Searching PubMed

This tutorial will walk you through finding evidence to answer your educational question in PubMed.

Accessing PubMed

Always access PubMed from the Library's website so you'll get Duke's version of PubMed (including links to our full text access and our customized filters).

Identifying Concepts

Our search question is:

Does high-fidelity simulation improve teamwork skills of nurses?

Our main concepts are shown in bold.

Searching for 1st Concept

Let's determine the subject heading for simulation.

Unlike CINAHL and ERIC, PubMed automatically maps you to medical subject headings when you search.

-> Type simulation in the search box and click Search.

Searching for 1st Concept

-> Scroll down your results page to find the Search details box on the right side of the page.

You'll see PubMed searched for our term simulation as the Journal by that same name and in All Fields of the PubMed record (like author, title, abstract...not in the full text of the article).

It did not search simulation as a MeSH term. We can tell because it does not have "simulation"[MeSH].

Searching for 1st Concept

PubMed is not always perfect at automatic mapping! So let's find the medical subject heading.

-> Using the drop-down menu, change PubMed to MeSH. This is similar to searching CINAHL Headings or the Thesaurus in ERIC.

-> Click Search.

Searching for 1st Concept

This brings you to a list of possible medical subject headings that contain the word simulation. 

-> Note there is a term for high fidelity simulation training! Click it to view its MeSH record.

Interestingly, the record says this term was introduced in 2017, and it was previously indexed under Simulation Training.

Note that this term falls under Education, and more specifically, Simulation Training.

Searching for 1st Concept

 -> Click Add to search builder and then Search PubMed.

Searching for 1st Concept

As of December 19, 2016, there are only 5 articles that have been indexed with this new MeSH term.

Let's add our keywords to increase the result set.

-> Type OR simulation OR simulations next to the current search and click Search.

The result set now includes subject and keyword terms for our first concept.

Searching for 2nd Concept

We will repeat these steps for our second concept of teamwork.

-> Type teamwork and click Search.

-> Scroll down to check the Search details box.

Searching for 2nd Concept

Since PubMed did not automatically map us to a term, let's check MeSH.

-> Change the drop-down menu from PubMed to Mesh.

-> Click Search.

The only result is Crew Resource Management, Healthcare, which does not seem to fit our scenario. We can give up or try something else.

Searching for 2nd Concept

Let's try team!

-> Change teamwork to team and click Search.

-> Peruse the results and click Nursing, Team.

-> Note that we could click Patient Care Team, which is above Nursing, Team in the hierarchy or we could add this more specific term. Make the choice you want and click Add to search builder and then Search PubMed.

Searching for 2nd Concept

Time for keywords!

-> Type OR teamwork OR team OR teams to the current search and click Search.

The result set now includes subject and keyword terms for our second concept.

Searching for 3rd Concept

Let's see if PubMed maps to our concept of Nurses. Third time's a charm, right?

-> Clear the search box.

-> Type Nurses and click Search.

-> Scroll down to the Search details box.

Success! 

Note that the search now has the MeSH term Nurses and nurses as a keyword but does not contain the singular form nurse.

-> Add OR nurse to the search box and click Search.

The result set now includes subject and keyword terms for our third concept.

Putting It All Together

Now we need to combine all of our concepts and see what our result set looks like. To do so:

-> Click Advanced under the search box.

You are now viewing your search history.

Putting It All Together

-> Click Add in front of the complete search for each concept until you see all three concepts in the Search Builder.

Putting It All Together

-> Click Search.

Yikes! That's a lot of results to go through! Let's narrow our search.

Remember that our MeSH term for simulation included high fidelity but our keywords did not. Let's add it in now.

-> Clear the search box.

-> Type "high fidelity" OR high-fidelity and click Search.

-> Click Advanced. Add this high fidelity search and the previous search and click Search.

That's better!

Limiting Results

We can continue to narrow results by applying limits. 

-> Limit by publication date by clicking 5 years on the left side.

-> Limit to English by clicking Show additional filters, checking the Languages box, and then clicking English to apply the limit.

-> Limit to Systematic Reviews on the right side or use the Article types limit on the left to select study types of interest.

Adjusting Searches

To narrow or broaden searches, use your result set. Choose several articles that seem relevant to you.

-> Click on a relevant title.

-> Read the title and abstract, noting possible terms to add to your search.

-> If the article has been indexed, you'll be able to click on Publication Types, MeSH Terms to see how the article was indexed.

For example, one article was indexed with the MeSH term Manikins. Adding this term to our simulation concept would broaden our search.

Accessing Full Text

When you are ready to access the full text, simply click the get it @ Duke button on the right side of an article's abstract.

The End

You have successfully completed the Searching PubMed tutorial!

If you have questions or need help searching PubMed, contact Jamie Conklin at jamie.conklin@duke.edu or at 919.660.1120. Alternatively, contact Duke Medical Center Library & Archives at 919.660.1100.