[enzati]

I am a pediatric nurse who is about to begin my second quarter as a clinical instructor. It is an 2-year RN program, and most of the students know very little (if at all) about research-based practice, and the college does very little teaching about it. So basically I spent a lot of my first quarter as an instructor telling people that using "web-MD" as a resource for their information about diagnoses and treatment was not appropriate. This quarter I'd like to be a little bit more pro-active with my students by providing them a list of sites that are more appropriate. I remember using sites such as Cinahl and medline for abstracts/full-texts for research articles, but what web sites are appropriate for information regarding diagnoses/treatment? Sometimes their textbooks just do not provide enough information. (our clinicals take place on a pediatric cardiology floor, which obviously makes for somewhat rare diagnoses). I just want them to understand that typing in the diagnosis on "Yahoo" and pulling info from the first website they come to will not work and may lead to the wrong information. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated!!

-Jaime

[classicdame]

the one site I refer to frequently is www.guidelines.gov. If the nurse understands what current guidelines are, then the nurse can anticipate treatment modalitites. Also would be able to educate patients better. Each topic gives references which can lead you to many directions.

[llg]

Have you talked with your school's librarian? Your school may have some links or contracts with companies such as CINAHL that the students could use for free.

BTW -- I totally approve of what you are trying to do. It's disgraceful how many students are graduating today unaware of the difference between a legitimate refereed professional journal and Wikipedia. We need more instructors like you.