Translation

Step by step guide on how to find research evidence on a specific problem  (Lavis et al 2009):

1. “Drawing up a list of words or phrases that capture the problem (e.g. medication error, scope of practice), synonyms for each problem and factor (e.g. drug near-misses, professional regulation), and alternative spellings for each synonym (e.g. medication, medications);
2. Deciding whether systematic reviews or single research studies are the focus of the search;
3. Providing any additional details that limit the search (e.g. children, adults)
4. Choosing those words and phrases that would all need to be present in order for the article to be identified (e.g. medication error, systematic review, and children), connecting them with ‘and’, and putting them in brackets;
5. Choosing those words and phrases for which only one would need to be present (e.g. medical error and its synonyms), connecting them with ‘or’, and putting them in brackets; and  Connecting both sets of brackets using ‘and’
6. Using the Internet to access the health-related database, PubMed. This database contains a ‘hedge’ (i.e. a validated search strategy or filter) for the types of studies of interest here;
7. Clicking on ‘special queries’ in the left task bar;
8. Clicking on ‘health services research’ queries;
9. Entering the words and phrases, as well as the Boolean operators (‘and’/‘or’) in the search field;
10. Clicking ‘process assessment’ or ‘outcomes assessment’ for administrative database studies and ‘qualitative research’ for qualitative studies”