Searching Made Easier & More Effective Practical Nursing 2014 Karen Hutchens & Debbie O’Rielly

At the end of the session, students should be able to:  Identify Search Terms  Put together a search statement  Know how to use CINAHL  CINAHL headings, limits, print/save  Evaluate search results Goals

1.Develop a Search Question 2.Picking out search terms/concepts 3.Come up with synonyms; alternate spellings 4.Write a search statement using CINAHL headings 6.Setting search limits 7.Looking at & evaluating articles 8.Save/print articles or alter search strategy (go back to step 2 or 3)  Check search terms  Check spelling  Search too narrow or too broad Steps to Searching

Purpose of Search Question  To determine what you want to know  To help identify search terms or concepts Search Question

Scenario: Your instructor is planning a discussion in class on how to prevent falls in the elderly living in a seniors home. She asks each student to find good current nursing articles on the subject for class. Search Question

What current information is available about fall prevention in a seniors home? Search Questions

Key Term 1Key Term 2Key Term 3 Falls elderlySeniors home OR OR OR preventing fallsolder adultsOld age home OR OR OR safety seniorslong term care OR OR agednursing homes Search Terms

( ) brackets keep similar terms/concepts together (elderly OR aged OR seniors) “ ” parentheses used for phrases ONLY “nursing homes” “assisted suicide” “pediatric nurse” * Truncation can be substituted for any number of letters teen* = teen, teens, teenager, teenager nurs* = nurse, nursing, nurses, nurse’s Other Useful Tools

 Link together main search terms and their synonyms and alternative spellings using Boolean terms AND OR  Use this statement for database search Search Statement

Example: “nursing home” OR “long term care” AND“accidental falls” ANDprevention ANDnurs*(SO Publication Name) Search Statement

Popular vs. Scholarly  Specific, in-depth articles  Original research, new developments in field  Written and intended for specialists, students  Peer-reviewed  Standard format  Tables, graphs, text  Continuous pagination  Broad, shorter articles  Overview, social issues, public opinion  Staff, freelance, popular language  In-house  Few references  Attract, advertising, entertain  Each issue page 1

To access CINAHL, go to this site: Make the following selections to get to CINAHL 1.Choose Articles tab 2. To Find articles on any topic, use article search 3. Indexes by Subjects, select nursing 4. CINAHL with full text CINAHL

Once in CINAHL, always go to CINAHL Headings first to check your search terms.  If CINAHL heading suggest other terms to use, write them down  Click on New Search, and enter your search terms CINAHL Headings

 Year: last 5 years  English language  There are articles in CINAHL in other languages. At the end of the article title you will see [language]. Even though the abstract is in English, the article will be in the language indicated in the [ ]. Search limits

Sample of a citation whose article is written in another language: Facing, accepting, growing and expecting: the practical experience of nursing students during their first clinical practice [Chinese]. Facing, accepting, growing and expecting: the practical experience of nursing students during their first clinical practice [Chinese]. (includes abstract); Sun, Jia-Jing; Sun, Hui-Lin; Journal of Nursing, 2011 Apr; 58 (2): (journal article) ISSN: X PMID: CINAHL AN: Search Limits

ARTICLE TITLE AUTHOR(S) JOURNAL TITLE Nursing children and adolescents with bipolar disorder: assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and management.Nursing children and adolescents with bipolar disorder: assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and management. Preview (includes abstract); McDougall T; Journal of Child & Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, 2009 Feb; 22 (1): 33-9 (journal article) ISSN: PMID: CINAHL AN: YEAR MONTH VOLUME ISSUE PAGE NUMBERS Citation

Does the article answer your search question? If you answered no to this question, then you need to:  Check your search terms  Check your spelling  Check the scope of search  Too specific?  Too broad? Evaluate Articles

to the questions on the previous slide, Congrats! You’re done with the searching portion of your paper. If you answered yes

No problem! Come see Karen Hutchens Library OR Debbie O’ReillyComputer Lab Need Extra Help?