.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 PubMed databases are designed to be preferentially searched using the Subject Headings. Records are coded with Subjects or MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) according to the topic(s) within 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.

1. FIRST! Sign in to your personal MyEBSCO account.
2. Enter keywords into the search boxes.
3. Scroll down to select Filters.
4. Click to find and select Subject Headings.
5. Click Search.

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xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Age Groups can limit results to items about patients or  research subjects within a specific age range.                 Scroll down the page for how to search for Geographic Locations.

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Finding research articles in CINAHL.
For general research articles,...

1. Click "Advanced Search"
2. Below the search boxes, click "Filters." Scroll down.
3. In the "Publication Type" box, select "Research"
4. Click Search.

or

1. Click "Advanced Search"
2. Below the search boxes, click "CINAHL Headings".
3. In the box, type: RESEARCH.
4. Click the magnifying glass to have CINAHL suggest possible Subject Headings.
5. Scroll down and observe options.
6. CLICK on the link "RESEARCH." View the definition and scroll down to see how it relates to other CINAHL Subject Headings. See all of the different types of research that can be searched?
7. Check box to the left of "RESEARCH"  To the far right, check the box for Explode.
8. Click "Search Database."

Finding quantitative research articles in CINAHL.     

1. Click "Advanced Search"
2. Below the search boxes, click "CINAHL Headings".
3. In the box, type: QUANTITATIVE.
4. Click the magnifying glass to have CINAHL suggest possible Subject Headings.
5. Scroll down and observe options.
6. CLICK on the link "QUANTITATIVE STUDIES." View the definition and scroll down to see how it relates to other CINAHL Subject Headings. See all of the different types of quantitative research that can be searched?
7. Check box to the left of "QUANTITATIVE STUDIES."  To the far right, check the box for Explode.
8. Click "Search Database."

Finding qualitative research articles in CINAHL.     

1. Click "Advanced Search"
2. Below the search boxes, click "CINAHL Headings".
3. In the box, type: QUALITATIVE.
4. Click the magnifying glass to have CINAHL suggest possible Subject Headings.
5. Scroll down and observe options.
6. CLICK on the link "QUALITATIVE STUDIES." View the definition and scroll down to see how it relates to other CINAHL Subject Headings. See all of the different types of qualitative research that can be searched?
7. Check box to the left of "QUALITATIVE STUDIES."  To the far right, check the box for Explode.
8. Click "Search Database."

Finding publications that use specific methodologies in CINAHL. 

1. Click "Advanced Search"
2. Below the search boxes, click "CINAHL Headings".
3. In the box, type: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.
4. Click the magnifying glass to have CINAHL suggest possible Subject Headings.
5. Scroll down and observe options.
6. CLICK on the link "RESEARCH METHODOLOGY." View the definition and scroll down to see how it relates to other CINAHL Subject Headings. See all of the different types of methodologies that can be searched?
7. Check box to the left of "RESEARCH METHODOLOGY."  To the far right, check the box for Explode.
8. Click "Search Database."

There are several methods to search for evidence-based practice (EBP) publications in the CINAHL database. Each Filter or Subject Heading may retrieve different results because some methods determine what is EBP differently. A thorough search strategy may try all of the different methods and compare the results. 

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

1. Click "Advanced Search"
2. Below the search boxes, click "CINAHL Headings".
3. In the box, type: GEOGRAPHIC LOCATIONS.
4. Click the magnifying glass to have CINAHL suggest possible Subject Headings.
5. Scroll down and observe options.
6. CLICK on the link "GEOGRAPHIC LOCATIONS." View the definition and scroll down to see how it relates to other CINAHL Subject Headings. See all of the different types of geographic regions of the world that can be searched? Observe that locations are subcategorized by continent or by region. You may narrow down to the location(s) that you wish.
7. Check the box to the left of the desired location.  To the right, check the box for Explode.
8. Click "Search Database."

For example...

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

Use this feature with care because it is not applied consistently. Articles about research performed in the United States are not always marked with the Geographic Location of "United States". 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.

1. From the CINAHL Results webpage, click "Advanced Search"
2. Below the search boxes, click "Filters." Scroll down.
3. Check the box to the left of "First Author is Nurse" and/or "Any Author is Nurse".
4. 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. Scroll down to Filters 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.

"Search Hedges" are also sometimes called "Search Filters." Yes, I think it is confusing, too. Maybe this will help to think of it this way. "Search Hedges" are prewritten and preplanned search strings that "filter" the results to the desired concept. 

It can help to look at examples.