Scenario 1: Fish Oil 

Fish oil is consumed by millions of Australians as a remedy for arthritis. Peggy is a 65 year old  lady who has degenerative osteoarthritis in her knees. Her friend Edith from the bowls club  says that she has started taking fish oil and has noticed that her arthritis has really improved.  Peggy is keen to try anything that would help to relieve her arthritis but would like to know if  there is any real evidence to support her taking fish oil. Peggy doesn't have a lot of extra money  to spend buying expensive fish oil capsules. 

Clinical Question: 

In older women with osteoarthritis is fish oil an effective treatment option?

Scenario 2: Green Tea 

Green Tea has been used for medicinal purposes in Asia for thousands of years. Current claims  of the benefits of green tea include improving mental alertness, relieving digestive symptoms  and headaches, promoting weight loss and as a preventative measure for heart disease and  cancer. Krishna is a 25 year old whose family has a history of cancer. She has previously  consumed normal (black) tea and wants to know if there is any evidence about the preventative  value in drinking green tea to prevent cancer. 

Clinical Question: In young women will drinking green tea prevent cancer compared to  drinking black tea? 

Scenario 3: Silver Dressings  

You are required to make a house call (as a student paramedic or student community nurse) to  a young 21 year old male, Billy who has a history of motor vehicle accident (MVA). He has a  number of significant wounds following the MVA. He has called because his temperature is  above normal, he has signs of fever and one of his wounds is red and is malodourous. Whilst  undertaking a physical assessment Billy asks you about a news article he read discussing the  effects of Manuka honey and silver dressings. You are uncertain how to answer Billy at this time  so you decide when you get home to undertake a structured search for evidence. 

Clinical Question: What is the effectiveness of silver dressings compared to Manuka honey in  young men following traumatic injury?

Introduction

The PICO search for the research question requires execution with the utilization of databases attributing to PubMed or CINAHL. Search strategies executed while effectively combining various search terms in the context of exploring the effectiveness of anticancer properties of green tea and black tea for their comparative analysis.  PubMed database utilizes Boolean operators for conducting the structured, evidence-based analysis (NCBI, 2017). Numerous search terms require searching while selecting the category attributing to Medical Subject Headings. The initial search term included Green Tea/Black Tea followed by the term “Cancer” selected under the sub-heading “diagnosis” for retrieving the desirable result. The evidence-based analysis resulted in the conclusion attributing to the efficacy of green tea in terms of reducing the progression and establishment of young female patients.

Databases for searching the evidence

Databases that require utilization for conducting this research analysis attribute to NCBI (NCBI, 2017a) and CINAHL (CINAHL, 2017). PubMed database is well known for undertaking structured research analysis in the context of its association with the Cochrane database, NIH (National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute), NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) and AHRQ (PubMed, 2017). The Boolean variables utilized while conducting articles search in PubMed gives a range of results and relevant findings in accordance with the search terms combinations utilized while undertaking the evidence-based analysis. Articles of interest require retrieval through Medical Subject Headings as well as e-journals. However, CINAHL database contains research articles related to the nursing domain as well as allied health literature. Therefore, this database requires utilization in the context of performing research analysis related to nursing interventions (EBSCO-HEALTH, 2017). In the presented analysis, PubMed database was utilized for performing structured research effectively while channelling search terms through Medical Subject Headings. The research analysis excluded the articles from before the year 2010 and included research studies conducted between 2010 and 2017.    

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