Evidence Searching Guidance

Plan Your Search

As you begin, your search should consider:

Your research topic/question.
Break down your topic into key concepts or categories to formulate a clear clinical question.The PICO process will help enable you to do this.

The clinical question needs to identify:

Patient or population we intend to study

Intervention or treatment we plan to use

Comparison of one intervention to another

Outcome we anticipate

For further information on PICO please click here.

Search Strategy Checklist

Once you have your research question you can create a range of search terms:

Synonyms, e.g.. aged; elderly
Acronyms, e.g. UTI
Differences in terminology across national boundaries, e.g. pediatrics/paediatrics.
Differences in spelling
Old/New terminology
Brand & generic names
Law & medical terminology

Also consider any limitations in your search:

Study type
Age range
Publication date
language...etc.

Search the Databases

You can search the databases through the NHS Library and Knowledge Hub or directly on the Ovid, EBSCO, or ProQuest websites.

Other core resources include:

You can use a grey literature database such as Open Grey or BASE.

Evidence Searching Online e-Learning Modules

These free online modules are designed to help the healthcare workforce (clinical and non-clinical) build confidence to search published literature for articles and evidence relevant to their work, study and research. The modules are short (each taking no more than 20 minutes to complete) and may be ‘dipped into’ for reference, or completed to obtain a certificate.

Please note that you will need to register on the e-LfH website if you wish to record your activity.

There are seven modules suitable for novice searchers and those wishing to refresh their knowledge: