NURS-6002 Week 3 Discussion

Using the Walden Library

Where can you find evidence to inform your thoughts and scholarly writing? Throughout your degree program, you will use research literature to explore ideas, guide your thinking, and gain new insights. As you search the research literature, it is important to use resources that are peer-reviewed and from scholarly journals. You may already have some favorite online resources and databases that you use or have found useful in the past. For this Discussion, you explore databases available through the Walden Library.

Note: Unless otherwise noted, initial postings to Discussions are due on or before Day 3, and response postings are due on or before Day 6. You are required to participate in the Discussion on at least three different days (a different day for main post and each response). It is important to adhere to the weekly time frame to allow others ample time to respond to your posting. In addition, you are expected to respond to questions directed toward your own initial posting in a timely manner.

Solution

Using the Walden Library

The Selected Peer-Reviewed Article

Title: Exploring Associations between Social Determinants of Health and Mental Health Outcomes in Families from Socioeconomically and Racially and Ethnically Diverse Households.

Prokosch, C., Fertig, A. R., Ojebuoboh, A. R., Trofholz, A. C., Baird, M., Young, M., de Brito, J. N., Kunin-Batson, A., & Berge, J. M. (2022). Exploring associations between social determinants of health and mental health outcomes in families from socioeconomically and racially and ethnically diverse households. Preventive Medicine, 161(107150), 107150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2022.107150Links to an external site.

Database Used

I accessed the article through the PubMed database, available via the Walden University Library’s “Databases A-Z” portal. PubMed Central by the National Library of Medicine is a resource for biomedical and health sciences literature that offers access to a broad array of peer-reviewed articles. I navigated to the library’s website, selected PubMed from the database list, and used search terms like “social determinants of mental health” and “diverse populations” to locate this peer-reviewed article which was available in full text through PubMed Central. The confluence between mental health and social determinants is my area of interest and this article proved to be relevant.

Difficulties Experienced

I encountered minimal difficulties while searching for the article in PubMed. Initially, the broad scope of results using general terms like “mental health” required refining my search with specific keywords such as “social determinants” and “racial/ethnic disparities,” to narrow down relevant studies. The Walden Library’s integration with PubMed ensured full-text access but I needed to verify the article’s peer-reviewed status by checking its publication details. The user-friendly interface and advanced search filters such as publication date and article type helped streamline the process making it easier to select a current and credible article despite the initial challenge of having to filter through extensive results.

The usefulness of the Database for Colleagues

PubMed Central would be highly useful for my colleagues due to its broad collection of peer-reviewed articles from the fields of biomedical and health sciences (Ghasemi et al., 2023). The database provides access to studies on topics like mental health and psychiatric care which are critical in delivering informed and evidence-based care. In addition, PubMed’s advanced search capabilities would allow colleagues to filter by study type, population, or year of publication to match their respective needs. It also comes with an open-access component which ensures many articles are freely available for those without institutional access to other databases.

Recommendation of the Database

I strongly recommend PubMed to my colleagues. Its comprehensive coverage of health-related research including nursing and psychiatric studies makes it an essential tool for academic endeavors and research. The database is reliable and credible especially as it is supported by the National Library of Medicine which ensures access to high-quality peer-reviewed sources. Moreover, features like MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) indexing enhance search precision and specificity in tandem with user needs (DeMars & Perruso, 2022). Lastly, PubMed’s accessibility through the Walden Library and its open-access model make it practical for use in both academic and professional settings.

Conclusion

In summary, Pubmed Central proved to be a resourceful database for locating credible peer-reviewed articles for my topic of interest. This is a highly recommended database, especially for nursing and allied fields as it provides a platform that nurses can use to inform practice and harness the quality of care.

References

DeMars, M. M., & Perruso, C. (2022). MeSH and text-word search strategies: precision, recall, and their implications for library instruction. Journal of the Medical Library Association: JMLA, 110(1), 23–33. https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2022.1283Links to an external site.

Ghasemi, A., Mirmiran, P., Kashfi, K., & Bahadoran, Z. (2023). Scientific publishing in biomedicine: A brief history of scientific journals. International Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism, 21(1), e131812. https://doi.org/10.5812/ijem-131812Links to an external site.

Prokosch, C., Fertig, A. R., Ojebuoboh, A. R., Trofholz, A. C., Baird, M., Young, M., de Brito, J. N., Kunin-Batson, A., & Berge, J. M. (2022). Exploring associations between social determinants of health and mental health outcomes in families from socioeconomically and racially and ethnically diverse households. Preventive Medicine, 161(107150), 107150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2022.107150

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