Sepsis Article Selected for Discussion

Order Instructions

Write an essay regarding reaction on the essay below and offering suggestions/strategies for working with this database from your own experience, or offering ideas for using alternative resources.

ESSAY: Sepsis Article Selected for Discussion

This student works within a trauma one Neurology Critical Care Unit (NCCU) that treats traumatically and medically injured patients. While working in the NCCU, it has been observed that sepsis continues to be a common complication even after implementing sepsis identification protocols. Because of this continued issue, in critically injured patients, it was determined that an article about sepsis detection would be appropriate. The chosen article was the “Implementation of a MEWS-Sepsis screening tool: Transformational outcomes of a nurse-led evidence-based practice project” (Roney et al., 2019, p. 144). The Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS) has been in use for over two years in the NCCU; however, sepsis continues to develop in critically ill patients. Because critically ill patients tend to develop sepsis, it becomes necessary to investigate modifications to the MEWS detection abilities to identify systemic infections better.

Database

Finding the perfect database is one of the most challenging tasks besides searching. Throughout the searching process for the MEWS article, databases in nursing, medicine, education, and life sciences were reviewed. Most databases used to search could not locate sepsis articles meeting appropriate requirements and generalization. However, MEDLINE with full text, could locate the MEWS article and other similar articles. MEDLINE full text contains millions of journal articles in life sciences and biomedical sciences (Walden University Library, n.d.-a). Considering that the development and implementation of a screening tool have biomedical components, it is surprising that many other databases in the medical sciences were unable to produce the MEWS article and articles like it.

Difficulty

The difficulty in locating articles within the database was associated with database type and limiting filters. Boolean terms provided the most frustrating complexities throughout the search because of their search filters. Boolean terms such as And, Or, and Not provide a means of limiting information, so only relevant articles are provided. The term Not screens out unwanted literature material while And and Or increases results (Walden University Library, n.d.-b). Using Boolean terms is difficult, but making sure that entered information is in a broad form can help increase relevant literature searches. Likewise, by using broad terms in the search menu, the database can look for a more extensive selection of journals allowing for a more productive search result. The search for sepsis identification tool articles required broad terms such as sepsis, nursing, screening tools, tool, identification, MEWS, infection, systemic infection, and septicemia. In short, if a student understands how Boolean terms function, they will have an easier time locating article relevant to their search.

Recommendation and usefulness to colleagues

Considering the search results discovered, this student finds the database useful to other students and would recommend its use. As mentioned in a previous paragraph, the MEDLINE full text database has biomedical and life science articles. All areas of nursing have biomedical and life science components that should relate to articles within the database. This student is not saying that this database contains every article possible but that out of the vast volume of articles that exist within it, a nursing student should be able to find some information pertaining to a topic. MEDLINE full text demonstrated an excellent ability to locate journals about screening tools and patient assessment research throughout the sepsis identification tool search. Searches in this database provided 25 to 35 journals on each search; however, some articles, as expected, were not valuable and were ignored. All databases provide some articles that cannot be used. However, out of the searches conducted in this discussion, MEDLINE full text provided a substantial wealth of research compared to ProQuest One Academic, Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature and includes peer-reviewed articles (CINAHL), and ScienceDirect.

References

Walden University Library. (n.d.a). Databases A-Z: Nursing. Retrieved March 22, 2022 from

https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/az.php?s=19981

Walden University Library. (n.d.b). Keyword searching: Finding articles on your topic:

Connect keywords. Retrieved March 22, 2022 from https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/library/keyword/boolean

Rony, J. K., Whitley, B. E., & Long, J. D. (2019). Implementation of a MEWS-Sepsis

screening tool: Transformational outcomes of a nurse-led evidence-based practice project. Nursing Forum an Independent Voice for Nursing, 55(2), 144-148. https://doi.org/10.1111/nuf.12408