...The “In” Credible Web: Evaluating the Credibility of MedlinePlus Cecelia Chamberlain College of Nursing Course Number: NR 500 September 2012 The “In” Credible Web: Evaluating the Credibility of MedlinePlus Accessing health information via the Web has become the “In” thing. According to a 2010 survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 74% of all U.S. adults are using the Internet, and of those accessing the Web 80% are looking for health information (Fox, 2011). This paper will evaluate the credibility of MedlinePlus at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/. This website was located using the search engine Google and was chosen for its .gov domain. According to Brenner (2005), Web addresses ending in .gov, .edu or .org offer greater authority and are more reliable sources. MedlinePlus is a health information website produced by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM). This site provides a wide variety of health and wellness topics as well as interactive tools designed to educate, inform, and guide consumers and medical professionals on health related issues (NLM, 2012). The following criteria; authority, information, and objectivity, ease of navigation, and privacy and security policies will be used to evaluate and identify MedlinePlus as a credible health information resource. Furthermore, implications to nursing practice will be discussed. Authority Authority is consistently identified in the literature as being of the upmost importance....
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...Evaluating Sources Cherry Michelle Underwood Everest College Source # 1: Interpersonal Communication Seventh Edition (book) Summary: This book is a book that I used last year in my Fundamentals of Interpersonal Communication class online. It contains principles, concepts, and skills that will help you build the skills that you need to become a better communicator. It contains issues as the ethical challenges and choices that affect interpersonal communication emotional intelligence and forgiveness, interracial relationships, safe sex, ways to deal with abuse from intimates, race related differences between conflict styles, and the power of language. It contains quizzes that you can take to test your knowledge and skills. Evaluating Criteria: I will use reliability to evaluate this source. There is an author listed in the book which means someone wrote the book. He has verifiable information in the book. There is a website that you can go on to find out more information about this book. The website is www.cengage.com/wadsworth. Is the source credible? This book is very credible. The book uses verifiable information and helped me trace the sources of information. The information was reliable. There were dates on the information in the writing. Source # 2: The National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF) Clinician’s Guide to prevention and treatment of Osteoporosis. National Osteoporosis Foundation, Washington, DC.2014 (web article) www.nlm.nih.gov Summary: It contains...
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...Evaluating a Website for Credibility Chamberlain College of Nursing The era of computer has made education and the quest for knowledge easier and accessible. Health-related information is crucial to the nurse, patients, other allied health personnel and the public. An astute nurse or scholar must evaluate the content of a website for credibility before using the resources following a systematic approach. The criteria to be used when evaluating Web-based sources are, authority, information, objectivity, ease of navigation, privacy and security policies. (CCN, 2015). The criteria will be discussed later. The health-related website I choose to evaluate is the National Institutes of Health website. URL: www.nih.gov The purpose of this website is to support the mission of the NIH, and their mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability. (nih.gov) The good thing about NIH website is that it can be located using many search engines like Google, yahoo, msn, AOL, mywebsearch, etc. NIH is a public domain image processing and analysis program for mackintosh. The software is located at http://rsb.info.nih.gov/nih-image/index.html My reasons for the selection of this website are: The NIH is one of the world’s foremost medical researchers and the focal point for medical research in the United States. (nih.gov). It comprises 27 separate...
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...Evaluating a Website for Credibility Chamberlain College of Nursing The era of computer has made education and the quest for knowledge easier and accessible. Health-related information is crucial to the nurse, patients, other allied health personnel and the public. An astute nurse or scholar must evaluate the content of a website for credibility before using the resources following a systematic approach. The criteria to be used when evaluating Web-based sources are, authority, information, objectivity, ease of navigation, privacy and security policies. (CCN, 2015). The criteria will be discussed later. The health-related website I choose to evaluate is the National Institutes of Health website. URL: www.nih.gov The purpose of this website is to support the mission of the NIH, and their mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability. (nih.gov) The good thing about NIH website is that it can be located using many search engines like Google, yahoo, msn, AOL, mywebsearch, etc. NIH is a public domain image processing and analysis program for mackintosh. The software is located at http://rsb.info.nih.gov/nih-image/index.html My reasons for the selection of this website are: The NIH is one of the world’s foremost medical researchers and the focal point for medical research in the United States. (nih.gov). It comprises 27 separate...
