Introduction to Health Services Research : A Self-Study Course

Case Description | Case Background | Case Objectives | Case Exercise

Case 4: Bioterrorism -- Community Preparedness (Page 5 of 49)

Phase One: Thinking About the Issues

Q1. How would you get started retrieving information?

Suggested Solution

Your role as an information provider is multi-faceted and requires skill and a sharp eye to identify all the possible resources for all your audiences.

For example, you will need to identify problems and issues surrounding community preparedness. These include (but are not limited to)

• getting an overview of what bioterrorism is
• determining who the main players/stakeholders are
• helping to determine what community education is necessary to prepare the community
• identifying what costs are incurred in preparing a community to face bioterrorism
• finding relevant data and datasets
• identifying the key grey literature sources, journals, and databases, both factual and bibliographic, and
• evaluating the quality of the content both on the Internet and in articles, books, reports and other published materials such as newsletters you retrieve in your searches so as to provide the best possible information

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