Children's Wisconsin

Step 1: Define Your Question

We recommend the PICO method: Patient/Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes

P: Who is your patient? What is the population?

I: What do you plan on doing for the patient?

C: What is the alternative you are considering, if there is one?

O: What do you wish to accomplish?

Step 2: Describe Your Topic Using Keywords

Tips on brainstorming keywords and terms:

- How specific do I need to be? Am I looking at all pediatric populations, or only newborns?

- Check a thesaurus for keywords you may have overlooked.

- Medications should include both the generic and brand names.

- Look to see if the database has a controlled vocabulary term (such as MeSH) to describe your topic or similar topics.

- Browse topic summaries in point of care resources, eBooks, or relevant articles in Google Scholar.

- Check for British or alternative spellings.

• Oxford Reference - British/American spelling differences
• Translation Clinic - Spelling differences in medical terms in British and American English

Step 3: Build a Search Utilizing Searching Techniques

Here are some tricks to build a successful literature search:

Use Boolean Operators: Using the word AND between concepts will require the database to pull results with both concepts in your results, narrowing your search to relevant results. Using the word OR between synonyms will require the database to pull results with either keyword, pulling additional relevant results and widening your search. Using NOT will exclude certain keywords and phrases from your results.

Truncation: The use of an asterisk (*) at the end of a root word will tell the database to search for multiple endings of a word. Ex: Child* will search for child, children, or childhood.

Phrase Searching: The use of "quotation marks" will tell the database you need the keywords in their exact order as a phrase, not individually anywhere in the article's record. Ex: community oriented primary care vs. "community oriented primary care"

Parentheses: The use of parentheses allows you to combine multiple keywords and concepts together with Boolean operators to find results tailored to your exact question. Remember that like terms go together within the parentheses. Ex: (child OR adolescent) AND ("physical therapy" OR physiotherapy)

Example: How does family-centered care improve patient satisfaction in the NICU?

Here is what a PICO might look like for this research question, along with a search for PubMed built with selected keywords.

Step 4: Evaluate Search Results

- Does my question require a specific publication type, such as a practice guideline or a clinical trial?

- How current does the information I'm looking for need to be? Should I filter my results to the last 5 years, or 10 years?

- Do these results have utility beyond the research or content? Can I use this to refine my search query?