We encounter information in many types of sources, and any of them can potentially be reliable - depending on your research context, the credibility & accuracy of the source and its relevance to your specific research focus.
The following resources offer excellent strategies for evaluating your online sources:
Evaluating Grey Literature: UBC Library
Lateral Reading & SIFT: University of Michigan
Digital Literacy: University of Cincinnati
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When starting research, it’s natural to turn to Google for quick answers, but it simply cannot provide the array of scholarly research available in a typical library database. After all, its main purpose is to find websites, not academic articles. That said Google is the primary way to find "grey literature," e.g., health-related information that is published outside of the traditional, scholarly publishing world but that is nonetheless important and highly credible. In many cases your research may depend as much on grey literature as it does on scholarly articles. |
Key web-based materials, aka "Grey Literature"
You may be wondering what types of grey literature are important for health researchers. You'll need to think about the questions you're trying to answer and then what types of organization would typically provide such information. For example:
Do you need a “fact” to support some advice you’d like to give? The facts you need might just be found in a statistical table or report.
Do you need to understand your employer’s rules & regulations better? You'll most likely find this on your organization's website or intranet.
Are you interested in comparing local policy guidelines to those in other places? This is another job for your web-browser!
Organizations that typically create, compile, and share content such as health statistics & datasets; internal research & committee reports; clinical practice guidelines; professional standards; policy papers etc., include:
This list is not exhaustive but may be a good starting point!
Policies, professional competencies, curriculums & standards:
BC Care Aide & Community Health Worker Registry: Free resources include provincial HCA core competencies & curriculum guides. Also available on the BC Campus website:
Health Care Assistant Program: Supplement to the Provincial Curriculum
National Occupational Standard for Personal Care Providers
British Columbia Program Standards for Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) Teams (PDF, 1.4MB)
“This document provides the standards of care for Assertive Community Treatment services in British Columbia that were developed based on best practices. These standards define the intended clients, the required services, the type of staff/numbers needed to competently provide the services, and the intended benefits/outcomes for the clients receiving the services.”
Intensive Case Management Team Model of Care (ICMT) Standards and Guidelines (PDF, 2.9MB)
Occupational Health & Safety
Worksafe BC: links to health and safety information and resources for those who work in health care and social services.
SafeCare BC: is non-profit association dedicated to ensuring the safety and well-being of workers in the continuing care sector in British Columbia. Provides a wide range of freely accessible workplace safety information in the Resources & Tools menu.
BC CDC Infection Control: provides freely accessible infection control procedures/guidance for healthcare settings
Professional development:
BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services: BC Organization for mental health and substance use providers
Indigenous Cultural Safety and Humility: Resources from the First Nations Health Authority | and from the BC College of Nurses and Midwives
Dementia education: Alzheimer Society of BC
Recognizing and Responding to Adult Abuse: PHSA online course
Achieving Competence in Collaborative Practice: Mini-Module Series: BC Health Regulators course aimed at internationally educated health care professionals - to develop competencies that support effective interprofessional collaborative practice.
Team-Based Care (TBC) on the Run: free online module series from UBC designed to promote collaborative models of practice and support the development of team-based competencies.
Google Advanced Search
| A great way to find grey literature is using Google's Advanced Search interface. Its key advantage is that it will allow you to limit your search to specific websites, such as Douglas College or specific families of websites, such as all BC government websites. |
Some Advanced Google Search suggestions: