A wide range of information resources are available to all NHS staff. Guides link to guides to searching the databases are available online, alternatively you can book an appointment with the Clinical Information Specialist who will guide you through the search process using the appropriate resources.

NHS Evidence Databases
Other Databases
Fulltext Journal Collections

Looking for Systematic Reviews
Looking for Randomised Controlled Trials
Looking for Guidelines
Looking for Evidence Based Synopses
Looking for Critical Appraisal Resources

NHS Evidence Databases
NHS Evidence provide access to a range of healthcare databases. A NHS Athens account is required to use some of these databases. To register for a NHS Athens account click here. For a reminder of your NHS Athens account details contact the Library helpdesk on 0151 529 5851.

• Medline with full text
  Make the most of an additional 600 journal titles available via Medline with full text. Aintree Library has just purchased this database so you can start using it now! Advantages of accessing Medline with full text over PubMed include:
• Increased access to full text articles available once you have logged in with your NHS Athens account
• Medline with full text has 600 titles as part of the database but you will also be able to link directly to the 3,000 online journals the Aintree Library subscribes to
To access Medline with full text go to www.evidence.nhs.uk, select Journals and Databases, choose the 'simple search' or 'advanced search' under Healthcare Databases Advanced Search and select the Medline database. For more assistance please see the LIRC blog pages.
• Embase (NHS Athens required)
  A major biomedical and pharmaceutical database, focusing specifically on drug research, pharmacology and pharmaceutics.
• CINAHL (NHS Athens required)
  Covers all aspects of nursing and allied health fields.
• PsychInfo (NHS Athens required)
  Extensive international coverage of the literature on psychology and allied fields.
• British Nursing Index (BNI) (NHS Athens required)
  Indexes nursing, midwifery and community healthcare journals with a UK focus.
• Health Management Information Consortium (HMIC) (NHS Athens required)
  Includes all Department of Health publications including circulars and press releases. Core subjects include health services management and administration, including policy, planning and finance, NHS management, social care, health inequalities, urban health and generation, race and health, partnership working, primary care, mental health, public involvement, and workforce development in the NHS.
• Health Business Elite (NHS Athens required)
  Covers areas of hospital management, hospital administration, marketing, human resources, computer technology, facilities management and insurance.
• Allied and Complementary Medicine (AMED) (NHS Athens required)
  Includes a selection of journals in complementary medicine, palliative care, and several professions allied to medicine.
• The Cochrane Library
  Consists of 6 databases including the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Other reviews (from the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects Centre for Reviews and Dissemination), Clinical Trials (Central), NHS Economic Evaluations, Health Technology Assessments.
• Bandolier
  Published monthly, Bandolier is an independent evidence-based healthcare journal summarising evidence on effectiveness. The site contains a useful Learning Zone covering research methods and medical statistics.
• Clinical Knowledge Summaries
  Concise evidence based summaries on how to manage around 500 clinical situations commonly encountered in primary care.
• BNF (NHS Athens required)
  Up-to-date online version of the BNF.
• UK Database of Uncertainties about the Effects of Treatments
  Publishes those patients' and clinicians' questions about the effects of treatments which cannot currently be answered reliably by referring to up-to-date systematic reviews of existing research
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Other Databases

• 123Doc
  123Doc is a medical publisher and education provider specialising in high quality online and blended learning courses for medical professionals including Foundation/Junior Doctors, medical students, allied healthcare professionals, GPs, Consultants and nurses.
• BestBETs
  A full-text collection of shortcut evidence-based reviews (BETs - best evidence topics) written by healthcare practitioners for healthcare practitioners answering everyday clinical questions with the evidence. Published, completed and incomplete BETs are searchable via the database. Critical appraisal database and resources are also available on this website.
• BMJ Case Reports
  BMJ Case Reports is an online community that enables junior doctors to take their first steps in having their case reports published. BMJ Case Reports also serve as a valuable reference tool, as it offers access to over 1, 500 articles, all of which have been peer reviewed and copy edited before publication.
• EPPI-Centre database of health promotion research
  The Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre (EPPI-Centre) is part of the Social Science Research Unit (SSRU), Institute of Education, University of London provides free access to 3 databases in the field of health promotion:

  BiblioMap, the EPPI-Centre database of health promotion research, has been compiled over a number of years as a result of searching and coding research for inclusion in systematic reviews. It contains approximately 13,000 records at present and is being added to each time a systematic review is completed.

