Mastering the Search for Nursing Information
Mennonite College of Nursing at Illinois State University
Graduate Program
Authored by: Diane Mather, Milner Library
There is a vast amount of nursing/medical information available that will support you in your educational pursuits and professional practice. Because the ability to access this information is important for student and professional nurses, this module has been developed to strengthen your information gathering abilities. It will also give you the skills to participate in evidence-based practice which improves the quality of patient care and contributes to the empowerment of nursing as a profession.
Libraries. In order to fulfill the requirements of this module you do not have to physically use a library but you should identify a library that you can use if future needs require you to do so. Milner Library has one of the best nursing collections in the state however other suitable libraries exist. They can be found within hospitals, or educational institutions offering nursing programs. Librarians are a valuable source of assistance and finding one that specializes in the health sciences is important.. I, Diane Mather, am the librarian for Mennonite College of Nursing and will be happy to assist you at Milner Library. If you cannot find me at the reference desk on the main floor please go to my office on the fifth floor, # 515. I am also available for e-mail or telephone inquiries. My address is and my phone number is (309) 438-8336.
Objectives. After completing this module and worksheet you should be able to:
· Search the library’s online catalog
· Identify bibliographic databases valuable to the nursing community
· Interpret reference citations (also known as references)
· Understand controlled vocabulary (subject headings)
· Understand the nursing/medical tree structure
· Understand the “explode” function when searching the nursing and medical bibliographic databases
· Break a search question down into its searchable components
· Plan a literature search strategy for a complex question
· Implement searches on CINAHL
· Understand how to perform a basic search on PubMed
A worksheet, worth 10% of your course grade, appears at the end of the module. You will be required to fill out the worksheet and hand it to me no later than . It may be e-mailed to me at or . You may also deliver slid it under the door of my office or have someone place it in my library mailbox.
The Library Online Catalog. Almost all libraries have an online catalog. This bibliographic database holds records for all books owned by that library. Many libraries include journals, media, and other holdings in their catalog. A library catalog does not include references to specific journal articles. Think of the library’s catalog as an in-house tool although many catalogs are shared with other libraries and can be manipulated to display the holdings of these libraries. For instance, Milner Library’s catalog, through IShare, gives you the option of accessing the holdings of over 70 academic libraries in Illinois including those in Springfield, Peoria, Champaign-Urbana, and Chicago.
Most library catalogs provide options that allow you to search by author, precise start of title, title words, or any words anywhere. Take a minute to view all of your searching options before you begin your search. After typing in your information, click on the icon that best serves your purposes. People tend to press enter, without examining their possibilities, and accept inferior results.
If you want to know if a library owns the book entitled Creative Nursing Leadership & Management by Carolyn Clark you could do a title search. To access Milner Library’s online catalog click on ‘find books and other materials’ from the library’s homepage, www.library.ilstu.edu. Because this is a quick search click on the ‘Quick Search’ tab. Enter creative nursing leadership and management (a, an & the are ignored if they appear as the first word of a title). Now click on title found on the right side of your screen. If you were not sure of the exact title, but thought it included the words creative leadership, you would use the ‘Advanced Search’ tab and enter creative leadership and click on title words. An author search could also be done. Most systems direct you to enter the author’s last name followed by a comma and the author’s first name or initial of the author’s first name. One would therefore enter Clark, Carolyn.
Milner library assigns call numbers to their journals and enters these titles into their system therefore the library’s catalog can be used to determine if the library owns the journal. If it does, you can obtain the call number and floor location needed to find it on the shelves. Often the journal’s record will have a large E followed by ‘click her for online access’. Remember that the library catalog does not include references to specific journal articles. Many hospital libraries do not catalog their journals therefore you must view their journal list or hunt for a particular journal by searching the actual collection which is usually arranged alphabetically (by title) on the shelves. Libraries are replacing paper journal subscriptions with electronic access subscriptions therefore if you are not able to find a journal on the shelves contact the library’s online catalog or a librarian.
