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Training for Preceptors

Search Tips

Search Tips

When searching Point of Care questions, or when looking for drug research; start with simple Keyword Searches - simply enter the name of the drug or condition in the search box.

When searching clinical research databases, like PubMed, form questions by combining multiple search terms using AND OR and NOT (known as Boolean operators).

For many clinical questions, forming a search query using the PICO(S) acronym will get you the best results.

P - Population or Patient       
I - Intervention
C - Comparison 
O - Outcome
S - Study type 

Often, searching using P and I is most effective e.g.  

Is ginger effective in relieving nausea in pregnant people?

P: pregnant people with nausea

I: ginger

Search query:   ginger AND pregnant AND nausea