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Information skills to support literature searching

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As healthcare workers you make decisions based on evidence. Whether you are presenting arguments in an assignment, discussing changing practice, researching a new intervention or deciding on the best patient care, you need the best evidence to help you.

To find the best evidence you need to use your information skills, so that you can gather the best information as efficiently and effectively as possible. Developing a literature search plan will remind you of the steps to follow and help you to be systematic in your searching.

We can help you to develop your skills and set you on the right path to completing your literature search, to find the information you need.

nurse reading an article he has found

Try these tutorials to get started with literature searching:

1. Complete our tutorial Introduction to Literature Searching. Follow these steps to start your literature search plan. Print out your completed plan at the end.

2. Save a template Search Plan. Use this plan to prompt you to think about your search terms when you need to search for information.

3. Download and update this Literature Searching Overview and Action Plan to remind you of the steps you need to consider when you start to search for information.

4. Complete our tutorial Literature Searching Flashcards whenever you want a quick refresh of the literature searching steps to follow to create your plan.

5. Listen to the Study Matters podcast. Get hints and tips on good literature searching from a member of the librarian team.

More eTutorials

Find all our online tutorials on the Information Skills web page on the Health Library website.

More help

Contact the Health Library if you need any help finding the information you need. 

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