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Nursing: UpToDate

Getting Started with UpToDate

Getting Access to UpToDate

UpToDate is a clinical database with information on diseases, drugs, and updates in clinical practice. The database requires you to create an account in order to use it. You can also use UpToDate on your phone by downloading the UpToDate (Wolters Kluwer) app. 

1) Go to the Library's library's A-Z list of databases, select UpToDate.
2) Sign in with your SUU credentials
3) Once you reach the database, you will need to sign in again but this time with your UpToDate sign in. If you haven't registered for an UpToDate account yet, do it here. Then sign in.
4) Optional: Download the UpToDate (Wolters Kluwer) App and login with your UpToDate username and password to use database on your phone.

Using UpToDate 

UpToDate has several types of content you can access by clicking the menu in the top right corner. This guide provides a quick overview of the different content categories. You can also checkout the different tools UpToDate provides. 

Screen capture of UpToDate database home page

 



 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1. Practice Changing Updates

Updates on major changes in clinical practice can be found here. The changes are organized chronologically, with the most recent at the top. 

2. What's New

This content shows important updates in the major specialty areas. It is a great way to stay up to date in your area.

3. Patient Education

Content specifically created for patients covering many different topics. There are two types:

     1) The Basics, which are short overviews on diseases and conditions written in plain language that typically describe everything a patient might want to know about.

     2) Beyond the Basics articles are longer reviews that may contain some medical terminology and are more complex. 

The content is organized by topic, and for each subtopic the available, the available patient information is listed and can be displayed in four different languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, and Spanish) to address different patient needs.

4. Lab Interpretation

This content has information on how to help nurses evaluate the numbers on lab reports, specifically when these numbers are outside the norm. There are sections on chemistry labs, coagulation labs, endocrinology labs, hematology labs, microbiology labs, and tumor marker labs. 

5. Drug Information

This section provides general drug information about drugs used in the USA but also internationally used drugs. Each drug as an information sheet with sections on drug name variations, dosing, adverse reactions, contraindications, warnings, precautions, generics, safety issues, etc. The list of drugs is in alphabetical order.

NOTE: To learn whether certain drugs can be taken together, use the tab at the top call Drug Interactions. You can enter a number of drug names to see whether there are any known interactions.

The Drug Information section also contains international drug information (concise) drug information for patients and pediatric drug information. Finally, if you want to find out about new drugs, drug approvals, warnings, or drugs removed from the market in the past six months, click on What's new in Drug Therapy.

6. Topics by Specialty

This section provides you with information on a lot of different specialties. You can explore topics and drill down to specific information. For example, when you click on Hematology, then Pediatric hematology, and then Bone marrow transplantation, you will find a number of articles related to this topic, such as Donor selection for hematopoietic cell transplantation, written by medical experts and summarizing the literature on this subject. 

 

Further Information

For more information on using UpToDate, please visit the UpToDate User Academy. There are further instructions as well as helpful videos. You can also download a Quick Reference Guide