Consider which concepts are necessary for the search. A comprehensive search usually has 2-3 concepts combined with AND. Consult with a librarian and your team to determine which concepts to include.
Example PICO: In adult ICU settings, do noise reduction strategies improve the patient experience?
ICU | Noise reduction |
Patient experience |
There are 2 method of searching. For reviews that demand a comprehensive approach, both methods should be used.
Subject headings: An assigned term that represents a concept. For example, any study about pressure sores found in PubMed will be assigned a Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) term pressure ulcers. A search for pressure ulcers will capture results about this concept regardless of which exact word/phrase is used. Most databases have a list of vocabulary but they are different from one another. This means that your search strategies will be different for the subject heading component for each database searched.
Keywords/phrases: Terms used in everyday language. Sometimes there is not a subject heading that represents a concept or the article is not categorized correctly. This is when keywords/phrases can capture results that a subject search may miss.
This is usually a team process and may take a few days to months, depending on how exhaustive the search needs to be. Some tips follow:
Concept 1: ICU | Concept 2: Noise reduction | Concept 3: Patient experience |
MeSH
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MeSH
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MeSH
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Keywords/phrases
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Keywords/phrases
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Keywords/phrases
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