Teaching and presentations

Evidence searches to support teaching and presentations.

The suggested time to allocate to this search is from 2 to 5 hours.

Planning

This search need not be exhaustive if the purpose is to provide an update and/or overview of a topic for the requester.

Results can be limited to those published in the last 5 to 10 years unless a historical focus is required, or if there is a lack of recent evidence.

Execution

You should try searching clinical decision support tools and emailing relevant entries to the requester. You could also copy and paste relevant text from entries - along with hyperlinks to the full entries - into a report.

Search the Trip Database using these filters to identify recent high quality evidence.

  • The “Latest and Greatest” filter.
  • The “all secondary evidence” filter.
  • The last-5-years.

Consider searching other high tier evidence sources such as the:

  • Cochrane Library
  • Campbell Collaboration

Consider a search of your local discovery tool or the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub (KLHub), using the following limits from the menu on the left column of the results screen to narrow your results down.

  • Peer-reviewed evidence.
  • Full text availability, from the last 5 years.
  • The “search within the full text” option removed.
  • The “apply relevant subjects” option removed.
  • English language.

Search the Education Resource Information Center (ERIC) if the subject of the search involves teaching and consider a search of the NHS Learning Hub if the requester is looking for learning/teaching materials. 

Limit database results to review papers/important trials/consensus statements/guidelines.

If the steps above do not yield anything useful, search appropriate bibliographic databases (and preprint servers) according to your topic.

Results

Aim to provide up to 25 results as a word or PDF report with the search strategy included. If your topic is very narrow, there may not be 25 results.

Include the full text of papers wherever possible, and/or highlight the open access papers amongst your results, so the requester can easily share them with students or colleagues if needed.

Example 1

Request received via email

I’ve been asked to find out the following for my presentation to the PEC [patient experience committee].

1. What are the regulatory bodies recommending trusts do about Patient Experience/Engagement - I think that could possibly be wider than just the regulatory bodies - so recommendations from other organisations too.

2. What are other trusts doing about including Patient Engagement/Experience in their training and education offers.

Would you be able to do this for me? I would like it fairly soon - at least part 1. Thanks.

Response from librarian

Dear …

Please find attached the results of your requested search on: “What are the regulatory bodies recommending trusts do about Patient Experience/Engagement...” 

From the attached reports you can view the full text of the articles relevant to you by clicking on the blue links to download them using your OpenAthens login details. If you do not currently have an OpenAthens account you can register for one using your NHS email address. You will be sent an email to set your own password.

The articles we do not have direct access to will have to be ordered through our inter-library loans service which may take a few days to arrive. To make article requests you will need to fill out the journal requests form on the Knowledge library services web page at: [link to web page].

We aim to improve our services in line with your comments. If you could please take a moment to [complete our online feedback form here] we would be very grateful. Could we also contact you to hear how the search impacted your decision making, for a case study please?

Look forward to hearing from you…

Report compiled by librarian.

Example 2

“Radiopaque resin infiltrant” search for teaching/presentation.

Report compiled by librarian.

Page last reviewed: 4 August 2023
Next review due: 4 August 2024