You may need to find research evidence on potential solutions you've identified in the Impact Gaps Canvas. Some groups may find narrowing the evidence base on their solution to the context of school-based OT research helpful. If that is the case for you, consider using the below sample search strategies.
The sample search strategies below have been designed by OT Librarian Erica Nekolaichuk to find scholarly articles on the broad topic of school-based occupational therapy. Running these searches as-is will return between 250-700 articles depending on the database. Narrow the results by:
- using filters for specific study types (eg. reviews, randomized controlled trials)
- adding a basic Boolean string to the end of the strategy. For example, modify the PubMed strategy by also searching for Partnering for Change, the final search could look like this: ("School Health Services"[Mesh:noexp] OR "school-based"[tiab] OR "school setting*"[tiab]) AND ("Occupational Therapists"[MeSH] OR "occupational therapy"[MeSH] OR "occupational therap*"[tw]) AND ("Partnering for Change" OR P4C)
Search Tips:
- encapsulate phrases in quotes, eg. "partnering for change"
- use Boolean OR between search terms for the same idea, eg. "handwriting OR "hand writing" OR printing"
Sample PubMed Search for School-based OT:
Instructions: Copy & paste directly into PubMed. Add additional search terms if necessary.
("School Health Services"[Mesh:noexp] OR “school-based”[tiab] OR “school setting*”[tiab]) AND (“Occupational Therapists”[MeSH] OR “occupational therapy”[MeSH] OR “occupational therap*”[tw])
Sample CINAHL Search for School-based OT:
Instructions: Copy & paste into first search box in CINAHL and do not adjust drop down menus. Add additional search terms if necessary.
( (MH "School Health Services") OR ( TI ( "school based" OR "school setting*" ) OR AB ( "school based" OR "school setting*" ) ) ) AND ( ( (MH "Occupational Therapy") OR (MH "Pediatric Occupational Therapy") OR (MH "Students, Occupational Therapy") OR (MH "Occupational Therapy Service") OR (MH "Occupational Therapists") OR (MH "Pediatric Occupational Therapists") ) OR ( TI "Occupational therap*" OR AB "Occupational therap*" OR SO "Occupational therap*" ) )
Sample ERIC Search for School-based OT:
Instructions: Copy & paste into first search box in ERIC and do not adjust drop down menus. Add additional search terms if necessary.
(MAINSUBJECT.EXACT("School Health Services") OR TIAB("school based" OR "school setting")) AND (MAINSUBJECT.EXACT("Occupational Therapy") OR TIAB("occupational therap*"))
