Training

Finding the Evidence: developing your literature searching skills

Did you know that the ISCP syllabus states that by the end of ST2 you should be able to “conduct a literature search and critique clinical papers”? This is a key part of the development of your professional skills and behaviour.

Run by The Royal College of Surgeons of England Library team, this course is aimed at surgical trainees at the initial and intermediate stages, but will benefit anyone wishing to improve their search skills, from basic searching to in-depth research, in support of their practice.

Application form

The application form for the course is available by emailing the Library team.

What will I learn in this course?

A full programme for the course is available here. This programme may be changed slightly in order to best suit the needs of the participants. We will keep course participants informed of any changes. 

The course uses surgical examples to cover the key skills, techniques and sources that will help you to:

• Develop focused questions and build effective and appropriate searches, saving you time and effort;
• Identify appropriate sources, from PubMed to NHS Evidence, Google Scholar, TRIP and others, including some 'Point-of-Care' resources, to search for robust information
• Evaluate different types of evidence
• Improve the search for an existing research project or a subject of interest to you
• Provide an appropriate description of your search for the Methods section of your paper or thesis
• Locate and search a range of content resources.

Format

The high level of convenor to participant ratio enables us to tailor this course to your requirements. The course will consist of a mixture of methods, including presentations, time to practise and develop your skills, group discussion and question/answer sessions. We aim to make this course as interactive as possible, making it both productive and enjoyable.

Reinhard Wentz

Course leader, Finding the Evidence

Reinhard Wentz has a Diploma of Academic Librarianship from Hanover Library School in Germany. From 1978 to 2005 he was on the staff of the medical library service at Imperial College in London and was seconded for two years to the Cochrane Collaboration (Injuries Group). Since 2003 he has been working freelance as a medical informatics, advising on systematic reviews and EBM-related literature searches. He has published numerous articles on Medical Informatics and EBM-related subjects.