Nursing

My name is Shawnna Parlongo and I'm the liaison librarian for Health Sciences at Douglas College.  Both students and faculty are most welcome to book an appointment with me for additional research help. 

For example,

• if you need to brainstorm your search strategy, keyword choices etc
   
• if you'd like a refresher on how to use library databases such as CINAHL or the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
   
• if you would like to check that you've looked in "all the right places" for the research you need
   
• if you need materials from outside scholarly publishing, aka grey literature, e.g., ministry/health authorities' policies; licencing bodies' guidance, health statistics, occupational health & safety procedures etc.
   
• if you're struggling to find "enough" sources - or sources that are more current
   
• if you need high quality statistics or datasets
   
• if you'd like to learn about writing a research data management plan
   
• if you'd like a basic introduction to a citation management tool like Zotero or Mendeley
   
• I'm available for in-person appointments or via Zoom - and am happy to meet with you one-on-one or with your faculty or student research group members.
  
   
  • Click Schedule Appointment to see my availability and proceed with a booking.
     
  • Health Sciences faculty can book library workshops with my via this calendar or by emailing me directly.

AskAway: For help "right now"

The Library also participates in the Provincial AskAway chat reference service - which offers instant message help from real librarians!  If you need a hand "right now," AskAway is a great option. 
 

• Note, AskAway is closed the first two weeks of term, on statutory holidays and during intersession.

Researchable Questions

You may be surprised to hear that not every question that you devise will be "researchable."  This may be for a number of reasons, including:
 

• a lack of published research on the topic
   
• a lack of published research on the population you're interested in
   
• your original question is too broad OR too narrowly focussed
   
• your question only sounds like a research question, but is in fact a "background" question, e.g., a question that can be easily answered by consulting a reference book or statistic - not a question that will require a review of the literature to answer e.g.,
   

For example, "what are the effects of Prilosec on patients taking immune suppressants" might seem like a good research question, but it is not....because you can look up this information in a drug monograph (Southern Illinois University. Picking a PICO).

For this reason researchers in the health sciences have developed a number of frameworks to help you design a well-worded and suitably focussed researchable question. 

• One of the most common research question frameworks used in nursing research is PICO(T) - but it's not the only approach.  FYI, other frameworks you might encounter include  PEO, SPIDER, SPICE, & ECLIPSE.

PICOT

Picot is a mnemonic that stands for:

• Patient / Population: what specific patient group/population do you want to study?
   
• Intervention: what is the specific treatment/intervention that you are examining?
   
• Comparison: what alternative are you comparing your intervention with?
   
• Outcome: what measures have you chosen to determine if your proposed intervention is effective or not?
   
• Timeline: how long do you think it should take to demonstrate if your outcome is effective or not. 

Some excellent blank PICO(T) question templates are available from the following:

• Southern Illinois University: Picking a PICO
   
• California State University Long Beach: PICO Formula
   
• Langara College Library.  PICOT Worksheet for Nursing