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...Website Credibility Introduction What distinguishes a website as a credible source? As the internet continues to grow as a source of knowledge for people, there needs to be a system in place for determining its accuracy and reliability. http://www.cdc.gov.htm is a website created by the Center for Disease Control and is intended to provide consumers with information pertaining to diseases, emergencies, disasters, environmental health, travelers health, healthy living, workplace safety and more. This website can easily be found via the Google search engine. The following will discuss this website and determine if it is credible. Authority Authority can be defined as “the extent to which material is the creation of a person or organization that is recognized as having definitive knowledge of a given subject area.” (Usher & Skinner, 2008). The CDC is recognized as an accredited institution whose material is based on sound, researched evidence. The CDC has been in existence for over 60 years and is a well-known institution. On the website the CDC speaks of its core values. These are described as accountability by which their services are based on: sound scientific research and integrity by which there is a promise to disseminate information based on high quality data (http://www.cdc.gov/about/organization/mission.htm). Information The completeness of website information is an important step in evaluating website credibility. If a consumer of the website is reading...
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...Evaluating Websites More and more people are using the internet every day. It is important to know whether a website is credible or not. There are many websites out there that give false information or they give information trying to sell a product or they want you to believe a certain way, so the information is one-sided. Anyone can set up a web page, so how do you know if what you are reading is credible or not? You ask yourself some questions about the webpage. You want to ask questions about five different things; accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency, and coverage. I decided to research the United States Health and Human Services website. This website is informational website designed to present facts, letting the public know about what services are offered and how to take advantage of them. With an informational website, the URL Address frequently ends in .edu or .gov, as many of these pages are sponsored by educational institutions or government agencies. Examples of these are: dictionaries, thesauri, directories, transportation schedules, calendars of events, statistical data, and other factual information such as reports, presentations of research, or information about a topic (Alexander, Tate, 1999). I asked myself the following questions about accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency, and coverage.. . Accuracy – how accurate is the information on the page? Ask yourself the following questions: Can you verity the information (sources), is...
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...Essays are an essential element of learning, particularly at an undergraduate level. With a well-written essay comes the power to change minds, to influence thinking and create new perspectives. When evaluating the claims presented by a source in an academic essay, a critical and reflective thinker does not simply accept arguments as ‘fact’. Nor do they create arguments based on innuendo and bias. This essay will contend that for students at university level to be taken seriously they must use critical and reflective thinking to write an effective academic essay. The following points will be addressed; what constitutes a credible essay, what is critical thinking and reflective practice, what is the importance of these skills in developing arguments, the benefits of thinking critically and reflectively, the use of critical reflective thinking in evaluating sources and the importance of recognizing those sources correctly for the work to be considered credible. So what constitutes a credible essay? The purpose of the essay is to forward knowledge, to tackle an already existing argument and build on it using sound evidence and research. “Essays are a document of your learning; they show proof of your understanding of the topic and your ability to communicate that understanding convincingly” (Germov 2011, 2). An essay must put forth an argument then break it down to prove or disprove the thesis. The statement needs to be dissected and the main points need to be analysed. What...
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...* Paraphrase Practice | Evaluating Internet Sources Definition: In a rapidly changing world, Internet technology allows researchers to access the most up–to–date, timely, relevant, and targeted information. Accurately determining the reliability, validity, and usefulness of Web sites is an essential skill to understand and master. Credibility of a website is always important, especially when doing academic research or writing academic papers. In fact, credibility is crucial in academia. As you may or may not know, anyone can post information on the Internet. BobJones.com written by Bob Jones might contain information about the Civil War, but how does the reader know that Bob is an expert on the Civil War? Accurately determining the reliability and validity of websites is an essential skill when deciding to use an Internet source in an academic paper. Use the following guidelines when searching Internet sources for information to use in an academic paper: * Use websites that are credible * Use the most current sources possible * Use sources accessed through a university library These elements are discussed in detail below. Questions to Determine Internet Reliability What is the extension? The Web site address usually includes “www” followed by a period (called a dot), followed by an extension name (also called a domain name). The reliability of a website can frequently be determined by the domain or extension name. The most reliable extensions include...
