UNMC Library Tutorial: Sarah's Baby 5/John's risk as a medical student

By Cindy Schmidt, M.D., M.L.S.

published 06/01/2015

updated 07/26/2018

Complete episode 1, episode 2, episode 3, and episode 4 before beginning this episode.

Warning:

If you are using Internet Explorer, please STOP now! Open another internet browser (we recommend Firefox) and go to --

http://list.unmc.edu/gots/tutorial/com-sb-5

-- and continue working on the tutorial in the new browser.

Episode Objectives

During this tutorial episode:

You will practice using PubMed's "Advanced" search page

You will practice applying "English", "Review", and "Systematic Reviews" filters to a pubmed search.

You will complete a quick search in ProceduresConsult

You will be reminded of the sources you can use for help in the future

Learning issue #9: Rate of Gastrointestinal Problems in Med Students

During episode 4 you prepared term lists for this PubMed search.

Your term lists should look something like:

"medical students" OR "medical student"

gastrointestinal OR gastric OR intestinal OR stomach OR bowel* OR dyspepsia OR pyloric OR pylorus OR duoden* OR ulcer* OR gastritis OR reflux OR gerd OR gastroesophageal OR esophageal OR Crohn* OR ibs

PubMed "Advanced" Search

1 of 2In this case, you really want articles that are so focused on medical students that either --

"medical student"

or

"medical students"

-- is present in the title of each record retrieved.

This is easy to accomplish using the "Advanced" search feature in PubMed.

Click on the "Advanced" link under the PubMed search box.

Screenshot showing the position of the "Advanced" link.

PubMed "Advanced" Search

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1. Use the drop-down menu next to the builder's upper search box to select the "Title" option

2. Paste your --

"medical students" OR "medical student"

-- terms into the adjacent search box.

A screenshot with arrows showing the positions of menus that need to be set, serch boxes that need to be filled, and the position of the search button.

3. Paste your --

gastrointestinal OR gastric OR intestinal OR stomach OR bowel* OR dyspepsia OR pyloric OR pylorus OR duoden* OR ulcer* OR gastritis OR reflux OR gerd OR gastroesophageal OR esophageal OR Crohn* OR ibs

-- terms into the second search box.

The search boxes act like a sets of parentheses enclosing the OR'd terms. The PubMed search engine will compete the OR operations inside the search box before joining the box concepts.

4. The default "AND" setting for the operator joining the two concepts is the correct choice in this case.

PubMed Search: Step #8 -- Run Search.

If you haven't already done so, click the "Search" button.

The search should retrieve over 90 results.

About half of the results concern the rate of, or risk factors for, gastrointestinal conditions in medical students.

Retrieval of 50% relevant results is not a bad rate of relevance for a keyword search.

There are several possible ways to approach reviewing the results list:

You may wish to review the complete result list for discussions of specific gastrointestinal conditions of great interest in light of John's case.

Alternately, you may wish to start by reviewing the publication types that you shouldn't miss. The tutorial will guide you through this approach.

PubMed Search: Step #9a -- English Limit

This search retrieved enough results to make applying language and publication type limits worthwhile.

Limits/Filters are located on the left-hand side of the page.

Start by applying an "English" language limit as follows:

Click the "Show additional filters" link at the bottom of the left-hand column.

Select "Languages"

Click the "Show" button.

A screenshot showing the process of selecting and choosing to show the "Laguage" limit.

When the "Languages" filter/limit options appear, click on the "English" option.

You know you've applied a filter successfully when a check mark appears in front of the filter.

Screenshot showing the check mark in front of the "English" filter

PubMed Search: Step #9a -- Article Type Limit

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Next consider applying an "Article Type" limit.

It's important that you are aware of :

the regular "Review" filter/limit

the "Systematic Reviews" filter/limit

"Review" filter:

Any article that summarizes the literature published on a topic is a "review" article.

Most review articles are "narrative reviews." They do not attempt to review all the available evidence, and author bias is expected.

However, the review subset is still especially important to students. Some of the articles retrieved when a "Review" filter is applied, provide basic introductions to a topic. These introductory reviews can be quite useful to medical students. Unfortunately, there is no way to limit to the "introductory review" subset alone.

"Systematic Reviews" filter:

It is possible to limit to a different subset of review articles, the "systematic reviews" subset. Several types of reviews are included in this subset:

systematic reviews of the literature which critique all the available evidence and then make treatment recommendations.

meta-analyses are systematic reviews that include a re-analysis of the combined data from the reviewed studies

practice guidelines published by well known organizations (These are often based on systematic literature reviews and/or consensus of well known experts.)

consensus statements produced by panels, or organizations.

