Module 2

1. Describe your clinical problem and choice of electronic index. How did the index facilitate (or impede) your ability to construct an efficient search? How time consuming was your search? Would there be barriers to using the index in daily practice?

My clinical problem that I chose to investigate was substance abuse treatment in HIV-positive women. I chose to use PubMed as my search index because I have seen it used a lot this semester by faculty and have not have much experience with it in the past. The “Limits” tab in PubMed really helped me to fine tune my search. I was able to select only adults, females, articles published within the past 5 years, and also my keywords of HIV, women, and substance abuse treatment. Even with all of these search terms I came up with quite a few articles to look through. The search engine was easy to use and I was able to complete my search fairly quickly, but finding the specific information I was looking for took more time. The only barrier I can see to using PubMed in daily practice is the amount of information it has available is so vast. The practitioner would have to be very skilled in using exact search terms to find the information that would really be helpful in clinical practice.