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Biomedical subjects

Susan Kaplan Jacobs

Publications and source records attributed to Susan Kaplan Jacobs.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Mapping the literature of nursing: 1996-2000.

INTRODUCTION: This project is a collaborative effort of the Task Force on Mapping the Nursing Literature of the Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section of the Medical Library Association. This overview summarizes eighteen studies covering general nursing and sixteen specialties. METHOD: Following a common protocol, citations from source journals were analyzed for a three-year period within the years 1996 to 2000. Analysis included cited formats, age, and ranking of the frequency of cited journal titles. Highly cited journals were analyzed for coverage in twelve health sciences and academic databases. RESULTS: Journals were the most frequently cited format, followed by books. More than 60% of the cited resources were published in the previous seven years. Bradford's law was validated, with a small core of cited journals accounting for a third of the citations. Medical and science databases provided the most comprehensive access for biomedical titles, while CINAHL and PubMed provided the best access for nursing journals. DISCUSSION: Beyond a heavily cited core, nursing journal citations are widely dispersed among a variety of sources and disciplines, with corresponding access via a variety of bibliographic tools. Results underscore the interdisciplinary nature of the nursing profession. CONCLUSION: For comprehensive searches, nurses need to search multiple databases. Libraries need to provide access to databases beyond PubMed, including CINAHL and academic databases. Database vendors should improve their coverage of nursing, biomedical, and psychosocial titles identified in these studies. Additional research is needed to update these studies and analyze nursing specialties not covered.

Abstracting and Indexing↗

Mapping the literature of maternal-child/gynecologic nursing.

OBJECTIVES: As part of a project to map the literature of nursing, sponsored by the Nursing and Allied Health Resources Section of the Medical Library Association, this study identifies core journals cited in maternal-child/gynecologic nursing and the indexing services that access the cited journals. METHODS: Three source journals were selected and subjected to a citation analysis of articles from 1996 to 1998. RESULTS: Journals were the most frequently cited format (74.1%), followed by books (19.7%), miscellaneous (4.2%), and government documents (1.9%). Bradford's Law of Scattering was applied to the results, ranking cited journal references in descending order. One-third of the citations were found in a core of 14 journal titles; one-third were dispersed among a middle zone of 100 titles; and the remaining third were scattered in a larger zone of 1,194 titles. Indexing coverage for the core titles was most comprehensive in PubMed/MEDLINE, followed by Science Citation Index and CINAHL. CONCLUSION: The core of journals cited in this nursing specialty revealed a large number of medical titles, thus, the biomedical databases provide the best access. The interdisciplinary nature of maternal-child/ gynecologic nursing topics dictates that social sciences databases are an important adjunct. The study results will assist librarians in collection development, provide end users with guidelines for selecting databases, and influence database producers to consider extending coverage to identified titles.

Abstracting and Indexing↗

Continuing education as a catalyst for inter-professional collaboration.

Do nurses have access to the tools and resources they need for evidence-based practice? Are librarians prepared to work with nurses to provide access to appropriate resources and services, and teach the needed information literacy skills? The authors work with professional library and nursing organizations to present interdisciplinary continuing education to improve the information literacy of nurses and the ability of librarians to provide resources and services that meet nurses' information needs. This article reviews behavioral and practice changes reported by nurses and librarian participants in symposia on evidence-based nursing in March 2001 and May 2003.

Computer Literacy↗

Information literacy as the foundation for evidence-based practice in graduate nursing education: a curriculum-integrated approach.

As part of a system-wide initiative to advance evidence-based practice among clinicians, graduate students, and educators, the New York University Division of Nursing embarked on a curricular initiative to integrate components of information literacy in all core courses of the master's program. Increasing competency in information literacy is the foundation for evidence-based practice and provides nursing professionals with the skills to be literate consumers of information in an electronic environment. Competency in information literacy includes an understanding of the architecture of information and the scholarly process; the ability to navigate among a variety of print and electronic tools to effectively access, search, and critically evaluate appropriate resources; synthesize accumulated information into an existing body of knowledge; communicate research results clearly and effectively; and appreciate the social issues and ethical concerns related to the provision, dissemination, and sharing of information. In collaboration with the New York University Division of Libraries' Health Sciences Librarian, instructional modules in information literacy relevant to each of the 5 core nursing master's courses were developed, complemented by a Web-based tutorial: http://library.nyu.edu/research/health/tutorial. The Web site is multifaceted, with fundamentals for the beginner, as well as more complex content for the advanced user. Course assignments were designed to promote specific competencies in information literacy and strategies for evaluating the strength of the evidence found. A survey of information literacy competencies, which assessed students' knowledge, misconceptions, and use of electronic information resources, was administered when students entered the program and at 1-year intervals thereafter.

Computer Literacy↗