  The Database of Promoting Health Effectiveness Reviews (DoPHER) is a specialised register concentrating on reviews. It currently contains over 1,700 reviews/

  The Trials Register of Promoting Health Interventions (TRoPHI) is a web-based database of randomised controlled trials and controlled trials (non-randomised) of Public Health and Health Promotion interventions. It currently contains over 2,300 trials.
• NHS Centre for Reviews & Dissemination
  CRD offer rigorous and systematic reviews on selected topics, a database of good quality reviews, a dissemination service and an information service that helps to promote research-based practice in the NHS
• OT Seeker
  OTseeker is a database that contains abstracts of systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials relevant to occupational therapy. Trials have been critically appraised and rated to assist you to evaluate their validity and interpretability. These ratings will help you to judge the quality and usefulness of trials for informing clinical interventions.
• PEDro
  PEDro is the Physiotherapy Evidence Database. It has been developed to give rapid access to bibliographic details and abstracts of randomised controlled trials, systematic reviews and evidence-based clinical practice guidelines in physiotherapy. Most trials on the database have been rated for quality to help you quickly discriminate between trials which are likely to be valid and interpretable and those that are not.
• SUMsearch
  SUMSearch allows the clinician to enter a query, and then will: select the best Internet sites to search, format the query for each site, execute contingency searches, then return a single document to the clinician.
• TRIP
  Search across EBP resources using the TRIP database. Currently searches over 111 different resources and separates the results into categories; Evidence-based, Guidelines, Query-answering, Medical images, E-books, Patient Information Leaflets, Peer-reviewed journals. NB TRIP relies on authors submitting links to them to add to the TRIP database, therefore it may not contain the most up-to-date evidence and original sources may need to be searched also.
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Fulltext Journal Collections

• Proquest (NHS Athens required)
  Full text access to an archive of over 850 medical, nursing, psychology and other clinical journals. You can search across the fulltext collection.
• InterNurse (NHS Athens required, SPCT users only)
  Fulltext access for SPCT staff to the following 13 journals British Journal of Cardiac Nursing, British Journal of Community Nursing, British Journal of Healthcare Assistants, British Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, British Journal of Nursing, British Journal of School Nursing, Gastrointestinal Nursing, International Journal of Palliative Nursing, Journal of Children's and Young People's Nursing, Journal of Renal Nursing, Journal of Wound Care, Nurse Prescribing, Nursing & Residential Care, Practice Nursing.
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Looking for Systematic Reviews/Meta-analysis

• The Cochrane Library
  The Cochrane Library contains 3 useful systematic review databases:
  • Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (Cochrane Reviews)
    Fulltext Cochrane Systematic Reviews (and protocols) undertaken by The Cochrane Collaboration
  • Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (Other reviews)
    Critically appraised summaries of other systematic reviews produced by the Centre for Reviews and Disseminations at the University of York.
  • Health Technology Assessments (HTA)
    Systematic reviews conducted as part of the HTA reports.
• NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (NHS CRD)
  The Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE) provides critically appraised summaries of other systematic reviews produced by the Centre for Reviews and Disseminations at the University of York.
• Campbell Collaboration
  The Campbell Collaboration database contains details of a small number of systematic reviews produced in the fields of education, crime and justice and social welfare.
• TRIP
  Search the TRIP (Turning Research into Practice) database and use the Systematic Reviews filter to locate.
• PEDro
  PEDro is the Physiotherapy Evidence Database. It has been developed to give rapid access to bibliographic details and abstracts of systematic reviews in physiotherapy.
• OT Seeker
  OT Seeker contains abstracts of systematic reviews relevant to occupational therapy.
• NHS Healthcare Databases (NHS Athens required)
  Use the Limit function in the Healthcare Databases or Thesaurus terms to locate systematic reviews and meta-analyses.
• Database of Uncertainties about the Effects of Treatments (UK DUETs)
  Contains information on the uncertainties about the effects of treatment which cannot currently be answered by referring to reliable up-to-date systematic reviews of existing research evidence.
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Looking for Randomised Controlled Trials

• The Cochrane Library
  The Cochrane Library contains 1 useful randomised controlled trials database:
  • Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (Clinical Trials)
    Bibliographic details for RCTs and other Controlled Clinical Trials collated from searching of the healthcare databases (Medline, Embase, etc) and other resources.
• PEDro
  PEDro is the Physiotherapy Evidence Database. It has been developed to give rapid access to bibliographic details and abstracts of randomised controlled trials in physiotherapy.
• OT Seeker
  OT Seeker contains abstracts of randomised controlled trials relevant to occupational therapy.
• The NHS Healthcare Databases (NHS Athens required)
  Some of the NHS Healthcare Databases allow you to search specifically for randomised controlled trials, or for clinical trials generally. Check the Limits section under Publication Type for Randomized Controlled Trials (Medline), check the Clinical Queries (Treatment) in Embase, PsychINFO and Medline.
• Current Controlled Trials
  A gateway to accessing a meta-register that contains records from over 20 registers in the UK and US, including the NHS Trusts Clinical Trials Register, and the UK Clinical Trials Gateway.
• Database of Uncertainties about the Effects of Treatments (UK DUETs)
  Contains information on the uncertainties about the effects of treatment which cannot currently be answered by referring to reliable up-to-date systematic reviews of existing research evidence.
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Looking for Guidelines

• National Library of Guidelines
  Collates UK guidelines from national institutions (NICE, SIGN, etc) and other professional organizations.
• NICE
  An independent organisation responsible for providing national guidance on promoting good health and preventing and treating ill health.
• PEDro
  PEDro is the Physiotherapy Evidence Database. It has been developed to give rapid access to bibliographic details and abstracts of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines in physiotherapy.
• SIGN
  The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) develops evidence based clinical practice guidelines for NHS Scotland.
• TRIP
  Search the TRIP (Turning Research into Practice) database and use the Guidelines filter to locate.
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Dont forget that you should also check your local healthcare organizational intranet. They will usually have guidelines for internal use. You will only be able to access these guidelines from the Intranet on a Organisational PC.

