Research Guides: Nursing: Searching Databases

Library Search

Nursing and Health Databases

CINAHL Complete
Provides indexing of the top nursing and allied health literature, including more than 5,000 journals.

Provides indexing of the top nursing and allied health literature, including more than 5,000 journals.
PubMed
Citations and abstracts in the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, health care systems, and preclinical sciences.

This resource is freely available from the Internet. The Linkout feature, which is marked with an icon, provides access to the full-text of journals subscribed to by Appalachian State University Libraries.
Cochrane Library
Cochrane provides both systematic reviews as well as randomized-control trials.

The Cochrane Library is associated with the evidence-based practice movement in health care.
PsycINFO
Contains over 3 million citations and summaries of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations in psychology and related disciplines.

Contains over 3 million citations and summaries of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations in psychology and related disciplines.
Google Scholar
Use Google Scholar through the library to be automatically linked to the full text of articles we own.

Use Google Scholar through the library to be automatically linked to the full text of articles we own.

Before you search...

Consider what are the key concepts of your research question. You can use P.I.C.O. to help you brainstorm what those topics might be.

Example using PICO to create keywords

Research Question: In adults, does taking vitamin C or zinc supplements reduce the occurrence of the common cold compared with not taking supplements?
PICO	Meaning	Example	Keywords
P	Patient or population	Adults	Adults
I	Intervention	Taking vitamin C or zinc supplements	vitamin C Zinc supplements
C	Comparison	No intervention
O	Outcome	Reduce occurrence of common cold	"common cold' cold viral rhinitis

MeSH Subject Headings

Beyond keywords, most medical databases also use subject headings to index items. Subject headings can be more reliable than keywords because they are standardized terms that are assigned to items by experts which allows for more precise searching.

These subject headings might be called different things. For example, CINAHL calls them "CINAHL Headings" where as PubMed refers to their medical subject headings as MeSH. The videos below show how to use both types of subject headings.

Further Training

All of our databases offer trainings and tutorials for further help.

Nursing: Searching Databases

Science Librarian