Subject Guides

Clinical Practice Guidelines

Clinical practice guidelines are recommendations developed to educate clinicians on the current standard of care. Clinical guidelines can be useful, but may not apply to every patient and should not be considered a substitute for care from a knowledgeable health care professional.

When looking for clinical guidelines, look for the standards of the preeminent accreditation body in the field. For example, there are standards on treating anorexia nervosa from the American Psychiatric Association. You can also use the results below.

PubMed@PNWU
Run your search. On the results screen, choose Practice Guidelines from Article types in the upper left corner. For nonclinical guidelines related to health care administration, choose the broader term Guidelines.

AccessMedicine
Under the Quick Reference tab, choose Guidelines—Primary Care or Guidelines—Inpatient Medicine

CINAHL Complete
Use the Advanced Search screen. Under Publication Type, choose Practice Guidelines

ClinicalKey
To browse guidelines, choose Guidelines under the search box. To search for a guideline, enter your search term, and from the results page, select Guidelines from the Filter By column on the left.

Epistemonikos
Epistemonikos is a multi-lingual database of systematic review abstracts relevant for health decision making.

Health Systems Evidence
Contains evidence briefs for policy, overviews of systematic reviews, systematic reviews, systematic reviews in progress (i.e., protocols for systematic reviews), and systematic reviews being planned (i.e., registered titles for systematic reviews).

Institute for Healthcare Improvement
IHI contains recommended resources on topics like sedation, delirium, and mobility in ICU patients or managing chronic care. It also has a model for improvement, such as how to set realistic aims and test changes.

PDQ-Evidence
Pretty Darn Quick Evidence contains primary studies, systematic reviews, and broad overviews of systematic reviews. PDQ-Evidence shows which primary studies are included in systematic reviews, and which systematic reviews are in overviews. PDQ-Evidence is drawn from Epistemonikos.

Trip Pro
Run your search. Then choose Guidelines under Evidence Type on the right side of the screen.

U.S. Preventive Services
Browse published recommendations on screening, counseling, and prevention from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

Curriculum Vitae (CV) Help

For Medical Students and Physicians

PNWU-COM Clinical Education Resources for OMS3 & OMS4 (SharePoint requires PNWU log-in)

American College of Physicians
How to Write a C.V.: Tips for Physicians and Medical Students

Ohio State University College of Medicine
The CV (with samples)

American Academy of Family Physicians
Writing a CV for Medical Residency

American Medical Association
Creating a standout CV
Residency Match: 4 tips for writing a standout personal statement
 
Article from International Journal of Surgery. Oncology.
How to Write a Medical CV  

UW School of Medicine
Curriculum Vitae (CV)  

American Association of Medical Colleges
Preparing Your Curriculum Vitae (for faculty)  
Preparing Your Curriculum Vitae (for students and residents)

NEJM Career Center
Creating a Physician CV That Shines

Shemmassian Academic Consulting
Residency Personal Statement: The Ultimate Guide (Example Included)


For Physical Therapists and PT Students

APTA Career Center
Resume Writing Tips

UCSF Office of Career and Professional Development
Physical Therapy CVs, Resumes, and Cover Letters


PNWU Resources

IPE 501: Portfolio Development (Moodle)

Residency Planning Resources


Library Resources

Search the Library Catalog for print and eBooks. 

Drug Information

Core Resources*

AccessMedicine – McGraw-Hill Drug Monographs

ClinicalKey – Drug information from Gold Standard

DynaMed – Drug information from Micromedex

The Medical Letter on Drugs & Therapeutics – Critical appraisals of new prescription drugs and comparative reviews of drugs for common diseases, includes Handbook of Antimicrobial Therapy and Drugs for Parasitic Infections

UpToDate – Drug information from LexiComp
 

* Databases licensed through PNWU – network ID required

Free Resources

Drugs.com – Includes A-Z drug index, pill identifier, drug interactions, directory of pharmaceutical companies

FDA Orange Book – Approved Drug Products with Therapeutic Equivalence

FDA Purple Book – Online database containing info on biological products licensed by the FDA

Herbs at a Glance – The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health provides information about complementary health products and practices, including herbs and supplements 

LactMed – Information on drugs and other chemicals to which breastfeeding mothers may be exposed

MedlinePlus – Consumer info on drugs, herbs and supplements (provided by NIH/National Library of Medicine)

Medscape Drugs & Diseases (user registration may be required)

National Cancer Institute – Cancer drug information for consumers

PubChem – World’s largest collection of freely accessible chemical information from the NIH/National Library of Medicine. Search chemicals by name, molecular formula, structure, and other identifiers. Find chemical and physical properties, biological activities, safety and toxicity information, patents, literature citations and more.