Looking for Evidence Based Synopses

• Bandolier
  Published monthly, Bandolier is an independent evidence-based healthcare journal summarising evidence on effectiveness. The site contains a useful Learning Zone covering research methods and medical statistics.
• BestBETs
  A full-text collection of shortcut evidence-based reviews (BETs - best evidence topics) written by healthcare practitioners for healthcare practitioners answering everyday clinical questions with the evidence. Published, completed and incomplete BETs are searchable via the database. Critical appraisal database and resources are also available on this website.
• Clinical Knowledge Summaries
  Concise evidence based summaries on how to manage around 500 clinical situations commonly encountered in primary care.
• TRIP
  Search the TRIP (Turning Research into Practice) database and use the Evidence Based Synopses filter to locate.
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Looking for Critical Appraisal Resources

Checklists

• CASP
  Concise checklists covering 7 study designs. Each checklist has between 10 and 12 questions on the strengths and weaknesses of the research. Useful for those new to critical appraisal as they prompt on what to look for in the paper in order to answer each question fully.
• BestBETs
  Cover more types of study designs than CASP but can be lengthy in parts (e.g. RCT has 29 questions). Useful for those at a more intermediate level of critical appraisal or those looking to submit a BestBET as critical appraisals can be linked into the evidence table of your topic. Includes a rating system of what you thought of the paper before appraisal and what you thought of it after appraisal. Examples of Critical Appraisals using these worksheets can also be viewed on this site.
• SIGN 50
  Five quantitative critical appraisal checklists developed by SIGN for use in their guideline development process. The checklists are divided into 3 sections looking at individual aspects of the study methodology, overall assessment of methodology and a summary of key findings.
• Glasgow University
  Adapted from the JAMA Users Guides and CASP checklists covering both quantitative and qualitative critical appraisal checklists includes a decision analysis checklist.
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Other critical appraisal resources

• Bandolier
  The Bandolier Learning Zone provides an overview of critical appraisal, research methodology and statistical terminology with examples.
• Behind the Headlines
  Behind the Headlines aims to analyse the research behind health stories published in the UK press to provide an impartial evidence based summary.
• BestBETs
  A collection of topic specific pre-appraised individual articles from BestBETs. Some of the appraisals link into published Best Evidence Topics (BETs). Articles are appraised using the checklists developed by the BestBETs team.
• DARE
  A database of critically appraised summaries of systematic reviews on the effectiveness of healthcare interventions prepared by the Centre of Reviews and Disseminations at the University of York.
• Occupational Therapy Critically Appraised Topics
  Contains Critically Appraised Topics on Occupational Therapy interventions.
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Resource Guides

• NHS Athens
• Accessing fulltext journal articles
• Library Catalogue
• Healthcare Databases (NHS Evidence)
• The Cochrane Library
• NHS Evidence
• InterNurse
• PubMed
• BMJ Learning
• 123Doc

Other Guides

• Finding Public Health Information

Information Skills, Critical Appraisal, Research Methodology and Statistics Guides
External links to e-learning guides

Referencing Guides

Resource Guide 1: NHS Athens [PDF]

Resource Guide 2: Accessing fulltext journal articles

Resource Guide 3: Library Catalogue - COMING SOON

Resource Guide 4: NHS Evidence - COMING SOON

Resource Guides 5: Healthcare Databases [PDF]

Other guides to searching the Healthcare Databases from NHS Evidence produced by the NLH Search 2.0 SHA Representatives group (2007/8) updated 2010 by the CIS.

• Searching the Healthcare Databases

Resource Guides 6: The Cochrane Library

Other guides to The Cochrane Library from Wiley InterScience

• The Cochrane Library Quick Reference Guide [PDF]
• The Cochrane Library User Guide [PDF]
• The Cochrane Library Online Tutorial

Resource Guide 7: InterNurse [PDF]

Resource Guides 8: PubMed

Other guides to PubMed from the National Library of Medicine

• PubMed Quick Tour
• PubMed Online Tutorial
• PubMed Quick Start

Resource Guide 9: BMJ Learning

Other guides from BMJ Learning

• BMJ User Guide

Resource Guide 10: 123Doc - COMING SOON

Other Guides: Finding Public Health Information
A list of key public health information resources produced by the North West Primary Care Librarians.

Public Health Resource [PDF]

Information Skills, Critical Appraisal, Research Methodology and Statistics Guides
From the University of Leicester Clinical Librarians online training guides:

• Principles of searching
• Critical Reading made easy
• Research Methods
• Introduction to Statistics

From Shrewsbury and Telford Health Libraries:

• Introduction to Critical Appraisal
• Making the most of Google
• Evaluating Websites [PDF]

From Health Libraries in Lincolnshire online:

• Searching Google effectively [PDF]

Referencing
From the University of Portsmouth an interactive referencing guide covering Harvard and Vancouver styles.

• Referencing@Portsmouth