Find - Evidence-Based Physical Therapy - Guides at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

2) Find -- How to Find the Best Evidence

Steps in a Good Search

Construct the question (see previous section).
Select the best resource (see Resources for some places to start).
Formulate the search strategy.

Think about the keywords for each part of the clinical question:

For the question: Is prophylactic physical therapy for patients undergoing upper abdominal surgery effective in preventing post-operative pulmonary complications?

A search strategy might include:

Parts of the Question	Clinical Scenario	Search Strategy (keywords)
Patient Population	patients undergoing upper abdominal surgery	upper abdominal surgery
Intervention	prophylactic physical therapy	prophylactic physical therapy
Comparison (if any)	Selective prophylactic physical therapy	none
Outcome	post-operative pulmonary complications	pulmonary complications
Type of Study	RCT	randomized controlled trial