Searching Databases
PICOT Question
Among the geriatric inpatients (P), is hand washing with soap and water (I) associated with the adoption of hand sanitizers (C) enhance the decrease of Hospital Acquired Infection (HAIs) cases (O) with a period span of 90 days (T)?
Search
The search terms used include hand sanitizers, hospital-acquired infections, and inpatient geriatrics as well as hand washing. Among the databases used constitute EBSCO, CINAHL, and Medline. The databases, as mentioned earlier, offered both systematic reviews and unique research articles. The research was restricted to journals within the past five years, which is between 2016 to date. The search was guided with the significance of the article concerning the research questions as related to the topic under inquiry (Walden University Library., 2019). Besides, the search through adopting the Boolean operators transformed my search significantly. It expanded the articles offered in categories of their relevance and minimized the number of records reverted. It also facilitated the achievement of adequate and appropriate results; hence time-effective and better results were also realized. Irrelevant articles were eliminated as well.
Strategies
To improve the efficiency and consistency of the search databases, the use of Boolean operators was paramount. As such, it improved convenience and guided search to the wanted relevant outcome. Additionally, it adopts phrase searching which employ numerous terms that escalate the search surface areas on grounds of researchers’ expectations. Through the implementation search using relate articles feature, similar research articles were enhanced (Ho et al., 2016). However, restricting search to a certain range of time help in returning contemporary searches. Similarly, searching using multiple databases intensifies the many other searches.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Hospital Acquired Infections is a contemporary clinical issue that has taken a tragic toll in many areas of the globe. Over 2 million incidences of HAIs are witnessed annually. Notwithstanding, nearly 100000 death cases resulting from HAIs are experienced yearly (Sharma, 2018). It is important to note that such extreme cases can be averted through improving hand hygiene. Hence, the topic under study is crucial.
References
Ho, G. J., Liew, S. M., Ng, C. J., Hisham Shunmugam, R., & Glasziou, P. (2016). Development of a search strategy for an evidence based retrieval service. PloS one, 11(12), e0167170. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0167170.
Sharma, S. (2018). Hand hygiene and hospital-acquired infections. Medical Journal of Dr. DY Patil Vidyapeeth, 11(3), 201. http://www.mjdrdypv.org/text.asp?2018/11/3/201/235563.
Walden University Library. (2019). Keyword searching: Finding articles on your topic: Boolean terms. Retrieved from http://academicguides.waldenu.edu/library/keyword/boolean.