Bibliographic Databases Valuable to the Nursing Community. A bibliographic database is actually an index. An index is a tool which leads you to the source of your information. It does this by providing citations (also know as references). A citation has all the information you need to find the source. Some databases provide electronic access to actual journal articles. However not everything is available electronically. Please keep in mind that some nursing journal are not available in full text. If you limit yourself to what is available electronically you will probably miss important sources because some journal articles are available only in paper format and others are only available by borrowing it from another library. Libraries have developed sophisticated interlibrary loan systems making it possible for you to request, usually electronically, the source that you need. Please contact me, or another librarian, if you need to know how to request an item via interlibrary loan. Journal articles, requested through Milner Library’s Interlibrary Loan Department, usually take three to five days to arrive and usually they are emailed to your in PDF format
Library catalogs index books, media, and journal titles owned by that particular library. Other databases are needed to search for journal articles. I have prepared a list of databases deemed important for the nursing community. The most prominent nursing database is CINAHL. While it might be tempting to limit your searching to Medline or PubMed, because these databases are available without charge on the Internet, keep in mind that CINAHL indexes more nursing sources then does Medline or PubMed. PubMed actually includes the Medline database and more. The CINAHL thesaurus contains subject headings that are specific to nursing, including nursing classification terms and those related to nursing theories. Many of these subject headings are not used in MEDLINE or PubMed. Medline, or PubMed, uses controlled vocabulary known as MeSH headings. MeSH stands for medical subject headings. CINAHL is also valuable to the nursing community because it indexes non-journal formats such as some books & book chapters, ANA & NLN pamphlets, codes of ethics, critical paths, nursing dissertations, research instruments, legal cases, practice acts, nursing standards, and websites. CINAHL needs to be searched for all inquiries related to nursing. Other databases should be consulted depending on the nature of the question.
Major Databases for Nursing
All databases are available from Milner Library's homepage unless a specific URL is given. The library's homepage can be found at http://www.library.ilstu.edu. Click on find articles on your topic to access many of the following databases.
Core Nursing and Health Care Databases
· Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health (CINAHL)*
o Major index for nursing journals. Indexes over 500 nursing journals from 1982 to the present. The paper index, in the main floor’s reference section, extends back to 1956.
· MEDLINE
o Major database indexing medical journals. Includes many references to nursing journals but not as many as the database CINAHL. Also available on the Internet via http://www.Pubmed.gov or http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov. The PubMed database will yield all the references found in Medline and more, plus it is more current. Please see PubMed in this list of databases. If you search Medline, or PubMed, from the list of databases on Milner’s homepage, you will have access to the ‘Find It’ function which will indicate its location in Milner Library, either in paper or electronic format. If it is not available, an option is given that will facilitate borrowing it from another library.
· PubMed*
o Major index for medical journals but also includes references to nursing sources. If you access PubMed from the list of Milner’s databases, references will include the ‘Find it’ option which can be used to determine if Milner Library has the source, either in full-text or paper format. Includes over 16 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals. Provides access to some full-text. Updated more often than the MEDLINE database. It is also available without charge at http://www.pubmed.gov.
Specialized Databases
· Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
o Available via http://www.cdc.gov. Information for the public and health professional. Includes statistics, reports, fact sheets, etc.
· Clinical Trials*
o Available on the Internet via http://clinicaltrials.gov. Developed by the National Institute of Health. Indexes clinical research studies for patients, family members and the public.
· EDAC Evidence Database on Aging Care
o Available on the Internet via http://www.searchedac.org/search.php. Developed by the New York Academy of Medicine this is an evidence database to support research in aging.
· GPO Monthly Catalog (Government Printing Office)
o Available as a Milner database or on the Internet via http://www.gpoaccess.gov. If using the Internet, click on Catalog of U.S. Government Publications. Names of specific diseases or disorders can be entered. Milner Library houses many of the sources in its government document collection. To locate these works see Milner Library’s online catalog.
