Sourcing information.

 Using SSKS and Google.

‘Let’s look it up’ is a phrase I hear myself saying regularly, I am a Google fiend myself and I know first-hand that a fair amount of the information you unearth there turns out to be false. When it comes to looking up the age of your favourite actress, or images of your celebrity crush’s wife, then Google is your go to point, but when it comes to researching reliable information relating to your practice in particular, then its not such a great idea.

 I used the SSKS website to search for an article on Activity in Care. I created an Open Athens Account, signed in and use the hyperlink from Thing 7 to jump straight to the search option. An article came up instantly regarding physical activity in Scottish care homes, the article outlined the approach being taken to improve opportunities and increase levels of physical activity amongst residents in Scottish care homes. It talks about the benefits of physical activity to service users, it explains the authors design/methodology/approach; discusses the findings; practical implications; originality/value, and includes informative facts such as citation, publisher, and references. The article was full of information, well written and it related to my practice as this is something that we focus on regularly as one of the most vital care needs for our service users. I found the search to be easy to navigate, the results were accurate and fast and the article was appropriate to my search request.

I then used Google to execute an advanced search for the same topic. The search brought up a number of options for information including a care inspectorate booklet regarding physical activity in care homes. I chose to read the care inspectorate information as this is the only one that I trust to be accurate and reliable. The Google advanced search was useful for returning large amounts of information and various options for the source of that information, however the information returned was literally anything remotely related to your search request so there are a lot of useless links that you have to sift through to find what you’re looking for. Whereas the SSKS website was much easier as it pinpointed exactly what I was looking for and I didn’t have to research the source of the information to know it was reliable. This website is much more convenient and appropriate for work purposes.

Having a website designed as a database full of relevant information at your disposal makes your research and your practice much easier and faster to navigate. It is a useful resource that can be relied upon throughout the duration of your career.

 

 

 

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