What is a literature review?
A literature review is a summary and evaluation of the significant research that has been published on a topic. It’s organized in a way that shows the relationship between studies, as well as the way each has contributed to an understanding of the topic. A review article is a literature review that has been published in a journal. Research articles also contain a mini-literature review, often found in the article’s introduction or in a section titled “literature review.”
PICO is an excellent method for framing your research. PICO is
P - Patient, Population, or Problem
I - Intervention
C - Comparison/Control
O - Outcome
To find evidence based research articles and to answer clinical questions in the PICO format (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) you can use the following limiters:
In CINAHL (Advanced Search):
Limit to Evidence-Based Practice
Limit to Publication Type - Systematic Review
Limit to Special Interest – EBP
Limit to Clinical Queries
Search CINAHL Headings for the terms Meta Analysis and Systematic Review
In PubMed (Advanced Search)
Limit to Type of Article – Meta-Analysis
Limit to Subsets – Topics – Systematic Reviews
Limit to Queries – Clinical then Search by Clinical Study category and or Find Systematic Reviews