MEDICAL AND NURSING
Medical and Nursing: Knowledge Generation
Information literacy is identifying what information is needed and where it can be found (Wadson & Phillips, 2018). The location is required to accurately evaluate the resource to ensure its effectiveness for the intended purpose. In nursing, critical thinking and decision-making rely heavily on information literacy. For instance, when an evidence-based resource is obtained, it becomes more convenient to apply enhanced clinical practices for best patient outcomes (Wadson & Phillips, 2018). Personal and professional growth is possible with the technical knowledge relevant to the field since capitalizing on information is a quick and reliable way of solving problems of the target market or consumers.
Databases have structured and systematic data records that can be retrieved anytime, specifically from library sources (Thunderstone, 2019). The online databases have the same structured display of resources with many authorized studies. On the contrary, the search engine gives unstructured and unsystematic information, which does not necessarily include authorized or peer-reviewed articles. They could include any form of articles, like blogs, website articles, etc. Moreover, search engines have small-text articles that do not count full-text publications. The articles with abstracts are only shown in the results, which is not the case with databases. With login access, full information is recovered.
An example of one professional database is PubMed, in which publically available scholarly resources are available. They are peer-reviewed sources that provide authentic information with valid studies and investigations conducted by scholars. Biomedical literature is available to anyone in the common public and can be obtained anywhere in the world. The articles range from the mid-1960s to current times, guaranteeing a wide variety of data (Williamson & Minter, 2019). Health and other scientific practitioners and students use information from this widely accepted online database as its evidence-based resources. The scrutiny with which research articles present the scholarly output is highly reliable.
References
Thunderstone. (2019, February 12). What is the difference between a database and a search engine? https://www.thunderstone.com/blog/archive/what-is-the-difference-between-a-database-and-a-search-engine/#:~:text=While%20databases%20can%20store%20and,Google%20and%20Bing%20as%20examples.
Wadson, K. & Phillips, L.A. (2018). Information literacy skills and training of licensed practical nurses in Alberta, Canada: Results of a survey. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 35(2), 141-159. https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12217
Williamson, O.P. & Minter, C. (2019). Exploring PubMed as a reliable resource for scholarly communications services.Journal of the Medical Library Association: JMLA,107(1), 1629. https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2019.433