Mobile Apps

ClinicalKey iOS, Android

DynaMed  iOS, Android

UpToDate iOS, Android

Epocrates iOS, Android

Sanford Guide to Antimicrobial Therapies Cross-platform app ($29.99, student discount available)

Electrocardiography (ECG/EKG)

External Links

ECG Learning Center – An introduction to clinical electrocardiography

ECG Wave-Maven – Sponsored by the Carl J. Shapiro Institute for Education and Research at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Electrocardiogram (ECG, EKG) library – Cases and examples of normal and irregular cardiac rhythms

Easy EKG: Interpreting Rhythms – YouTube
 

In Our Collection

The Only EKG Book You’ll Ever Need, 10e (eBook – PNWU network log-in required)

ECG Interpretation Made Incredibly Easy, 7e (eBook – PNWU network log-in required)

12-Lead ECG:The Art of Interpretation, 2e. (eBook – PNWU network log-in required)
Print book call number: WG 18.2 G216t 2015

Additional resources can be found in the WG 1-9999 section in the library.

12-Lead ECG for Acute and Critical Care Providers. Page B., Brady/Prentice Hall, 2005
Call number: WG 140 P133z 2005

Introduction to Basic Cardiac Dysrhythmias, 4e (book and CD). Atwood S., Mosby, 2009.
Call number: WG 330 A887i 2009

Rapid Interpretation of EKGs, 6e. Dubin D., Cover Publishing, 2000.
Call number: WG 18.2 D814r 2000
 

Mobile Apps

12-Lead ECG Challenge (for iOS or Android) – 150 clinically obtained 12-lead ECGs to to sharpen your interpretation skills. ($4.99)

Evidence-Based Practice

What is evidence-based practice?

Evidence-based practice is “the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients [1].” Evidence-based practice does not mean applying interventions regardless of circumstance, but rather integrating clinician expertise, knowledge of the patient’s situation and preferences, and the best available research.

How is evidence-based practice different?

Evidence-based practice requires that clinical decisions be based on the best available scientific evidence rather than habits or protocols, and that scientific evidence is frequently examined and evaluated [2]. Because of the sheer volume of medical literature that is produced, it is important to have access to good evidence-based practice resources that can summarize study results for clinicians.

Introduction to Evidence-Based Practice

  • Duke’s Introduction to Evidence-Based Practice tutorial
  • Greenhalgh, Trisha. “How to read a paper.” Pts. 1 through 10. BMJ: British Medical Journal 315, no. 7109 (1997): 672.
  • Cardarelli, Robert and Brent Sanderline. “Evidence-Based Medicine.” In Foundations of Osteopathic Medicine, edited by Anthony Chila. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2011.
  • Guyatt, Gordon H., Drummond Rennie, Maureen O. Meade, and Deborah J. Cook, eds. Users’ Guides to the Medical Literature: A Manual for Evidence-Based Clinical Practice, 3rd ed. New York: McGraw Hill Education, 2015. Call number WB 39 U845 2015.

Evidence-Based Practice Resources

Not all evidence-based practice resources are created equal. You can use the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine Critical Appraisal Worksheets to assess the validity of a resource.

  • Cochrane Library – The Cochrane Library contains independent high-quality evidence for health care decision making, as well as the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
  • Trip Pro – Trip Pro is a clinical search engine designed to allow users to quickly and easily answer clinical questions with high quality research. Trip Pro searches a wide variety of publication types, so be sure to check the validity of any resource.
  • PubMed Clinical Queries –From the PubMed homepage, choose Clinical Queries from PubMed Tools. PubMed Clinical Queries is an evidence-based practice filter that searches the available literature to answer clinical questions.
  • DynaMed – DynaMed is an evidence-based point-of-care resource for clinicians that is also available for iOS and Android.
  • CINAHL Evidence-Based Care Sheets – From the CINAHL homepage, click on evidence-based care sheets in the top bar. CINAHL offers short summaries on specific key topics. The references are ranked, using a coding matrix, according to the type of literature they represent (systematic reviews, meta-analysis, etc).
  • UpToDate – UpToDate is a clinical decision support tool for physicians that is also available for iOS and Android. While UpToDate is primarily background information and expert opinion, recent updates have focused on more high quality evidence.
  • You can also search the library catalog for evidence* to pull up subspecialties, such as evidence-based anesthesiology or evidence-based orthopedics.

