A Productive Proposed Search Syntax for Health Disaster Preparedness Research

Abstract

Objective:To find a proper search strategy to do a systematic review related to preparedness for disasters.Methods:MeSH and Emtree terms were searched to detect synonyms for two main search terms “disaster” and “preparedness”. Expert opinion on the synonyms was examined applying a Google form. The adopted syntax was searched in PubMed and results were sifted. Hand searching in two top key journals was done and sensitivity was calculated.Results:Out of 1120 articles, 122 were included. In PDM journal, 10 articles were included by hand searching, out of which 5 were not spotted in PubMed search with the proposed syntax. In DMPHP journal, 13 publications were included, with 5 not found in PubMed search. Because of human error in hand searching 2 articles were added. Conclusion: The proposed syntax in this study achieves a sensitivity of search of 0.6 in PubMed which could be quite applicable for researchers. Moreover, in case only MeSH or Emtree terms were applied in search strategy or where hand searching was not performed, there were a number of articles missed.

Are nurses prepared to respond to next infectious disease outbreak: A narrative synthesis

“…The acquisition of knowledge and skills about infectious disease does not happen overnight; it requires constant training and frequent retraining (Olson et al., 2014). Some approaches have been proposed and proved to be effective, such as instruction from teachers with previous experience (Rastegarfar et al., 2019), scenarios presented by computers (Uden‐Holman et al., 2014), simulation (Olson et al., 2014) and drills (Jakeway et al., 2008). As the virus mutates and the epidemic evolves, training should be conducted frequently and carried out in multiple ways, such as lectures, practical sessions, simulated drills or a combination of them.…”

Search Strategy for Search Performance; Off-the-cuff or Being Sensitive

“…They have rightly emphasized on the standard reporting of systematic reviews. However, as it is clear from the title and objective of the published article, we did not report results of a systematic review, our article instead aimed to present a syntax validation process which guide with creating a proper search strategy for systematic reviews on disaster preparedness [1][2][3][4]. As such neither a PRISMA flow nor an appraising tools were needed.…”

“…Our study presents a base search syntax with relative recall of 0.6 which can help researchers interested on disaster preparedness with finding as many as eligible studies possible [13]. It also helps the researchers to be more specific in case they need to focus on any specific hazard or alternative spelling/combination [1].…”

Hospitals as disaster victims: Lessons not learned?

“…7 The emergency preparedness and response literature is growing and reflects an expanding interest in and evolution of the science of hospital preparedness. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Although there are general themes described in the literature from specific hospitals that have experienced disasters that disrupted normal operations and patient care, [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] and although there is literature describing how hospitals should prepare for and respond to internal and external disasters, to the best of our knowledge there are no structured reviews on this topic. The objective of this paper is to provide a structured, detailed review and description of the common themes and lessons from disaster events that directly affect hospitals and health systems via damage to physical infrastructure or degradation of resources, thereby disrupting the basic function of patient care.…”