Quicksearch, available on the library home page, will search everything in the library. You will get lots of results, but many of them will not be relevant to your assessment.
A database is a more discipline specific collection of resources. The library subscribes to many, and some commonly used in nursing are CINAHL, Medline, and PsychInfo. Searching a database will give you less results but they are more likely to be relevant.
The instructions below are for CINAHL, but Medline and PsychInfo work the same way.
Different databases have different types of resources such as videos, but you will need to find and use peer reviewed journal articles for most assessments. A peer reviewed journal is like a magazine for researchers, academics and university students that publishes scientific research and is often focused on a very narrow, specific topic. Sometimes they are called academic or scholarly journals. However, unlike magazines, the authors of journal articles have to go through extra steps before getting published.
Peer review is a process that scientists and researchers need to go through when they publish research to make sure the information is accurate and reliable. After the research has been written up, it is sent to a relevant journal. If the editor thinks it is good enough, it then is sent to a different group of scientists or researchers (called reviewers) who carefully assess the research to make sure that it was conducted properly and ethically, and the results are accurate. Sometimes it is sent back to the authors to make corrections or changes. Only when the reviewers are satisfied will it be published in the journal. This process makes sure that it is accurate and reliable, and able to be used to inform decisions and practice, which is particularly important in medical fields.
Keywords are the major concepts of your research topic. Identifying the most appropriate keywords will ensure that you find as many relevant results as possible. You can record them in a document if you like. The first step is to pick out the major concepts of the assessment.
Below is a sample assessment question, with the major concepts highlighted in yellow:
How can child and family health nurses support young mothers experiencing family violence?
Next, look at synonyms, or words and terms that mean the same thing, for each major concept. You'll need to consider:
You may find more keywords during your search by looking at the titles and abstracts of what you find.
| Child and family health nurses | Young mothers | Family violence |
| Maternal child nurse, neonatal nurse | Adolescent mothers, teen mothers | Intimate partner violence, spousal abuse |
In addition to identifying keywords and synonyms, you need to think about the limits of what you are looking for. So ask yourself:
Often in nursing you are required to use articles no more than seven years old, to ensure you are looking at the most up to date and reliable information.
Boolean operators are used between terms to tell the database what to do. They need to be in CAPITAL LETTERS, otherwise the database will look for them as a search term as well. They can be used in databases, Quicksearch, and also work in Google.
Think of it as addition for keywords. This finds articles that have both of the terms in them.
Think of this as multiplication for keywords. This finds articles that have either term in them.
This one is best used for synonyms as you want either keyword appearing in your results.
You can combine many Boolean operators together:
(adolescent mother OR teen mother) AND family violence
Phrase searching is the most immediate and obviously useful search tip to get better results when you are researching. It can also be used in databases, Quicksearch, and Google.
If a key term is made up of more than one word, link them together as a single concept using "double quotation marks" around the keywords. Without the double quotation marks each word is searched as a separate term, and can appear anywhere in the following fields - author, title, abstract and subject headings.
For example if you enter the following searches in QuickSearch,
They can be combined with Boolean operators:
("adolescent mother" OR "teen mother") AND "family violence"
Truncation allows you to search for the various word endings and spellings. It only works in databases, and can also be combined with Boolean and phrase searching.
For example using the asterisk * below will enable you to search for many more versions of that stem word and is a good technique to use when you're struggling to get enough results. It is often used if authors may have used a plural form of a term, for example, some articles might refer to "a young mother" while other might talk about "young mothers".
| research* | |
| research | ed |
| research | er |
| research | ers |
| research | es |
| research | ing |
("adolescent mother*" OR "teen mother*") AND "family violence"
Limits are a way of narrowing your search. You can add them in the advanced search screen, or on the left hand side of the results screen. Common limits you might use are a date range, geographical location, and peer reviewed articles.
Accessing the full text of an article in CINAHL is easy. In the results screen under each abstract, there will be a link to either a PDF or online (HTML) copy of the article.
Alternatively there is sometimes a note to search for the article in Federation Library. Clicking this link will search the rest of the library databases to try and find the article.
A window will open showing the other library databases the article is held in. Click on the blue Go button to access the full text.
