FFCL 701 Case-based Learning Research Assignment

This guide contains access to Drexel University Libraries health sciences resources and databases, along with links to government websites. All the resources listed provide access to reliable information. Some resources contain access to research articles and primary literature. Others include practice guidelines or topic summaries.

For the assignment, choose two resources that best fit a subject/topic area of your learning issue.

• Search in the resources to look for information that will answer your question.
• Then, complete the assignment worksheet listing your:
  1. Question/learning issue
  2. Which two resources you chose to search
  3. How the subject coverage of those resources relate to your question
  4. Whether or not you found what you were looking for. The goal is for you think critically about where you search for information, finding the best sources rather than relying on familiar sources.

Please save the completed worksheet (.pdf, .rtf or .doc format) and submit it via Blackboard Learn.

• Types of Sources
  • Primarily journal literature. Includes primary and secondary sources. Also includes includes conference proceedings, book chapters, and newsletters
• Scope
  • Nursing and Allied Health - physical therapy, art therapy, nutrition, medical imaging, social services, public health, complementary and alternative medicine, counseling, health policy, palliative care, midwifery, etc.
• Searching
  • Use limiters to get refined results, including the "Peer Reviewed" limiter. Contains subject headings, CINAHL headings, for advance searching.

• Types of sources
  • Journal articles and conference abstracts.
• Scope
  • A database of biomedical literature from Elsevier. Provides strong coverage of pharmaceutical, chemical, drug and medical devices. Content has a more international literature slant.
• Searching
  • Emtree is the structured list of subject headings for Embase.

• Types of Sources
  • Journal literature and book chapters; search results include primary and secondary sources.
• Scope
  • Coverage in psychology, behavioral sciences, mental health, neurosciences, and social issues. Great source for research questions around mental health, developmental psychology, and social psychology.
• Searching
  • Has own Thesaurus (subject headings), similar to MeSH in PubMed, that can be used for advanced searching. In addition to journal articles, PsycINFO includes conference proceedings, book chapters, and newsletters so you may want to use the "Peer Reviewed" limit for your searches.

• Types of Sources
  • Journal literature; search results include primary and secondary sources.
• Scope
  • A free interface for searching MEDLINE, the most popular bibliographic database in the health and medical sciences. PubMed is best used for researching clinical questions when you want to read the clinical studies that support practice.  If your learning issue addresses diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, or etiology, PubMed is the perfect place to find the clinical research articles. It also includes a lot of literature on the bench science side of biomedical sciences (microbiology, immunology, molecular biology, genetics, etc).
• Searching
  • Records have been assigned subject headings, a controlled vocabulary, Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). These are used to index citations allowing you to retrieve all records on a particular subject regardless of the terminology used by the author.

• Types of Sources
  • Primarily journal articles; search results include primary and secondary sources
• Scope
  • A large, multidisciplinary database with coverage in science, social sciences, and arts & humanities disciplines. Because of its broad subject coverage, it works well for interdisciplinary topics. It overlaps with most of the literature found in PubMed, but some researchers prefer the Web of Science search interface for biomedical science topics.
• Searching
  • Because Web of Science covers so many subject areas, it does not have the controlled terminology that PubMed, CINAHL, and PsycINFO have to facilitate advanced searching.

• Types of Sources
  • Cochrane Reviews are secondary sources (i.e., systematic reviews).
• Scope
  • The Cochrane Library includes a database of systematic reviews. These systematic reviews look at a specific question, attempt to gather all primary research on that topic, evaluate the research using strict guidelines, and assess whether or not there is conclusive evidence to support specific practices (e.g. a treatment or intervention). There are just over 10,000 Cochrane Reviews to date so there will not be one for every question. This is a great place to start, but don't worry if you can't find a review that fits your topic.
• Searching
  • Search manager lets you add unlimited search lines, view results per line and access the MeSH browser.

From "About Cochrane Reviews"

A systematic review attempts to identify, appraise and synthesize all the empirical evidence that meets pre-specified eligibility criteria to answer a specific research question. Researchers conducting systematic reviews use explicit, systematic methods that are selected with a view aimed at minimizing bias, to produce more reliable findings to inform decision making.

• Types of Sources
  • Primary and secondary sources
• Scope
  • ClinicalKey and AccessMedicine are great sources of clinical information outside of the standard article format. Search results in both databases include book chapters, practice guidelines, drug monographs, patient education materials, images, and procedures videos. Stat!Ref also provides access to current reference and textbook titles.
• Searching
  • These are often a good starting place when you need comprehensive and vetted background information on the issue you are researching.

• Types of Sources
  • DynaMed pages are secondary sources which link out to supporting primary and secondary sources.
• Scope
  • Dynamed is a clinical reference, point-of-care tool. It provides summaries of clinical topics, recommendations based on current evidence, and evaluations of the quality of that evidence. The pages are usually framed around a disease/condition, although there are also pages on regularly used drugs, surgical techniques, etc. Because the information included in Dynamed is linked back to the original research, it is a good place to start when you are unfamiliar with a topic. But for topics that are not well-established, PubMed is better for finding the most recent research.
• Searching
  • A simple search box on the home page will yield results including conditions, management, approach to patient and more.

The CDC website is a resource to consider looking for data and health statistics. Also covers public health topics like traveler health, emergency preparedness, and workplace safety.

For questions about health services on a federal, state, or local level, try some of the resources on our Government Health Agencies guide. The first tab covers federal agencies, the second covers Philadelphia and PA resources.