.Information Literacy in the Health Sciences

CINAHL (Cumulated Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) is the authoritative resource for nursing and allied health professionals, students, educators and researchers. This database provides indexing and abstracting for over 2,900 current nursing and allied health journals and publications dating back to 1982, totaling over 880,000 records. CINAHL contains references to journal articles, meeting abstracts, audiovisuals and dissertations. It indexes nearly all English-language nursing journals, publications from the American Nurses' Association and the National League for Nursing. In addition, it covers the primary journals from allied health disciplines, biomedical, behavioral science, management, and popular medical literatures. Coverage begins in 1983 and continues to the current date.

The CINAHL and MEDLINE databases are designed to be preferentially searched using the Subject Headings. Records are coded with Subjects according to the topic(s) of the publication. 

CINAHL makes new records visible even before their employees have finished coding them in order to provide current awareness of new journal articles. These new records may not yet have Subject Headings added. The early display of incomplete records enables users to find publications that have just been published, even all features affecting findability are not finished.

.

Click Show More to see more options that may be used to refine your search. Hold down the CTRL key to select more than one item from a dropdown list. Publication Type can limit results to Randomized Controlled Trials, Systematic Reviews, Meta Analysis, Practice Guidelines, Questionnaire/Scale, Research Instrument,  and/or many more publication types. Evidence-Based Practice can limit to Randomized Controlled Trials, Systematic Reviews, Meta-analyses.

Finding research articles in CINAHL.
For general research articles,...
Click "Search options"
In the "Publication Type" box, select "Research"
Click Search.

or

Click "CINAHL Headings" at the top of the screen.
Type: RESEARCH.
Click Browse.
CLICK on the link "RESEARCH"
See all of the different types of research that can be searched?
Check box in front of "RESEARCH"  To the right, check the box for Explode.
Click "Search Database."

Finding quantitative research articles in CINAHL.     
Click "CINAHL Headings" at the top of the screen.
Type: QUANTITATIVE.
Click Browse.
Check box in front of "Quantitative Studies."
Click "Search Database."

Finding qualitative research articles in CINAHL.     
Click: “CINAHL Headings” at the top of the screen
Type: QUALITATIVE.
Click Browse.
Check box in front of "Qualitative Studies" To the right, check the box for Explode.
Click "Search Database."

Finding publications that use specific methodologies in CINAHL. 
Click: “CINAHL Headings” at the top of the screen
Type: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.
Click Browse.
CLICK on the link "Research Methodology."
See all of the different types of methodologies that can be searched?
Check box in front of "Research Methodology"  To the right, check the box for Explode.
Click "Search Database."

CINAHL provides some search features that help searchers to include or exclude geographic regions (specific states, countries, or continents) from the search results.

Click "CINAHL Headings" at the top of the screen.
Type: geographic locations.
Click Browse.
CLICK on the link "GEOGRAPHIC LOCATIONS"
Observe that locations are subcategorized by continent or by region. You may narrow down to the location(s) that you wish.
Check the box in front of the desired location.  To the right, check the box for Explode.
Click "Search Database."

(MH "India") OR (MH "Middle East+") OR (MH "China+") OR (MH "Russia") OR (MH "USSR+")

If desired, you may also combine searches with NOT to eliminate locations.

CINAHL includes two Subjects that can be used to narrow down to publication records where at least one author is a nurse.

From the CINAHL Results webpage, on the left, click Show More.
Check the box to the left of "First Author is Nurse" or "Any Author is Nurse".
Click Search.

From EBSCO's press release:

Clinical Queries, designed for clinician use, allow users to limit searches with specific search strategies, to aid in retrieving scientifically sound and clinically relevant study reports indexed in CINAHL databases. Searches can be refined using specific search strategies designed to produce results in five research areas:

• Therapy
• Prognosis
• Review
• Qualitative
• Causation (Etiology)

As research may require different emphasis, three strategies are provided for each area.

• High Sensitivity is the broadest search, to include ALL relevant material. It may also include less relevant materials.
• High Specificity is the most targeted search to include only the most relevant result set, may miss some relevant materials.
• Best Balance retrieves the best balance between Sensitivity and Specificity.

To perform a search using Clinical Queries

1. Enter the CINAHL database.
2. Enter your search terms.
3. Go to the Search Options and select the desired choices (from above) in the Clinical Query box.
4. Click Search.

Filters are prewritten search queries designed to be copied and pasted into a database to retrieve a certain type of result. A few Cinahl filters follow. Content includes prewritten filters for diagnosis, etiology, prognosis, therapy, meta-analysis, and qualitative research.