University Name: NURS5069 Literature Search Strategy for Spinal Injury

This assignment presents a comprehensive literature search strategy focused on the effectiveness of rigid cervical collars versus soft cervical collars in preventing paralysis in patients with suspected spinal injury. The student formulates a PICO question, identifying the population (patients with suspected cervical injury), intervention (rigid cervical collars), comparison (soft cervical collars), and outcome (prevention of paralysis). The search strategy involves database searches of CINAHL and PubMed, utilizing keywords such as 'rigid cervical collars,' 'soft cervical collar,' and 'paralysis,' combined with Boolean operators. Inclusion and exclusion criteria are established to filter relevant articles, including only English-language papers published between 2010 and 2020 that used randomized controlled trials (RCTs) as a research design. The search process is summarized using a PRISMA table, and the rationale for the search strategy is provided, emphasizing the use of the PICOT framework and the selection of RCTs to ensure high-quality evidence. The assignment concludes with a list of included papers and an appendix containing a spreadsheet summarizing the selected research papers.