Biomaterial Database

Enhancing evidence-based practice--a controlled vocabulary for nursing practice and research. 2003

Kaija Saranto, and Marianne Tallberg

Department of Health Policy and Management, University of Kuopio, P.O. Box 1627, FIN-70211 Kuopio, Finland. kaija.saranto@uku.fi

Evidence-based practice requires flexible systems for information retrieval. Search processes in electronic databases must be based on terms, which are familiar to professionals and describe accurately the problem to be solved. The paper describes the process of evolving a controlled nursing vocabulary for indexing and information retrieval purposes. The vocabulary is based on terms of the Medline thesaurus the medical subject headings (MeSH) by National Library of Medicine and the International Classification for Nursing Practice by the International Council of Nurses. The created vocabulary consists of 10 themes central to nursing domain. The content was compiled using Delphi technique. The expert panel had four rounds and at the first stage the vocabulary consists of 558 terms. The validity of the vocabulary has been tested for indexing nursing research and based on the validation the expert panel has made some changes for the hierarchy and content. The vocabulary will be added as an independent theme to the Finnish thesaurus the FinMeSH.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D003697	Delphi Technique	An iterative questionnaire designed to measure consensus among individual responses. In the classic Delphi approach, there is no interaction between responder and interviewer.	Delphi Method,Delphi Studies,Delphi Technic,Delphi Methods,Delphi Study,Delphi Technics,Delphi Techniques,Method, Delphi,Methods, Delphi,Studies, Delphi,Study, Delphi,Technic, Delphi,Technics, Delphi,Technique, Delphi,Techniques, Delphi
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D015400	Clinical Nursing Research	Research carried out by nurses in the clinical setting and designed to provide information that will help improve patient care. Other professional staff may also participate in the research.	Clinical Practice Nursing Research,Nursing Research, Clinical,Research, Clinical Nursing,Clinical Research, Nursing,Nursing Clinical Research,Research, Nursing Clinical
D016208	Databases, Factual	Extensive collections, reputedly complete, of facts and data garnered from material of a specialized subject area and made available for analysis and application. The collection can be automated by various contemporary methods for retrieval. The concept should be differentiated from DATABASES, BIBLIOGRAPHIC which is restricted to collections of bibliographic references.	Databanks, Factual,Data Banks, Factual,Data Bases, Factual,Data Bank, Factual,Data Base, Factual,Databank, Factual,Database, Factual,Factual Data Bank,Factual Data Banks,Factual Data Base,Factual Data Bases,Factual Databank,Factual Databanks,Factual Database,Factual Databases
D016247	Information Storage and Retrieval	Organized activities related to the storage, location, search, and retrieval of information.	Information Retrieval,Data Files,Data Linkage,Data Retrieval,Data Storage,Data Storage and Retrieval,Information Extraction,Information Storage,Machine-Readable Data Files,Data File,Data File, Machine-Readable,Data Files, Machine-Readable,Extraction, Information,Files, Machine-Readable Data,Information Extractions,Machine Readable Data Files,Machine-Readable Data File,Retrieval, Data,Storage, Data
D018875	Vocabulary, Controlled	A specified list of terms with a fixed and unalterable meaning, and from which a selection is made when CATALOGING; ABSTRACTING AND INDEXING; or searching BOOKS; JOURNALS AS TOPIC; and other documents. The control is intended to avoid the scattering of related subjects under different headings (SUBJECT HEADINGS). The list may be altered or extended only by the publisher or issuing agency. (From Harrod's Librarians' Glossary, 7th ed, p163)	Controlled Vocabulary,Thesaurus,Controlled Thesauri,Controlled Thesaurus,Thesauri,Controlled Vocabularies,Thesauri, Controlled,Thesaurus, Controlled,Vocabularies, Controlled
D019317	Evidence-Based Medicine	An approach of practicing medicine with the goal to improve and evaluate patient care. It requires the judicious integration of best research evidence with the patient's values to make decisions about medical care. This method is to help physicians make proper diagnosis, devise best testing plan, choose best treatment and methods of disease prevention, as well as develop guidelines for large groups of patients with the same disease. (from JAMA 296 (9), 2006)	Medicine, Evidence-Based,Evidence Based Medicine,Medicine, Evidence Based