During rounds Charles encounters a rare condition he has never personally seen, and only vaguely remembers hearing about in nursing school. He takes a few moments to prepare himself by searching the Internet. That evening, he researches even further to treat, administer, and assess the patient safely. He searches clinical databases online and his own school textbooks. Most of the information seems consistent, yet some factors vary. Charles wants to provide the highest quality in patient safety.

• 1. What should Charles do when he encounters information in two sources that is directly contradictory? Which resources are the most trusted? Which resources are the most accurate? What criteria should Charles use to identify credible resources to enhance his clinical practice?

• 2. Practice extracting data from a database at the https://statecancerprofiles.cancer.gov/index.html webpage. Compare and contrast data from at least 2 different states based on incidence by gender and race/ethnicity.

• 3. Visit the https://search.ahrq.gov/search?q=nursing&search_icon.x=0&search_icon.y=0 webpage.
  • Choose one of the guidelines and describe how it was developed and summarize the practice recommendations
  • How are these recommendations similar to or different from those contained in your textbook or those currently practiced in your clinical setting?
  • Choose a clinical topic and design a search strategy for searching an online database such as CINAHL or MEDLINE. Reflect on your search strategy, for example, what search terms did you initially use, what new terms did you discover as you searched, how did you limit/refine your search?