References

  1. Sackett, David L., William MC Rosenberg, JA Muir Gray, R. Brian Haynes, and W. Scott Richardson. “Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn’t.” (1996): 71-72, url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2349778/pdf/bmj00524-0009.pdf.
  2. Davidoff, Frank, Brian Haynes, Dave Sackett, and Richard Smith. “Evidence based medicine.” BMJ: British Medical Journal 310, no. 6987 (1995): 1085, url: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2549494/pdf/bmj00590-0009.pdf.
Exam and Board Prep

Practice Questions & Exams

AccessMedicine – Under study tools, you can find review questions, Showdown (Jeopardy) and online flashcards. Requires a free MyAccess account.

BRS series includes case questions at the end of each chapter. Subjects include behavioral science, biochemistry & molecular biology, gross anatomy, microbiology & immunology, pharmacology, pathology, and more.

First Aid for the USMLE Step 1 (W 18.2 T222 2020) & Step 2

First Aid for the COMLEX

Rapid Review series

Lippincott Illustrated Reviews

Blueprints series subjects include surgery, family medicine, neurology, OB-GYN, pediatrics, psychiatry, and radiology. 

Clinical & Ethical Cases

OB-GYN Clinical Cases – created by Dr. Anita Showalter & Chelan Shepherd

American Thoracic Society Clinical Cases

American College of Physicians Ethics Case Studies & Education Resources

American Society of Hematology Teaching Cases – Requires a free account.

American Medical Association Ethical Cases

Case Files Collection (AccessMedicine)

Case Studies in Environmental Medicine

First Aid Cases for the USMLE Step 1 (W 18.2 F514 2012)

First Aid Cases for the USMLE Step 2

Harrison’s Visual Case Challenge

New England Journal of Medicine Clinical Cases

LWW Medical Education Case

Heart Sounds

Online Resources

AccessMedicine Auscultation Classroom

LWW Health Library Physical Examination Video & Audio collection

University of Michigan Heart Sound & Murmur Library

University of Washington Dept. of Medicine: Advanced Physical Diagnosis modules – Heart Sounds and Murmurs

Wellcome Library – Heart sounds and murmurs (1949)

In Our Collection

Additional resources can be found in the WG 1-9999 section in the library.

The Art and Science of Cardiac Physical Examination, 2e (book with interactive CD-ROM). Ranganathan N., Jaypee, 2016.
Call number: WG 141 R196a 2016

Heart Songs 2 (CD). American College of Cardiology, 2009.
Available for 24-hour checkout. Please read accompanying copyright notice regarding unauthorized duplication.
Call number: WG 141.5.A9 H4 2009

Heart Sounds Made Incredibly Easy (book with CD). Lippincott, 2005.
Call number: WG 39 H4348 2005

Pediatric Heart Sounds (book with CD). McConnell M., Springer, 2009.
Call number: WS 290 M478p 2008
 

Mobile Apps

Heart Murmur Pro by Hipposoft, LLC (iOS only) – Includes 23 heart sounds with clinically relevant information. (Cost: $2.99)

Lung Sounds

Online Resources

LWW Health Library Physical Examination Video & Audio collection
 

In Our Collection

Additional resources can be found in the WF 1-9999 section in the library.

Secrets Heart & Lung Sounds Workshop (Audio CD). Mangione S., Hanley & Belfus, 2000.
Call number: WF 39 M277s 2000

Open Access

What is open access?

Open access is defined by the Budapest Open Access Initiative as “free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself.” [1]

In the traditional publishing model, an author submits a paper to a publisher, who then makes the paper available to researchers for a fee. In an open access model, the author submits an article along with a processing fee, and the paper is made available to all readers for free. Open access can also refer to articles published through traditional models but also made available for free through sources like institutional repositories or PubMed Central.

Some of the benefits of open access include making research available to those who may not be able to afford journal subscription fees, and potentially increasing citations since more researchers can view the article.

