Public Health Nursing

Taking time to plan a literature search is strongly recommended when dealing with health-related topics as issues are often complex, with multiple viewpoints, and existing literature can be extensive.
Giving some thought in advance to the topic enables you to 1) identify the focus of your search; 2) undertake a step-by-step search for the best evidence; 3) use your 'search time' to best effect.

If you already know your question but are unsure what your key words should be, read around the topic to learn the basics first of all.

1. Look at general introductory sources, e.g. YouTube videos; Wikipedia; introductory textbooks.

2. Learn about the main themes and any commonly used subject-related terminology. 

3. Use this information as building blocks to approach the more scholarly (and professional) sources you should be referencing in your assignments.

When considering a search for information on health topics, it is often necessary to, first of all, separate the problem from the surrounding context.  This provides a focus for the search, and for literature reviews, helps to determine an appropriate research question.  

For example: diabetes is a chronic condition, which can have a major impact on a person's psychological well being as well as their physical health.  This can also affect multiple aspects of health care. A student on a community placement may be interested in the impact of socioeconomic circumstances on self-care.  A resulting question: To what extent do socioeconomic circumstances contribute to poor levels of self care in people living with diabetes?

Several tools exist to help you select your area of focus and separate the different aspects. A selection of these tools, with examples, can be viewed on Dissertation Support Choosing a topic page. The most commonly used tool for clinical questions, though, is PICO.

P: Population, or Patient

• Who are you trying to help?

I: Intervention

• Which treatment, therapy or intervention applies?

C: Comparison (optional element) 

• Which treatment, therapy or treatment comprises a direct comparison, if any?

O: Outcome

• What are you hoping to achieve?

Applying PICO: an example

A topic: Working mothers expressing milk to maintain infant health

The PICO breakdown:

P: Population, or Patient - Working mothers

I: Intervention - Hand expression

C: Comparison - Formula feeding

O: Outcome - Healthier babies

A resulting question: 

Is expressing milk by hand (I) more successful than formula feeding (C) at maintaining infant health (O) once breastfeeding mothers return to work (P)?

Once you know your topic or question, you can develop your search strategy: 

• Which elements of the topic or question should be covered by the search? For example, if your question focuses on person-centred care for those living at home with dementia, this could be separated into dementia, person-centred care, community [and any intervention].
• Which key words apply to each element?  E.g. dementia or Alzheimer's disease; person-centred care or individualised care; community or primary care
• What types of item are you including? Options might include:
  • Textbooks (for background information or theories),
  • Policy papers or guidelines (for professional or legal expectations),
  • Journal articles (for practical applications, research studies or focussed in-depth discussions).
• Where are you going to look for this information? E.g.:
  • The library's One Search for books (and sometimes journals); 
  • Government or health board websites or a popular search engine for publicly available documents and policy papers; 
  • CINAHL or other bibliographic databases for journal articles - see the relevant 'Finding Journals' tab for suggestions.

At this stage, also think about other factors that will determine whether items found by the search are relevant to your needs. These decisions will keep your search manageable.

For example, are you applying a specific date range or focussing on a particular geographical location?  Does the care setting matter?  Are you only interested in a specific audience, e.g. student nurses?