Searching CINAHL

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What is CINAHL?

CINAHL is an acronym for the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature.

It provides comprehensive coverage of the English language nursing literature.

CINAHL Plus with Full Text (the version of CINAHL to which the Library subscribes) indexes almost 5,000 journals and contains more than 4 million records.

Instructions for using this guide:

Accessing CINAHL

Go therefore From the Nursing subject guide to your right, click on Databases.

You are now on the Nursing Databases page, which provides links to popular resources for nurses and nursing students.

Go therefore Click on the link for CINAHL with Full text, which is located in the middle column.

You are now in the CINAHL database.

Off Campus? Getting a Error Message?

Searching Tips

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When searching for evidence in the literature, it's best to take a structured approach.

Therefore, you should always:

1. Begin with a focused statement or question.

Before we look at an example of a focused question, let's look at an unfocused one.

The following statement is very broad, and will likely yield too many search results:

I am interested in nurse staffing levels.

Searching Tips

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When focusing your topic, it may be helpful to ask these questions:

  • What specific aspect/aspects do I want to research?
  • What population do I want to investigate?
  • What outcomes do I hope to measure, affect or improve?

For the topic of nurse staffing levels, an example of a focused question would be:

Is there a relationship between nurse staffing levels and pressure sores?

Searching Tips

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The next searching tip is to:

2. Identify key concepts of the question or statement.

For our question, Is there a relationship between nurse staffing levels and pressure sores, the key concepts that we'll want to search on are:

staffing levels and pressure sores.

Keyword Search

Let's try searching for our key concepts.

Go therefore In the first box, type staffing levels and pressure sores. Click Search.

Search Results

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How many search results did you get?

Search Results

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Does the number of search results seem appropriate to you?

Search Results

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This brings us to our next searching tip:

3. Use subject headings whenever possible.

Subject headings are standardized terms that describe a concept. They help you find articles about topics that can be expressed in many ways.

For Example: Cancer can be described in various ways, including malignancy, carcinoma, melanoma, breast cancer, etc.

With all these possible terms to choose from, how do you know which to search on?

In CINAHL, the subject heading for cancer is Neoplasms. By searching on Neoplasms, you'll find articles about this topic regardless of how an author may have referred to it.

CINAHL Headings

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We need to determine what the subject headings are for our two concepts, pressure sores and staffing levels.

Go therefore Click on CINAHL Headings in the blue bar at the top of the page.

You are now in CINAHL Headings. This is where we will find the best subject headings for our concepts.

Go therefore Type pressure sores in the box. Click Browse.

CINAHL Headings

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Instead of Pressure Sores, CINAHL tells us we should use what term?

CINAHL Headings

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It looks like Pressure Ulcer is the heading we want.

Go therefore Click on the underlined CINAHL Heading, Pressure Ulcer.

You are now in the Tree View for this term.

The Tree View shows broader and narrower terms for Pressure Ulcer.

Heel Ulcer, which is indented under Pressure Ulcer, is a narrower term of this subject heading.

CINAHL Headings

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Go therefore To select Pressure Ulcer, check the box to the left of it.

This should automatically check the box in the Explode column (to the right of Pressure Ulcer). If not, you can manually check it.

When you Explode a term, CINAHL will search on a heading as well as its narrower terms.

CINAHL should add Pressure Ulcer beneath the Search Database button on the upper right side of the screen.

search database

CINAHL Headings

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Now we need to add our keyword to the search.

Go therefore Click on Back to Term List, located in the green bar on the left.

back to term list

Go therefore Scroll towards the bottom of the page to the pink shaded area.

Go therefore Check the box beside pressure sores to search for it as a keyword.

CINAHL should add pressure sores under Pressure Ulcer, both which are beneath the Search Database button.

Combining Terms

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You want CINAHL to search for either term (Pressure Sores, Pressure Ulcer). Which Boolean operator (or connector) should you use to combine these terms?

Combining Terms

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By combining Pressure Sores and Pressure Ulcer with OR, CINAHL will search for articles containing either term.

OR is typically used to combine similar terms and will broaden your search results.

Go therefore Beneath Combine selections with, choose OR. Click Search Database.

You are now back on the main page in CINAHL.

Search Results

How many search results did you get?

CINAHL Headings

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Now we need to find a CINAHL Heading for our second term, staffing levels.

Go therefore Click on CINAHL Headings in the blue bar at the top of the page.

You are now in CINAHL Headings.

Go therefore Type staffing levels in the search box, and click Browse.

CINAHL Headings

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Personnel Staffing and Scheduling looks like a good heading!

Go therefore Click on the underlined heading to see the Tree View for this term.

CINAHL Headings

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Which of the following are narrower terms of the CINAHL Heading, Personnel Staffing and Scheduling?

CINAHL Headings

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Go therefore Check the box to the left of Personnel Staffing and Scheduling.

This should automatically check the box in the Explode column. If not, you can manually check it.

CINAHL should add Personnel Staffing and Scheduling beneath the Search Database button.

CINAHL Headings

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Now we need to add staffing levels to our search.

Go therefore Click on Back to Term List, located in the green bar on the left.

Go therefore Scroll towards the bottom of the page to the pink shaded area.

Go therefore Check the box beside staffing levels to search for it as a keyword.

CINAHL should add staffing levels under Personnel Staffing and Scheduling, both which are beneath the Search Database button.

Go therefore Beneath Combine selections with, choose OR. Click Search Database.

You are now back on the main page in CINAHL.

CINAHL Headings

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How many search results did you get?

CINAHL Headings

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We're now ready for our next searching tip:

4. Search each concept separately. Then combine search sets using AND, OR.

Since we have already searched each concept separately, we now just need to combine our sets.

We want articles that contain both of our concepts – Pressure Ulcer and Personnel Staffing and Scheduling. So, we'll want to use AND to combine our search sets.

CINAHL Headings

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Go therefore If you don't see your search history, click on the Search History link located just below the search boxes near the top of the page.

Go therefore To combine our sets, check the box beside S2 (Pressure Ulcer OR pressure sores) and S3 (Personnel Staffing and Scheduling OR staffing levels).

Go therefore Then click on Search with AND.

Search Results

How many search results did you get?

Searching Tips

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Our final searching tip is to:

5. Use limits to focus search results.

Common limits are English language, publication dates, age ranges, and article type.

Go therefore To apply limits, click on the Show More link, located in the blue bar to the left of our search results.

show more

You are now on the Search Options page.

Searching Tips

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Go therefore Check the box beside English Language.

Go therefore Under Publication Type, choose Systematic Review from the menu.

Go therefore Then click Search (located in the upper right corner).

Search Results

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Find the following article in your search results: Hospital nurse staffing models and patient and staff-related outcomes. What well-regarded group produced this paper?

Search Results

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Hospital nurse staffing models and patient and staff-related outcomes is a Cochrane Systematic Review.

Because Cochrane Systematic Reviews must adhere to rigorous guidelines, they are considered the gold standard to which all other systematic reviews are compared.

Go therefore To see if Goshen has the full-text of this article, click on the link titled Search catalog and other full text locations.

Search Results

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Does Goshen have the full-text article?

The End

You have successfully completed the Searching CINAHL tutorial!

If you have questions, or need help searching CINAHL, please contact Goshen College Good Library at (574) 535-7431.

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