Running head: SEARCH STRATEGY 1
Search Strategy
Jessica Brown
Chamberlain College of Nursing
NR 449: Evidence Based Practice
March 2019
This study source was downloaded by 100000831988016 from CourseHero.com on 12-
...
Running head: SEARCH STRATEGY 1
Search Strategy
Jessica Brown
Chamberlain College of Nursing
NR 449: Evidence Based Practice
March 2019
This study source was downloaded by 100000831988016 from CourseHero.com on 12-22-2021 06:19:46 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/51750111/RUA-topic-search-strategydocx/
SEARCH STRATEGY 2
Introduction
Research is so very important when working in healthcare. Research allows all healthcare
professionals to provide the best possible care for their patients. Knowing how to retrieve proper
articles and how to search for them is a very important step when applying best practice research
into the best care possible. Learning how to incorporate best practice is one of the most
important skills a nurse can learn. The goal of learning the best practice is to provide the best
care possible for patients while improving clinical decision making. Research improves and
changes every day and it is important to keep up to date with the new research being found.
When researching the best practice, it expands new knowledge of the researcher and can be
passed down to other staff members. When having good thorough research strategies, health care
professionals will be able to have a wide range of qualitative and quantitative articles to use.
Clinical Question
Falls are the most frequently reported safety incident within the hospitals. Every day
there are so many falls that happen in hospitals that are preventable. The majority of these falls
can be prevented by proper assessment of the patients and learning what their personal needs are.
The PICOT question is as follows: In hospitalized patients over 65 years of age, how effective is
a fall prevention program in comparison to the normal standard of care in decreasing falls and
fall injury rates for the duration of the hospital stay? The focus of the group work is how can falls
be prevented in hospitals. Falls are a significant problem because they can lead to more
complications for the patient. “Fall related injuries are the most common cause of accidental
death in those over the age of 65, resulting in approximately 41 fall related deaths per 100,000
people per year” (User, 2016). This statistic documents this as a huge problem. Sadly, these rates
are moving away from the Healthy People 2010 fall prevention goal. Assessing the patient for
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SEARCH STRATEGY 3
risk factors is one of the most effective ways to prevent these falls (Morris, 2017). Some risk
factors include previous fall history, confusion, urinary incontinence, gait instability, and
medications that may lead to falls (Mazur, 2016). Research shows that patients and families
involved in the fall prevention process is critical. There are many patients that fall in the hospital
because they do not believe they are at risk and they do not listen to the education that is given to
them. Falls in the elderly are a huge complication in hospitals and often lead to morbidity and
mortality, and serious injuries that may prolong their stay. There are multiple risk factors for the
elderly like unsteady gait, visual impairment, history of falls, pain, polypharmacy, and confusion
(Mazur, 2016). Including family members along with the patient in a fall risk assessment may
allow them to see their personal risk factors. Patients need to have a personal prevention plan
because everyone is different and has different risk factors as well. The purpose of this paper is
to describe search strategies used when finding two articles used in evidence based practice
research.
Level of Evidence
The question that is being researched looks at a probable outcome over a period of time, making
this question concerning prognosis. The research is focused on the end result of the situation. On
the group topic of preventing falls in the hospital and the question that was formulated, a
longitudinal study design would be the best option when gathering data about the question. A
longitudinal study is a “study conducted by following subjects over a period of time, with data
collection occurring at prescribed intervals” (Houser, 2018). With this research, the study over
the two groups can be researched in the hospital over their stay in the hospital and a conclusion
can be conducted in the end. The patients should be checked on throughout their stay at the
hospital every day to assess for falls or injuries. One of the patients would be those who are in a
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SEARCH STRATEGY 4
fall prevention program, the other would be those having normal standard care. The point in this
is to assess the effectiveness of those in a fall prevention program versus those that are not.
Doing this study this can show the researcher which is more effective and if fall prevention
programs should be used for patients over the age of 65.
Search Strategy
The student was assigned a topic by the teacher for the group project to do a research analysis
on. The student then had to find an article related to the topic that was written in the last five
years. The student went to the chamberlain web page and went to the library. The CINAHL
academic database was utilized and that is where the search started for the articles. The student
had typed in geriatric fall prevention. This is where geriatric falls in the context of a hospital fall
prevention program: delirium, low body mass index, and other risk factors was found. This
article uses statistics and qualitative research to show the effectiveness of hospital fall prevention
programs. Another search was conducted and the only thing typed into the search was fall and
injury prevention where the other article was found. This article also has statistics related to falls
in the hospitals with the elderly and talks about the consequences of falls. Limiters used on both
were English and published in the last five years. These articles were selected because they were
most relevant to the topic and had a lot of statistics included.
Conclusion
Research is crucial when working in the healthcare field. Knowing how to find the best
research and having good strategies is important to because it allows health care professionals to
provide the best care for patients. Knowing what the best practice is also allows the healthcare
field to blossom and improve patient satisfaction as well as learning new knowledge. A search
was conducted to collect information and research analysis on the topic of fall prevention. A
This study source was downloaded by 100000831988016 from CourseHero.com on 12-22-2021 06:19:46 GMT -06:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/51750111/RUA-topic-search-strategydocx/
SEARCH STRATEGY 5
quantitative research article was found which contained a study on hospital fall prevention
program in geriatric patients. The study was done and showed
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