Recreational Therapy and Evidence-Based Practice Assignment
Step 1 Formulate a clear clinical research question:
A. Propose a PICO question/idea.

B. Identify the search terms. You should have at least 3 terms for each category.

For example, for the population category you might use older adult (as term 1), geriatric (as term 2), and long-term care (as term 3) – this allows you to cast the widest net in your search.

Please indicate the 3 terms for each category below.

Term 1

Term 2

Term 3

Other terms

Population
Intervention
Comparison
(This can be blank)
Outcome
C. What are terms that lead you astray? Sometimes in your results, you may find that everything is pointing to a population that is not relevant.

For example, if you were interested in pet therapy, and all you search is animals, you may find that all of the studies are animal research (not what you are looking for).

D. Use Boolean operators ( AND, OR, NOT or AND NOT) and terms from Step 1B above to create search combinations. List those combinations below.

For example, “Older adults” AND “Horticulture”

E. Which term combinations were the most successful based on your original research question?

Items A – E above adapted from:

Elaine Hatala, PhD, CTRS, Temple University, College of Public Health, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Therapeutic Recreation Program Presenter at ATRA Annual Conference_2016 Evidence-Based Practice in Therapeutic Recreation: A 5-Step Model and Basics of Database Searching

Step 2 Access the Information
Based on your literature search from Step 1, locate five peer reviewed journal articles (published within the last ten years).

Complete the table below.