· Health and Psychosocial Instruments (HAPI)
o Provides over 70,000 records on research instruments relative to health and psychosocial sciences. Does not index journal articles but often indicates articles in which the research tool can be found.
· Health Source Consumer Edition
o Provides references and some full text to over 280 consumer-orientated health periodicals, over 1000 pamphlets and 23 health reference books. Includes pamphlets from the American Health Association, American Diabetes Association, etc.
· Health Source Nursing/Academic Edition
o Provides full text to many scholarly nursing journals and reference books. Does not index as many nursing sources as the CINAHL database.
· Images from the History of Medicine
o Available on the Internet via http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/ihm/. Provides 60,000 images to the prints and photograph collection of the History of Medicine Division of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Illustrations cover the social and historical aspects of medicine and nursing.
· MEDLINEplus
o Available on the Internet via http://medlineplus.gov. A service of the National Library of Medicine, it indexes mainly consumer health information. Provides links to nursing/medical dictionaries, directories, encyclopedias, organizations and new sources.
· Milner Library’s Online Catalog
o Indexes the holdings of Milner library which include books, journals, media, etc. Can be accessed from Milner Library’s homepage at http://www.library.ilstu.edu. Click on Find books and other materials. In order to search the library catalogs of over 70 academic libraries in Illinois click on I-Share after clicking on Find books…
· Nutrition.gov
o Available from the Internet via http://nutrition.gov.
· PsycINFO*
o Major database indexing journal literature in psychology & psychiatry covering 1872 to the present. Includes many references related to psychiatric and mental health nursing.
· Thomas
o Available on the Internet via http://Thomas.loc.gov. A free index to legislative information.
· Toxnet (Toxicology Data network)
o Available on the Internet via http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov. Indexes journal articles, books, technical reports,and papers. Contains a cluster of databases, including TOXNET, on subjects such as toxicology, hazardous chemicals, and related areas. A service of the National Library of Medicine.
· Virginia Henderson International Nursing Library (VHINL)
o Can be accessed at http://www.nursinglibrary.org. Provides a database of nursing research abstracts that are appear in the Registry of Nursing Research. Covers research studies, conference presentations, practice innovations and evidence-based projects.
· Web of Science
o Indexes important journals in the sciences, social sciences, and the arts and humanities from 1998 to present. Offers cited reference search options.
· WorldCat
o Indexes books, journals (not journal articles), and other materials found in libraries worldwide.
Databases of Systematic Reviews
· Cochrane Library Database*
o Provides full text sources, unique to Cochrane, that disseminates research findings of, and to, a wide international community. Accepts only one searcher at a time so if you cannot get on wait five minutes and try again. To access click on Cochrane Library. Cochrane actually consists of four full-text databases yielding evidence-based practice information. The separate databases are: 1) Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR); 2) Database of Abstracts of Reviews and Effectiveness (DARE); 3) Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (CCTR); 4) Cochrane Review Methodology Database (CRMD).
Evidence-Based Practice Meta-Search Databases
· SUMsearch*
o Can be accessed at http://sumsearch.uthscsa.edu. This database is actually a evidence-based practice meta-search tool that simultaneously searches multiple Internet sites for health science evidence and collates the results. Most of the sites are reliable government databases such as those produced by the National Library of Medicine. Most, but not all, of the searched sites contain reliable information. Be careful!
· TRIP*
o The TRIP, Turning Research into Practice, database can be accessed at http://www.tripdatabase.com. TRIP is actually an evidence-based practice meta-search tool designed to answer clinical questions using the principles of evidence based medicine. It is similar to the SUMsearch database in that it searches several databases simultaneously.
· Centre for Reviews and Dissemination*
o A site, http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/crdweb/, that allows for the simultaneous searching of three databases: 1) Dare, Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects; 2) NHS,NHS Economic Evaluation Database; and 3) HTA, Health Technology Assessment Database.