Choosing a topic is often the hardest part of research! You'll be spending the entire course studying your topic, so choose a topic that interests you. Once you choose a broad topic, it's important to take some time to learn more about it. This is called pre-research.
Pre-research will provide you with a general understanding of your broad topic. This will allow you to identify the main issues and keywords related to your topic so that you can narrow it down and develop a focused PICO question. Here are some tips to get you started.
Gale Health and Wellness is a library database that contains thousands of full-text scholarly and popular articles on health-related issues, but it's also useful for identifying broad research topics! Watch the video below to learn how you can use this database to choose a topic, then gather background information and identify keywords for more specific research.
Health and Wellness - video length: 2 min 19 seconds
Credo Reference is another library database that you can use to identify a topic. Content in this database comes from reference books like encyclopedias or dictionaries. Their mindmap feature can help you visualize your broad topic and even help you refine it to something more specific. Watch the short video below to learn how to use Credo Reference to identify a topic for your PICO question.
Credo Reference - video length: 2 min 41 seconds
Once you have a broad topic, the Nursing and Allied Health database can be helpful for continuing your pre-research and identifying keywords. Watch the short video below to learn how to use their Subject Guide search and Topic Finder tool. With just a few clicks, you can go from a broad topic to gathering evidence (sources) to help you answer your PICO question.
Nursing and Allied Health - video length: 4 min 7 sec