My PICOT question was, ‘In children, how does haloperidol compare to ziprasidone in treating psychosis symptoms?’ (Melynk & Fineout-Overholt). I started with CINAHL Plus with Full-Text database (Walden University Library). I was using the Boolean operators of ‘and’ putting in my key words: children, haloperidol, ziprasidone (Library of Congress). It resulted in 10 different peer-reviewed articles. I changed ‘children’ to mental health, resulting in 1 article from the CINAHL Plus with full-text database (Walden University Library). I then searched for the APA PsycInfo database with the same Boolean operator words and came up with 15 articles (Walden University Library). I changed the name ‘children’ to psychosis, which resulted in 26 articles under the APA PsycInfo database (Walden University Library).
I felt like I had a pretty strong PICOT question. I would probably search more databases and leave the word children out since it was pretty specific, and looking through the results only found 5 total that resulted in titles with the name children in them. I also changed the word ‘children’ to ‘kids’ and had no results in the CINAHL Plus database (Walden University Library). One strategy I could use to increase the effectiveness of my database search would be to change my PICOT question to just one medication, then research them individually and compare them. I would have two different PICOT questions, ‘In children, how does haloperidol treat psychosis symptoms?’ and ‘In children, how does ziprasidone treat psychosis symptoms?’ I could also use ‘or’ instead of ‘and’ for my Boolean operators (Library of Congress).
Library of Congress. (n.d.). Search/browse help-Boolean operators and nesting. Retrieved on June 23, 2020 from https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/ui/en_US/htdocs/help/searchBoolean.html
Melnyk, B. M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2018). Evidence-based practice in nursing & healthcare: A guide to best practice (4th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer.
Walden University Library. (n.d.). Databases A-Z: Nursing. Retrieved on June 23, 2020 from https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/az.php?s=19981
