Factors associated with successful answering of clinical questions using an information retrieval system

• Published in: Bulletin of the Medical Library Association Vol. 88; no. 4; pp. 323 - 331
• Main Authors: HERSH, William R, CRABTREE, M. Katherine, HICKAM, David H, SACHEREK, Lynetta, ROSE, Linda, FRIEDMAN, Charles P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chicago, IL Medical Library Association 01.10.2000
• Subjects: Adult; Analysis of Variance; Attitude; Clinical Medicine; Cognition; Computer Literacy; Data Interpretation, Statistical; Doctors; Exact sciences and technology; Female; Humans; Information and communication sciences; Information processing and retrieval; Information retrieval. Man machine relationship; Information science. Documentation; Information seeking behaviour; Information Systems - utilization; Library and information science. General aspects; Male; Medicine; MEDLINE; Nurse Practitioners - education; Nurses; Online information retrieval; Personality; Research process. Evaluation; Sciences and techniques of general use; Searching; Students; Students, Medical; Students, Nursing; Surveys and Questionnaires; Use and user studies. Information needs; User surveys; Medicine; Information system; Biomedical information; User study; Information retrieval; Bibliographic database; Student; Effectiveness factor; User behavior
• ISSN: 0025-7338

Despite the growing use of online databases by clinicians, there has been very little research documenting how effectively they are used. This study assessed the ability of medical and nurse-practitioner students to answer clinical questions using an information retrieval system. It also attempted to identify the demographic, experience, cognitive, personality, search mechanics, and user-satisfaction factors associated with successful use of a retrieval system. Twenty-nine students completed questionnaires of clinical and computer experience as well as tests of cognitive abilities and personality type. They were then administered three clinical questions to answer in a medical library setting using the MEDLINE database and electronic and print full-text resources. Medical students were able to answer more questions correctly than nurse-practitioner students before and after searching, but both had comparable improvements in the number of correct questions before and after searching. Successful ability to answer questions was also associated with having experience in literature searching and higher standardized test-score percentiles. Medical and nurse-practitioner students obtained comparable benefits in the ability to answer clinical questions from use of the information retrieval system. Future research must examine strategies that improve successful search and retrieval of clinical questions posed by clinicians in practice.