Learning Objectives

Study Designs

• Identify the key types of clinical study designs.

• Understand the strengths and weaknesses of the various study designs.

• Be able to identify the study design from an abstract.

Asking Clinical Questions

• Explain the purpose of asking a well-structured question.

• Identify the types of clinical questions and study designs.

• List the components of a well-structured question.

• Create well-built, answerable questions based on patient problems.

• Identify ways to incorporate the PICO into your library practice.

Finding the best evidence

• Identify criteria for EBP (pre-appraised) resources.

• Organize library resources according to their value as an EBP resource.

• Practise using EBP resources to answer clinical questions.

• Identify ways to make EBP resources more accessible for clinical care.

• Understand how PICO can inform search strategy.

• Practise using PICO to structure search strategy.

• Become familiar with expert searching in PubMed.

• Practice using advanced features of PubMed.

Therapy

• Recognize and define the key terminology associated with therapy studies.

• Identify and explain the concepts related to reducing bias in a randomized controlled trial.

• Practice understanding how the results are reported in an RCT.

• Characterize the potential problems or issues that can affect the validity of a therapy study.

Qualitative Research

• Become familiar with qualitative terminology.

• Practice formulating well-focused qualitative questions.

• Discover techniques to search for qualitative research in PubMed and CINAHL.

• Review and critique methods for finding qualitative research articles.

• Appraise qualitative research articles.

Systematic Reviews

• Recognize the elements of well-designed systematic reviews through critical appraisal.

• Discover a teaching technique for appraisal of systematic reviews.

• Understand the elements of a forest plot.

• Discover a teaching technique for the interpretation of forest plots.

• Identify approaches and sources for searching Grey literature.

Searching for Complex Topics

• Understand the components of an exhaustive search strategy for systematic reviews.

• Identify the tools for developing detailed search strategies.

Text mining

• Understanding the purpose of Text Mining in building a systematic review search.

• Reinforcing the idea of the comprehensibility needed in a systematic review search.

• Experience in using some of the Text Mining tools available.

Subject Filters

• Understand the process for developing subject filters.

• Identify sources for subject filters.