How do you approach a complex search?
Start
simple
Exploratory searches are great for identifying keywords and building knowledge.
An exploratory search is a quick, simple version of your search. You are trying to find relevant literature, search terms and authors.
Plan &
Document
Plan before you start and document as you go.
The level of planning is up to you. But, as searching is an iterative process, we suggest to record what you have done.
The steps below show how to plan a search.
You can follow these steps in order, however the search process is iterative, steps are returned to and modified.
The relationship between moral distress and burnout
in frontline workers during COVID-19
CONCEPT 1
moral distress
CONCEPT 2
burnout
CONCEPT 3
frontline workers
CONCEPT 4
covid-19
They can have a similar meaning (alternative terms) or be related concepts (broader terms or narrower terms).
CONCEPT 1
moral distress
CONCEPT 2
burnout
disengagement
CONCEPT 3
frontline workers
nurses
doctors
paramedics
CONCEPT 4
covid-19
SARS-CoV-2
pandemic
OR
terms relating to the same concept
(doctors OR nurses)
AND
join concepts together
(doctors OR nurses AND moral distress)
phrase
words in exact order
((doctors OR nurses) AND "moral distress")
We can apply OR to connect keywords and AND to connect concepts to our table.
CONCEPT 1
moral distress
CONCEPT 2
burnout
OR
disengagement
CONCEPT 3
frontline workers
OR
nurses
OR
doctors
OR
paramedics
CONCEPT 4
covid-19
OR
SARS-CoV-2
OR
pandemic
Truncation searches for variation of word endings.
TRUNCATION
same word,
different ending
frontline worker*
= frontline worker, frontline workers
Useful for:
pandemic* = pandemic, pandemics
pandem* = pandemic, pandemics, pandemonium
pand* = pandemic, pandemics, pandemonium, pander, pandering, panda, pandan, pandanus
If truncation is bringing back irrelevant results, you can search for all the variations directly.
For further examples and activities see the tutorial on this guide.
Proximity searching is based on how closely two or more search terms appear in the results.
PROXIMITY
words within a
specific number
frontline ADJ3 worker
=
frontline workers
workers on the frontline
frontline health care workers
Note: ADJ is used in Ovid databases, check other database for correct letters
Useful for:
Proximity not working as hoped?
If proximity searching is back irrelevant results, you can
For further examples and activities see the tutorial on this guide.
Watch this video (4 minutes) for an beginners overview of subject headings.
For further instructions and activities on Subject Headings see the tutorial on this guide.
Search string
Applying all steps to our table we can create a single search string.
We need to use round brackets to show the databases what to keep together.
"moral distress" AND (burnout OR disengagement) AND ((frontline adj3 worker*) OR doctor* OR nurse* OR paramedic*) AND ("covid 19" OR "SARS-CoV-2" OR pandemic)
Line-by-line search
Although we can use this search string directly in the search box, for Advanced searching we generally take a line-by-line approach for more control.
Each database works slightly differently, but the principles are the same. Each search term is numbered and you join together keywords within a concept using OR (see line 4 below), and concepts with AND (see line 14 below).
1. "moral distress"
2. burnout
3. disengagement
4. 2 OR 3
5. (frontline adj3 worker*)
6. nurse*
7. doctor*
8. paramedic*
9. 5 OR 6 OR 7 OR 8
10. "covid 19"
11. pandemic
12. "SARS-CoV-2"
13. 10 OR 11 OR 12
14. 1 AND 4 AND 9 AND 13
Watch this video (3 minutes) for line-by-line searching in Ovid, and how to troubleshoot unexpected results.