This Article Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 0269216309102727v1 23/5/425    most recent References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Tieman, J. Articles by Currow, D. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Tieman, J. Articles by Currow, D. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Multiple sources: mapping the literature of palliative care

Department of Palliative and Supportive Services, Flinders University, South Australia Jennifer.Tieman{at}flinders.edu.au

RM Sladek

Department of Palliative and Supportive Services, Flinders University, South Australia

DC Currow

Department of Palliative and Supportive Services, Flinders University, South Australia

Palliative care is an increasingly important area of clinical practice and health service delivery. The heterogeneity of the patient population and the multidisciplinary nature of care draw on knowledge from many fields of clinical practice and academic enquiry. This has implications for the retrieval of evidence and literature and the spread of new knowledge in palliative care. This study shows that the CINAHL, Embase and PsycINFO bibliographic databases hold sizeable repositories of palliative care articles not indexed on Medline. It also highlights the number and range of journals publishing palliative care content. In 2005 alone, 1985 journals published 6983 items. These findings show the challenges for palliative care professionals in managing the complex evidence base for this diverse field of care and the importance of mechanisms that facilitate the identification of palliative care information. Dissemination strategies that ensure that new knowledge reaches the many audiences implicit in the range of journals publishing palliative care are also critical in supporting improvements in clinical practice and service delivery.

Key Words: bibliographic • databases • hospices • information dissemination • palliative care • publishing

This version was published on July 1, 2009

Palliative Medicine, Vol. 23, No. 5, 425-431 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0269216309102727


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?