Predatory open access

Since open access shifts the burden of cost to authors or an author’s institution, some unethical open access journals have begun accepting as many papers as possible to maximize profits. These journals only exist to extract fees from authors, and have been observed accepting poorly vetted papers or appointing fraudulent reviewers [2]. Some of the signs that a journal is predatory include:

  • Accepting papers unnaturally quickly, often within a day—or even  hours—of submission
  • A publisher’s page claiming to be based in one country, but email originating from another country
  • Claiming to be free, but requesting a fee or sending an invoice once an article is accepted
  • Reviewers or an editorial board with few or no relevant credentials
  • Other articles in the journal feature unsubstantiated claims or appear poorly written

You can learn more about the difference between open access and predatory publishing on our Moodle page.

Open access journal resources

Directory of Open Access Journals

Think, Check, Submit

SCImago Journal & Country Rank

Journal Citation Reports (subscription required)

Public Library of Science

Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association

References

  1. Budapest Open Access Initiative. “Read the Budapest open access initiative.” Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002).
  2. Bohannon, John. “Who’s afraid of peer review.” Science 342, no. 6154 (2013).
Patient Education/Consumer Health Information

Patient education (also known as consumer health information) is intended to address the health information needs of the patient to aid in health care decision making [1]. Patient education is typically written in a more conversational style than clinical information.

Websites for Patients

These websites are free to access and are designed to help the general public learn more about conditions and care.

Medline Plus (includes topics in multiple languages)

Centers for Disease Control

FamilyDoctor

Healthfinder

Mayo Clinic Patient Care

Patient Handouts

These resources contain patient handouts on basic health information in multiple languages. Most of the following resources are subscription based, and can be accessed by PNWU faculty, staff, and students.

AccessMedicine Patient Education – AccessMedicine divides patient education handouts into four categories: Acute, Adult, Medicines, and Pediatric. You can switch between the categories using the sidebar on the left. 

ClinicalKey Patient Education – ClinicalKey has a section on Patient Education that contains many handouts on various tests, drugs, and common problems. Handouts can be customized with special instructions for your patients. Resources are typically available in English and Spanish, but may also be available in languages such as Korean, Haitian Creole, Polish, Tagalog, Chinese (Mandarin/Traditional) and Vietnamese.

DynaMed – Clinical topics in DynaMed typically contain a Patient Information section just above References with external links to patient resources from other sites.

EthnoMed – EthnoMed is a free resource that has patient education handouts on common topics like diabetes and smoking in Amharic, Chinese, Hmong, Somali, Spanish, Tigrinya, Vietnamese, and more. EthnoMed also includes narrated presentations and YouTube videos.

UpToDate Patient Education – UpToDate offers patient education in two levels called The Basics, which focuses on the four or five most important topics, and Beyond the Basics, which are longer, more detailed reviews for patients who want more information. Available in English and Spanish. 

References

  1. Flaherty, David, Laurie Hoffman-Goetz, and Jose F. Arocha. “What is consumer health informatics? A systematic review of published definitions.” Informatics for Health and Social Care 40, no. 2 (2015): 91-112.
Radiology

External Links

ACR Case in Point– Daily case studies from the American College of Radiology

LearningRadiology – Radiology modules divided by system and case studies

MedPix – Medical images from the National Library of Medicine

RSNA Cases – Search database of peer-reviewed cases and images from the Radiological Society of North America. User account may be required to view some content.

In Our Collection

Basic radiology. Chen, Michael, Thomas Pope, and David Ott. McGraw Hill Professional, 2011. (AccessMedicine)

Blueprints radiology. Uzelac, Alina, and Ryan Davis. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2006.
Call number: WN 18.2 U99b 2006.

Clinical radiology made ridiculously simple. Ouellette, Hugue, and Patrice Tétreault. MedMaster, 2015.
Call number: WN 100 O933c 2015.

Clinical radiology: the essentials. Daffner, Richard H., and Matthew Hartman. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2013.
Call number: WN 17 D124 2013.

Essentials of Radiology. Mettler, Fred A. Elsevier, 2019. (ClinicalKey)

Fundamentals of diagnostic radiology. Brant, William E., and Clyde A. Helms, eds. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2012.
Call number: WN 180 F981 2012.