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...Evaluation of Websites Credibility The Alzheimer's Association Gwendolyn M. Spong Chamberlain College of Nursing NUR 500 The website I decided to investigate and assess on its credibility is the Alzheimer's Association site (http://www.alz.org). The Alz.org is a site which offers valuable information to those affected and their loved ones as well as extensive research in the hopes of eliminating this disease. I have taken care of many patients that suffer from dementia and they as well as their families have a special place in my heart; therefore I decided to take a closer look at the Alzheimer's Association website. I used Google search engine to find a government or organization website related to Alzheimer's and the number two result in my search was Alz.org. The domain of the website for Alz.org is the ending .org which indicates that the website is operated by an organization and more specifically the Alzheimer's Association is a non-profit organization (Roberts, 2010). This paper will evaluate the Alzheimer's Association websites credibility including the sites authority, information, objectivity, ease of navigation, privacy and security policies; in addition, it will cover reasons for professional nurses to assess information on the internet and how the information from the website can be helpful to them. Today anybody has the ability to create a website and have their thoughts and opinions displayed to the public, however, we have to ask ourselves is the information...
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...Evaluating Website Credibility Introduction The internet is the primary source individuals use when researching information including, but not limited to, medical information. The goal is to review the credibility of a website using five key criteria which are accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency, and coverage (Colorado Community Colleges Online Library, 2015). For the purpose of the assignment, the website being evaluated by these five criteria is www.midwife.org which was found using the search engine Google that can be located by using the domain google.com. I chose this website because it provides accurate and up to date information in regards to the ever growing and evolving practice of midwifery both in the United States as well as other developed and underdeveloped countries. The full name of the website is the American College of Nurse-Midwives and the URL to locate this site is http://www.midwife.org/. The purpose of the American College of Nurse-Midwives, also known as the ACNM, is to “establish midwifery as the standard of care for women and to lead the profession through education, clinical practice, research, and advocacy.” (American College of Nurse-Midwives, 2015). Evaluation of Website In regards to the five criteria used to evaluate the credibility of websites, the ACNM meets all five of the criteria set forth. “The ACNM gets its national work done through the collaborative effort of its office staff and a vast network of volunteer representatives...
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...Evaluating a Website for Credibility: KidsHealth NR500 Foundational Concepts and Application Evaluation of a Websites Credibility: KidsHealth In today’s world of medicine when developing a patient care plan nurses should use evidence-based practice that has been peer-reviewed by subject matter experts (Miller, Jones, Graves, & Sievert 2010). The internet is frequently used by nurses to gather more information, expand their knowledge base, and provide patient education. The website http://kidshealth.org was found using the Google search engine, and chosen because of my work with the pediatric population. The purpose of KidsHealth is to provide parents, teens, and kids with a resource to consult regarding the health, nutrition, and development of children. The parent section of Kids Health can be located at http://kidshealth.org/parent/. Authority and Objectivity KidsHealh is sponsored by The Nemours Foundation; Nemours is a Children’s Health System with locations in Delaware, Florida, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania (Nemours A Children’s Health System, 2014). Contact numbers are not available on KidsHealth, but can be found through accessing The Nemours Health System link at the bottom of the website. The URL for Nemours is http://nemours.org and contact numbers of clinics, hospitals, and the departments of health and advocacy, fundraising, and research are available. Comments can be submitted on website regarding the functionality and content of KidsHealth...