A relevant, well-executed, recent systematic review or meta-analysis is considered the highest quality medical evidence.

A narrative review, on the other hand, is close to the bottom of the evidence pyramid.

PubMed Search: Step #9a -- Article Type Limit

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Start with the "systematic reviews" limit. To apply this limit, complete the following steps:

Find the "Article Types" section of the Filters column.

Click the "Customize" link. A list of available publication types will appear.

A screenshot showing clicking of the 'Customize" link, followed by select of the "Systematic Reviews" option, and clicking of the "Show" button.

Click the box in front of the "Systematic Reviews"

Click the "Show" button.

When the "Systematic Reviews" option appears under the "Article Types" heading, click on it.

You know you've applied a filter successfully when a check mark appears in front of the filter.

A PubMed record for a relevant systematic review was retrieved, and the full-text is freely available!

PubMed Search: Step #9a -- Article Type Limit

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Now try clicking on the "Review" filter.

When two article types are checked in the left-hand column, articles of either type are retrieved (the filters are OR'd).

The PubMed record for another freely available article is retrieved!

ProceduresConsult -- procedure information and videos

We would like you to be aware of one additional resource.

Unfortunately, John's case provides no learning issues that can be addressed using this resource. So let's pretend John also had anal pain. If this was the case, you might need to obtain information about how an to perform anoscopy.

When you want to see a video that will show you how to conduct a procedure and/or written information about the process of performing a procedure, check ProceduresConsult.

Accessing ProceduresConsult

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To access ProceduresConsult:

Go to the library's homepage

You can reach the library's homepage by going to any unmc.edu page and clicking the "Library" link at the bottom of the "Quick Links" in the lower right-hand corner of the page.

Click on "Clinical Resources"

screenshot of McGoogan Library homepage with arrow pointing to Clinical Resources link

Click on the "ProceduresConsult" link.

If asked to do so, login with your UNMC e-mail username and password (UNMC Net ID)

Accessing ProceduresConsult

2 of 4After you reach the "ProceduresConsult" homepage:

search for materials about -

anoscopy

Accessing ProceduresConsult

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When you reach the materials concerning "Anoscopy":

notice the start arrow for the video (see blue arrow in screenshot below).

A screenshot of the video thumbnail/start scree.

If the video screen doesn't appear on your computer or isn't working, don't panic!

You do not need to watch the video to complete this tutorial.

If you want to see the video, it's possible that you need to update Adobe Flash Player on your computer or simply click a buttons to allow use of Flash Player.

Accessing ProceduresConsult

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Click on the "Full Details" tab.

Scroll through the description and figures to see the type of information that is provided.

Optional -- Want "GetIt!@UNMC" buttons in Google Scholar?

A few quick steps will make "GetIt!@UNMC" links appear next to Google Scholar search results available in full-text form through UNMC subscriptions.

To make the needed changes in Google Scholar settings:

Go to Google scholar at scholar.google.com

Click the Google Scholar "menu" button.

Click the "Cogwheel" icon

Click on "Library Links"

Search for -- UNMC

Select the "University of Nebraska Medical Center" option

Click the "Save" button.

Future Google Scholar search results will contain a"GetIt@UNMC" link whenever the full text is available through a UNMC's subscription or license.

If, at a later date, you see no "GetIt!@UNMC" buttons; you will have to go through the setting changes again.

Always think twice about the source of items you find on Google Scholar.

*Many items available through Google Scholar are journal article or book chapter from reputable, well-known publishers.

*Many are dissertations published by students after years of study and reviewed by their thesis committees.

*However, some items in Google Scholar are in non-peer-reviewed journals or newsletters.

*Some are articles in journals published by predatory publishers, publishers that will publish almost anything for a fee. Some of these publishers will even add authors to works written by others if the 'new author' pays them a fee.

Want to check your resource knowledge?

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The following optional questions will give you a chance to see if you understand the implications of the various aspects of keyword searching that have been covered by tutorial episodes 4 and 5.