Grainger & Allison’s diagnostic radiology: a textbook of medical imaging. Adam, Andreas, Adrian K. Dixon, Jonathan H. Gillard, and Cornelia M. Schaefer-Prokop, eds. Elsevier Health Sciences, 2021. (ClinicalKey)

Introduction to diagnostic radiology. Elsayes, Khaled, and Sandra Oldham. McGraw Hill Professional, 2014. (AccessMedicine)

Learning Radiology: Recognizing the Basics. Herring, William. Elsevier Health Sciences, 2020. (ClinicalKey)

Pediatric Radiology: The Requisites. Walters, Michele, and Richard L. Robertson. Elsevier Health Sciences, 2017. (ClinicalKey)

Primer of diagnostic imaging. Harisinghani, M. G., Chen, J. W., and Weissleder, Ralph. Elsevier, 2019. (ClinicalKey)

Mobile Apps

Radiology Toolbox Lite (iOS) – Includes GFR calculator, radioisotope half lives, radiographic contrast premedication, and more. (Free, pay to upgrade)

Vulnerable and Underserved Populations

Vulnerable populations, also known as underserved or at-risk populations, are defined as populations that are at a greater risk for poorer health status and lower health care access [1]. Examples of vulnerable groups include (but are not limited to) racial or ethnic minorities, the LGBTQ+ community, patients in medically underserved areas, patients with a low socioeconomic status, patients who speak a primary language different than their provider, patients suffering from a chronic illness or disability, and legally vulnerable patients such as children, undocumented immigrants, or human trafficking victims.

General Resources

Kaiser Family Foundation Disparities Policy
Society, Health, and Vulnerability
Diversity and Quality in Health and Care
Medical Management of Vulnerable and Underserved Patients: Principles, Practice, and Populations. McGraw-Hill Medical Pub, 2007. Call number: W 84 AA1 M545 2007
Essentials of Health, Culture, and Diversity: Understanding People, Reducing Disparities. Edberg, M., Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2013. Call number: WA 395 E123 2013

Cultural Competency Resources

Resources to Address Language Barriers

  • Onlingo Spanish Level 1 (CD). Onlingo, 2006. Call number: PC 4112.5 O58 2006
  • Medical Spanish Made Incredibly Quick!. Wolters Kluwer Health, 2008. Call number: W 15 M489 2008
  • Spanish and the Medical Interview: A Textbook for Clinically Relevant Medical Spanish. Pilar Ortega Hernandez M., Elsevier, 2007. Call number: W 15 P637s 2007
  • Random House Webster’s Pocket American Sign Language. Costello E., New York Random House, 1999. Call number: Reference HV 2475 .C663 1999
  • MediBabble by NiteFloat (iOS only) – Free medical translation app for Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Russian, and Haitian Creole.
  • MedlinePlus Health Information in Multiple Languages – The US National Library of Medicine has collected resources with multiple translations as well as health information resources devoted to specific languages. 
  • JAMA Ethics: Language Barriers in the Emergency Room

Legally Vulnerable Populations Resources

Chronic Conditions & Disabilities Resources

  • Disability and Health Journal
  • Chronic Illness
  • Nass, Ruth, Reet Sidhu, and Gail Ross, “Autism & Other Developmental Disabilities,” in Bradley’s Neurology in Clinical Practice, ed. Daroff, Robert B., Joseph Jankovic, John C. Mazziotta, and Scott L. Pomeroy. Elsevier Health Sciences, 2015.
  • Rondinelli, Robert D., and Mohammed Ranavaya, “Disability Assessment,” in Practical Management of Pain, ed. Benzon, Honorio, James P. Rathmell, Christopher L. Wu, Dennis C. Turk, Charles E. Argoff, and Robert W. Hurley. Elsevier Health Sciences, 2013.
  • “Chronic Disease Management,” in Essentials of Clinical Geriatrics, ed. Kane, Robert, Joseph G. Ouslander, Itamar B. Abrass, Barbara Resnick. McGraw-Hill Education LLC, 2013.

Rural Healthcare Resources

LGBTQ+ Resources

References

  1. Shi, Leiyu, and Gregory D. Stevens. “Vulnerability and unmet health care needs.” Journal of general internal medicine 20, no. 2 (2005): 148-154.

If you have a resource or topic to recommend, please use our Library Website Feedback form or contact library staff.