Advanced Search in NHS Evidence. 10 Step Guide
Advanced Search using NHS Evidence. 10 Step Guide for CMI
This guide takes you through an examplesearch using NHS EvidenceHealthcare Databases Advanced Search [HDAS].
Step 1.Go to [ ] and choose Journals and Databases from the main menu.
Step 2.Under Healthcare databases advanced searchclick on the link toAdvanced search
Step 3. Login with you NHS Athens Account.
Step 4. Select database. Healthcare Business Elite is recommended. Click in the check box next to the database description. Click Search.
Step 5.Plan your search, dividing it into its component parts or concepts. Have a look at the Guide to planning your search if you need more help. In this guide the example search is:
healthcare OR "health care" OR hospital OR medic* OR NHS OR "National Health Service"
and
leader*
and
team*
Using Advanced Searchyou search for each Concept separately. This givesyou more flexibilityto manageyour search later.
To begin, type healthcare OR "health care" OR hospital OR medic* OR NHS OR "National Health Service"into the search box.Make sureTitle and Abstractsfields areselected asyour search fields.Click the Limits tab to set a date range e.g. 2000 – current. Click Search button to start searching.
Onthe search results page you see a table telling you which Databases you have searched, your Search Termsand which fields you have searched (ti.ab or title and abstract) and the number of Results (or articles) you have found.
Step 6. Type in the second and third parts of your searchteam* andleader* click search each time.
Step 7. Now combine the three searches using AND. Click in the check boxes next to each search, select AND using the radio button and click on Combine Selected searches.
Step 8. This generates c94 articles that contain one or more keywords from each Concept. This is too many to browse through. You need to look at techniques for reducing the number of hits. One technique is to look for relevant Subject Headings. Do this by reviewing your search results, picking the best article and looking at the Subject Headings it uses.
Review Results by clicking on the number of hits.
Pick and view relevant articles and look for appropriate Subject Headings. In this case Leadershiplooks good.Click on the Subject Heading and a search will be done for you automatically.
Step 9. Itis now easy to re-combine those searchesyou want use. Click in the check boxes for Searches 1,2 and 5, make sure AND is selected and click onCombine Selected searches. This locates articles which contain healthcare OR “health care” … in either title or abstract (Search No. 1) and team* in either title or abstract (Search No. 2) and Leadership as a Subject Heading (Search No. 5).
Step 10. You now have c30 hits. Click on the number of hits to see the results
Reorder you results by Publication Date
Review your results, and click through to see the full text if it is available.
Matt Holland – June 2012 – North West Ambulance Service LIS