InfoGuides: Physician Assistant (PA): Frame your search

Last Updated: Apr 23, 2024 4:03 PM

EBM

Evidence Based Method (EBM) is a process used to filter out bias, incomplete or inaccurate research in the increasing number of journal articles used for clinical decisions.
Before you search map out what you should be searching using PICO
Use author and database selected keywords e.g. ScienceDirect database, synonyms, Pubmed's MeSH keywords, advanced database search boxes, filters-gender/age/year, etc.
boolean operators (and or not) or quotes
types of literature e.g. systematic reviews, meta analysis are best to use while making clinical decisions.

PICO is a framework and process to use for successful database searches in order to ansswer EBM questions that address the

(P ) roblem or (P)opulation

(I) ntervention

(C) omparison, and

(O)utcome(s)

PICO example
See Table 3
Considine, J., Shaban, R. Z., Fry, M., & Curtis, K. (2017). Evidence based emergency nursing: Designing a research question and searching the literature.

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW is a thought process with a framework where you should ask during your EBM/PICO searches:

Example worksheet with questions to think about
source: https://ebm-tools.knowledgetranslation.net/worksheet