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... the lessons learned, and what I would do differently during future collaborative work. Before this course, my experience with online sources of information had been limited to an observer status, and although I had read from a variety of sources online, and considered myself capable of sorting truth from fiction, I had never realised the extent to which information can and should be evaluated. A study conducted by Scholz-Crane 1998 (cited in Metzger, 2007, pp. 2080-2081) explains that a lax attitude toward proving the accuracy and credibility of websites is prevalent among college students. This information has encouraged me to be more critical in regard to information found on the web, and I now apply the criteria espoused by Tate, (2010, pp. 35-36) of checking for accuracy, authority, objectivity, currency and coverage. According to Treise et al (2003, cited in Cronin, 2007) sites in the .gov domain are considered more credible than those in the .com domain. As I have always considered it healthy to be critical of information emanating from government sources, it was interesting to discover that Cronin (2007) refutes this perspective, disclosing the fact that 47 percent of authors use the .com domain in their citations. Using this information to...
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...Evaluation of Website for Credibility: American Association for Nurse Practitioners Aman Verma Chamberlain College of Nursing NR500: Foundational Concepts and Applications September 18, 2013 Evaluation of Website for Credibility: American Association for Nurse Practitioners American Association for Nurse Practitioners (AANP) is a national professional membership organization for NPs of all roles. The purpose of their website is to support and transform the dynamic roles of nurse practitioners (NPs) as prime providers into patient focused healthcare. Being in the family nurse practitioner program fueled my interest to this website. I aspire to enhance my knowledge by investigating and educating myself on further roles of NPs in the community, acute care settings, administrative positions and tertiary care centers. The response to my discussion thread this week regarding legislations and regulations for nurse practitioners (NPs) grasped my attention for AANP as it is equipped with the information. The search engine that was used to locate the website is the Google. The domain name for AANP is aanp.org and the Uniform Resource Locator page address is http://www.aanp.org. American Association for Nurse Practitioner (AANP) is governed by a designated Board of Directors, which consists of 7 Executive Committee, 11 Regional Directors and 2 members. The board members are highly qualified NPs with Doctorate to Masters in Science degrees with an NP certification. Most of the...
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...Evaluating Website Credibility Evaluating the credibility of a website is extremely important, especially when it can impact a person’s health. I have chosen a dot gov domain, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) mission is “to protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the US” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.). The search engine utilized to find the CDC website was Google.com. The domain where the CDC is located is cdc.gov and the URL is http://www.cdc.gov. When selecting a website, I wanted a site that was relevant to my specialty and well known for informing the community on current health issues. Analysis of the Website Analysis of the CDC website shows they utilize many experts in a variety of fields from Medical doctors to masters and doctoral degree researchers. Experts’ credentials are clearly listed at the end of articles and the CDC stands behind the information placed on the website. Since the CDC is a government agency they are legally held accountable for the quality of information that they disburse including videos, webpages, brochures, and research papers. The organization uses peer review for all articles published and has a policy for correcting any inaccurate written or online information. Also they can be contacted multiple ways including a physical address, phone number, and email address. Information on the CDC website is frequently updated and all webpages and articles have...
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...the information that you can find on numerous subjects on the internet. You can find information a lot faster than if you did not have the internet, so it does make things simpler. It can be hazardous to use though and to be sure the information you find is credible requires a great deal of thought, you must think critically, and it means a lot of research. You will find that finding the information you desire to be the easy part, verifying the validity of that information will be more difficult. To know whether you can trust a source or not the first thing you need to do is come up with certain questions to ask yourself each time you need to check a sources credentials. I ask questions like “Who is behind the source? Is it a well-known institution or person? Where does it originally come from? Does it indicate an author? Is the article old or up-to-date? How well written is the article?” Whenever I do an internet search I asked myself specific questions about the information that I find. I asked myself these questions to assess and evaluate the value of the information I found during a search. For example I would check the domain of the website and its affiliations. I would also ask myself if I notice any bias on the website this happens often because people will put misinformation out there in order to sell or promote their business and or interest. Also I check multiple sources in order to ensure that...
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