the articles on the database from that journal are displayed.

§ Step 7: Doing an advanced search. Now select some of the advance search options. Expand or limit your search, and see what happens.

Once you have found the articles, print off the full text ones for your use, or get copies at the library. You can also go to the journal website, and see if free reprints are available.

Next quarter, I will provide information on how to read and interpret research data.