Module 2 Question 1

The clinical topic of my choice was obtaining information on Critical Access Hospitals and Medicare funding. The electronic index that I chose was PubMed. After completing the tutorial (in addition to the course taught by Jean LeBer), I was able to develop a decent search strategy to obtain oodles of information. Based upon the vast amount of information available, it was necessary to really narrow the search using several limits and dates. PubMed, once I used it a few times, has become easier; however, it is somewhat overwhelming initially. Even to narrow my subject and search information, I had to repeat sections of the tutorial. Now that I have utilized it several times, I feel that it is an easy index to search. One problem that I have found in obtaining information is that I am unable to obtain text articles on all of the references. Articles that are not available can be requested---which has been extremely helpful--but, to use in a daily practice one would need the information immediately. I have realized that I am able to obtain more articles using the University account than I can individually. So, to sum it up, it was somewhat difficult to learn but now that I know what a search entails and how to retrieve various articles, I feel that it is a necessary index to use.