Computer Skills Development -- Minutes -- November 24, 2006

Friday, November 24, 2006
10 a.m. to 12 noon

Christine P.
Bryan M.
Katherine H.
Suzanne A.
Edan C.
Jack H.
Darryl V.

TOPIC: Personal Learning Projects: from Medline to Mainport without Paper!

1. Perform your search.
2. Round up your citations of interest into a list.
3. Retrieve the fulltext articles from this list and store them on your computer as PDF files for reading/printing/auditing purposes.
4. Copy and paste your list of citations into the "References" box for your Personal Learning Project (PLP) in Mainport.
5. Finish completing your PLP entry and save it to your Web Diary.

Skills reviewed:

How to find citations using PubMed, EBSCO, or Ovid (everyone has their preference).

How to collect citations of interest into a list. In PubMed, this can be done using a free "My NCBI" account. It allows you to store your citations of interest as "Collections". You can make one collection for each PLP. It also allows you to set a series of "Saved Searches" that will execute automatically, at a frequency which you determine, and e-mail the results to you.

Learn about My NCBI here:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=helppubmed.section.pubmedhelp.My_NCBI

EBSCO and Ovid have similar personalization services, which we can review in future sessions, but the search and personalization features of PubMed are the easiest to learn and use. So, even if you prefer to retrieve your fulltext articles from EBSCO or Ovid, you could consider doing your searching and citation saving in PubMed, and then using PubMed ID numbers to retrieve the actual articles from EBSCO or Ovid. Also, the help files for PubMed are the most comprehensive and user-friendly. See what I mean here:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/bv.fcgi?rid=helppubmed.chapter.pubmedhelp

During this process, the advantages of using a web browser that supports "tabbed browsing" were demonstrated. There are now three free web browsers which support tabbed browsing. You can learn about them and download them here:

Firefox 2.0
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox

Internet Explorer 7
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx

Opera 9
http://www.opera.com

Firefox and Internet Explorer are now very similar, and both are excellent browsers. Your hospital computer currently has Internet Explorer 6 installed, which does not support tabbed browsing. I have not tried it yet, but a call to the Help Desk may be all that is needed to upgrade your browser to version 7. Let me know if you try it.

Also during this process, the advantages of using keyboard shortcuts was demonstrated. Cut (Ctrl-X), Copy (Ctrl-C), Paste (Ctrl-V), and Select All (Ctrl-A) are among the most time saving of keyboard shortcuts, because they prevent retyping text strings. Alt-Tab was also demonstrated as a way of quickly flipping between open windows.

How to enter an educational event into Mainport, whether a group learning activity or a PLP, was demonstrated.

For those who attended today's session, why not enter the time you spent today as a PLP? Or a Nonaccredited Group Learning Activity? You can simply copy and paste the contents of this e-mail into Mainport under "Outcome Notes". That is two hours of CPD filed away!

Topics for next time?

Since we spend so much time using our Web browser these days, maybe it would be worthwhile learning how to get the most out of Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Opera. How to customize your toolbars, save your favorites/bookmarks, make the most of tabbed browsing, etc.

Or, since we spend so much time managing e-mail, maybe it would be worthwhile reviewing e-mail management and mastering the GroupWise e-mail client.

We did not set a date for the next session, so let me know if you would like to have another one before Christmas, or after my return from parental leave (March). Also let me know what topics interest you.

Darryl

E-journals available at HIRC (Health Information Resource Centre) at Normed.ca

http://ch6pm7nt9p.search.serialssolutions.com/

E-books available at HIRC (Health Information Resource Centre) at Normed.ca

http://www.normed.ca/library/resources/ebooks.htm

Databases available at HIRC (Health Information Resource Centre) at Normed.ca

http://www.normed.ca/library/resources/databases.htm

99 Email Security and Productivity Tips

The 99 tips in this article make up the best in email practices. From how to ethically use the 'BCC:' to what attachments will make your mobile emailing compatible with everyone else's, this list covers everything you need to know about emailing.

http://www.itsecurity.com/features/99-email-security-tips-112006/

Health Information Resource Centre (HIRC) Webcasts

http://www.normed.ca/library/resources/webcasts.htm

HIRC 103: Searching for the Evidence - Strategies for Retrieving the Best of the Literature

HIRC 102: PubMed Tips & Tricks for Effective Searching

HIRC 101: What Every Faculty Member Needs to Know About HIRC

HIRC 111: Clinical Decision Support Tools: ACP MEdicine, ACP PIER, and More!

HIRC 110: Searching MEDLINE - Twelve Steps for Busy Health Professionals

HIRC 109: Power Searching witih Google for Health Professionals

HIRC 108: Best Research Tools on the Web

HIRC 107: Introduction to the Health Resources in the PALM of Your Hand

HIRC 106: Google and Beyond

HIRC 104: Introduction to Ovid Database Searching

HIRC 102: Searching for the Evidence: Strategies for Retrieving the Best of the Literature

Evidence Based Practices in Psychiatry

http://mentalhealthpractices.org/

This link was recommended by today's presenter of McMaster Grand Rounds, "Clinical Practice Guidelines: Treatment of Schizophrenia".