NR 511 – Expectations for use of Scholarly Sources

NR 511 – Expectations for use of Scholarly Sources

NR 511 – Expectations for use of Scholarly Sources

This course will emphasize formulating differential diagnoses and clinical treatment plans based on data published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals. While textbooks and course lessons can help give you a framework for organizing your thoughts specific information should come from scholarly sources.

To begin thinking like a provider, you will need to establish a general knowledge base and then interpret and apply newly available information to specific clinical scenarios.  To accomplish this, aim for the following criteria:

Scholarly references are:

• Peer-reviewed
• Preferably a Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG)
• Intended for providers (MDs, NPs)
• No more than 5 years old (unless it is a clinical practice guideline’s most recent update)
• S. based journal
• Intended for the primary care population
• Directly related to the case or situation that you are writing about (Ex: references for treatment of strep pharyngitis in cancer patients should not be used as rationale for treatment decisions if your patient does not have cancer)
• Must be studies based on human research

 

References to AVOID using:

• Nursing and Allied Health Journals.Nursing articles tend to be “black and white” in their descriptions of disease and algorithmic in their discussion of possible differential diagnoses. One of the goals of this course is to help everyone start thinking critically as independent care providers. Making decisions which shape the care of patients and direct the efforts of other healthcare team members is a significant responsibility, and as such requires a broader and more detailed knowledge base than is frequently found in standard nursing practice. I want you to draw from sources that emphasize the gray areas of medical practice and get you actively thinking through problems and differentials instead of looking for the “right” answers. For the purposes of this course, the information in peer-reviewed nursing journals will probably be correct but not sufficiently detailed, and it generally good practice to get in the habit of reading and interpreting provider-level journals now as this will help you help your patients in the future.

 

• Summary Websites.By this I mean disease-specific websites and provider resources such as Medscape, MayoClinic, Up-to-Date, CDC, etc. The information from these sources is probably accurate but not sufficiently detailed as these sources are meant to provide key points to aid diagnosis and treatment decisions, not facilitate scholarly discussion of pathophysiology. They can be useful for outlining your thoughts and self-study, but your discussion posts should come from original publications and not sources which have summarized and distilled peer-reviewed work for you. Many of these websites will cite the original source of the information so feel free to track it back to the original publication and cite the true source. This would be an entirely appropriate use of these resources. EXCEPTION:  ICD-10 and CPT codes may be searched and cited from the internet.

 

• Databases. Databases to search EBM references exist such as Dynamed, EBSCOHOST, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, Medline, etc. While it is appropriate to use this as a starting point for your research, the original publication should be cited and referenced.

 

• Textbooks. Textbooks provide an overview of key information, but again are not sufficient to facilitate scholarly discussion.  You should definitely use the text to establish a knowledge base and give yourself a framework for your discussion posts, but all citations should come from references that are outlined above. I want to see you interpret and apply information to the discussion prompts, not recite the distillation of facts that you can find in the textbook.  EXCEPTION: Pathophysiology statement can be referenced using the textbook.

ORDER NOW FOR A CUSTOM-WRITTEN, PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER WITH ALL INSTRUCTIONS FOLLOWED

• Quick Reference Apps and Handbooks. These include smartphone apps and handbooks that can be used to quickly formulate a differential or provide arguments for your treatment or testing decisions.  Epocrates and Ferri’s Clinical Advisor are good examples of references NOT to use for your EBM arguments.  These apps and handbooks are great for clinical practice but not in your didactic work. Part of being a graduate student is being able to review and research.  A quick reference guide takes the thinking out of it and you are unable to grasp the “why” we do things. EXCEPTION:  Epocrates and other drug reference books are allowed ONLY for the dosing of your medications.

Searching for peer-reviewed references:

The easiest way to do this is to use the Chamberlain library resources, select “databases”, and then select only “Medline with full Text.” From there you can enter your search terms and be confident that you are looking in scholarly peer-reviewed journals. When starting your search it can be helpful to only search for review articles (click “Review Articles” box in the Limit Your Results heading) as these will give you a broad overview of the topic and often contain citations to other useful articles within them.

If the Chamberlain library services are down for any reason an alternative approach is to go to http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/

Articles in the PMC database of NCBI are publicly available because the information in them was funded through public money. Anyone can view full-text versions of them and they are almost all peer-reviewed.

Guidelines.gov is a great website to search for clinical practice guidelines. NR 511 – Expectations for use of Scholarly Sources.