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Emory University Emory Libraries

Library Orientation for Nursing

This information was developed for nurses conducting research via the Emory Libraries

Build your search strategy

This search using Boolean finds over 2000 citations in PubMed:

(palliative care OR hospice OR terminal care OR end of life care) AND (quality of life OR QOL OR life quality OR well being) AND (breast cancer OR breast neoplasm OR breast carcinoma)

This search using Boolean, truncation and phrase searching finds around 600 citations in PubMed:

("palliative care" OR hospice OR "terminal care" OR "end of life care") AND ("quality of life" OR QOL OR "life quality" OR "well being") AND ("breast cancer*" OR "breast neoplasm*" OR "breast carcinoma*")

This search using Boolean, truncation, phrase searching and field descriptors finds about 500 citations in PubMed:

("palliative care"[tw] OR hospice[tw] OR "terminal care"[tw] OR "end of life care"[tw]) AND ("quality of life"[tw] OR QOL[tw] OR "life quality"[tw] OR "well being"[tw]) AND ("breast cancer*"[tw] OR "breast neoplasm*"[tw] OR "breast carcinoma*"[tw])

Click here to run the final search in PubMed.

Revise

Once you've run your search, look at the results and assess the findings. 

  • Are you retrieving what you expected to find? 
  • Do you see new synonyms that you could add to your search?
  • Are the field tags you chose too limiting?