CINAHL – Part 1 Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature

2 Before you go any further, download the document available in Blackboard: Nursing Databases Guide It gives you a step by step guide to using the variety of nursing databases available from IWU.

3 CINAHL Covers nursing, allied health, biomedical and consumer health journals, publications of the ANA and the NLN 1982 to the present Covers nursing, allied health, biomedical and consumer health journals, publications of the ANA and the NLN 1982 to the present

4 OCLS Home Page Click on: Nursing

5 Locate CINAHL

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7 OR Type your term in the Find: box and check mark, Suggest Subject Terms. Let’s try the latter one. To get the most relevant results, click on the CINAHL Headings tab.

8 But first, let’s talk about CINAHL Headings. Why use them? These are the controlled vocabulary of subject headings. Each item indexed in CINAHL is assigned a set of subject headings designed to describe the item content. They are known as Major or Minor Subjects. These are the controlled vocabulary of subject headings. Each item indexed in CINAHL is assigned a set of subject headings designed to describe the item content. They are known as Major or Minor Subjects. Note: This article had several headings to describe the content of the article.

9 But first, let’s talk about CINAHL Headings. Why use them? (cont) Let’s say your topic was about educational models, you could get a lot of articles about models but not necessarily educational models! Furthermore you would discover that the correct term for this in CINAHL is: Models, Educational.

But first, let’s talk about CINAHL Headings. Why use them? (cont) A keyword search looks for the words anywhere in the record; a CINAHL headings search looks for the term only in the Major or Minor Subjects field. You will get articles by keyword, but using the CINAHL headings uses the right language for this database and gets you to the most relevant articles the fastest. A keyword search looks for the words anywhere in the record; a CINAHL headings search looks for the term only in the Major or Minor Subjects field. You will get articles by keyword, but using the CINAHL headings uses the right language for this database and gets you to the most relevant articles the fastest. 10

To summarize: Keyword search looks for terms anywhere in the record and will get a results set of records containing the term. Subject searching looks for the term in the subject field only; it has to be phrased in “CINAHL” language; and it will get a results set of records about the term. To summarize: Keyword search looks for terms anywhere in the record and will get a results set of records containing the term. Subject searching looks for the term in the subject field only; it has to be phrased in “CINAHL” language; and it will get a results set of records about the term. 11 But first, let’s talk about CINAHL Headings. Why use them? (cont)

12 But first, let’s talk about CINAHL Headings. Why use them? (cont.) Indexers predetermine that the article has sufficient content for the assigned CINAHL headings. You locate all the articles discussing this topic! (Time saving tip!!!) Lets see how it works with a sample search. Indexers predetermine that the article has sufficient content for the assigned CINAHL headings. You locate all the articles discussing this topic! (Time saving tip!!!) Lets see how it works with a sample search.

13 Continue viewing CINAHL, Part 2.