A friend has composed the following search for articles about the signs of toxoplasmosis in a cat:

tox*[Title] AND cat*[Title]

Which of the following article titles will be retrieved by your friend's search (a,b,c, or all of these (d)?

a. Fatal disseminated toxoplasmosis in an immunocompetent cat. b. Tramadol toxicity in a cat c. Cataract formation associated with ocular toxocariasis. d. all of the above

Another friend wants to see articles about liver problems in patients with heart failure. He creates the search --

heart[Title] AND Failure[Title] AND liver[Title]

His search retrieves many irrelevant articles like an article with the title "Liver failure in total artificial heart therapy." Which of the following search strategies would you eliminate retrieval of irrelevant records focused on liver failure?

a. ( heart[Title] AND Failure[Title] ) AND liver[Title] b. "heart failure"[Title] AND liver[Title] c. heart[Title] OR Failure[Title] OR liver[Title] d. heart*[Title] AND Failure*[Title] AND liver*[Title]

A friend composes this search for articles about heart failure:

"heart failure"[Title]

Which of the following articles about heart failure, will be retrieved by your friend's search a,b,c, all or none?

a. Cardiac failure detection in 30 minutes b. Acute left ventricular failure in a young asthmatic patient c. Atrial systolic failure in a 46-year-old man. d all of the above (a,b, and c) e. none of the above.

You are working on a search for articles about detection of toxoplasma gondii on the surface of fruits and vegetables. Your first attempt at this search is shown in the screenshot below. This first attempt has retrieved many articles about fruit that have nothing to do with toxoplasmosis.

What would you do to fix the search?

a. Change the content of the second search box to -- vegetable* OR fruit* -- and remove the content of the third search box. b. Change the -- OR -- between the second and third search boxes to an -- AND c. Change the content of the third search box to -- fruit -- without an asterisk.

Which types of articles are retrieved when a "systematic review" filter is added to a PubMed search (a,b,c, or d. all of these)?

a. systematic reviews b. practice guidelines c. consensus statements d. all of these (a,b, and c.)

If you needed to search for practice guidelines that were not published as journal articles, where should you search?

a. Search PubMed with a "systematic reviews" filter b. UpToDate c. National Practice Guidelines Clearinghouses

Which of the following steps are useful when searching Google for a specific article (a,b,c, or all (d))?

a. Enclose the article title in quotes b. type-- intitle: --immediately after the article title c. type-- site --immediately in front of the article title. d. all of the above

Which of the following statements is true?

PubMed contains records for most practice guidelines published in journal articles as well as records for most guidelines published on organization websites. Google searches can locate many practice guidelines published in journal articles as well as many guidelines published on organization websites.

Want to check your resource knowledge?

2 of 2 During this episode, you used:

PubMed to locate relevant journal articles.

You used the "advanced" search to reach the multi-box search builder and specify a title search.

You used the "Systematic Reviews" articles type filter to limit your results to systematic reviews, meta-analyses, consensus reports, and practice guidelines that have been published in journal articles.

You used the "Review" limit to find a narrative review.

PubMed is available through the "Literature Databases" button on the Library's homepage.

ProceduresConsult to find a video and written information describing a procedure.

What if you need a reminder of these resources in the future?

If you need a reminder of the resources introduced by this tutorial in the future, you could return to this tutorial in your PBL Canvas course, but there are two easier ways to refresh your memory!

In response to requests from past students we've created a business-card-sized "cheat sheet" that you can print and carry with you.

The resources covered in this tutorial are also listed on the Library's "PBL Resources" guide.

Click here to see the Library's homepage on the right.

You can always get to the Library's homepage by going to any unmc.edu page, scrolling to the bottom, and clicking the "Library" link in the "Quick links" list.

On the Library's homepage, place your cursor on top of "Guides and Tutorials" and select "Research Guides".

Click on the "PBL Resources" button.

On the "PBL Resources" page you will find lists of the types of information covered in this tutorial and the relevant resources.

Before you Leave -- Remember that Librarians are available to help you.

Please, remember that McGoogan's librarians and staff really want to help you with any library-related resource use/access, or search questions! There are no stupid questions!

in person -- 6th floor of Wittson Hall at the AskUs desk
over the phone

M-F, 8AM-5PM- 402-559-6221 or 1-866-800-5209
nights and weekends -- 402-559-4006

via e-mail- askus@unmc.edu

via the AskUs webform (AskUs link on the homepage)

via chat - chat box on the library's homepage, M-F, 8AM-5PM.

Need to search for a journal article? Have your initial search attempts been less productive than hoped? We're happy to help. Give us some information about the approach you've tried and we'll guide you toward a search strategy that will work (M-F, 8AM - 5PM).

You've completed the orientation portions of this miniseries!

Congratulations. You've completed the orientation portion of this tutorial miniseries!

It's now time to take a brief quiz over the material in these 5 tutorial episodes.

The quiz is required and the quiz score will be shown in your Canvas grade sheet. However, the score will not be incorporated in a course grade. The quiz results will help us determine which concepts need more emphasis or a different approach in the future.