For most nursing literature searches, the place to start is CINAHL. That stands for Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature. CINAHL is a database that covers the world of nursing literature back to 1982 online, and back much farther in print. You will use the search terms you identified for your PICO question to search the library databases CINAHL and ProQuest Nursing. Once you view your results, you can decide to apply filters or scroll through the articles. Good limits to use are English and the last five years.
Full text for hundreds of journals and books/monographs, publications from the National League for Nursing and the American Nurses' Association, indexes more than 5,000 journals and includes full text for more than 130 Evidence-Based Care Sheets.
| Technique | Outcome |
| AND | Combines terms, narrows search |
| OR | Combines related terms, expands search |
| NOT | Excludes terms, narrows search |
| Truncation * | Serves as a wildcard for the end of words, expands search |
| Quotation Marks "..." | Searches exact phrase, narrows search |
If the article you find in a database doesn't appear to have the full-text, click on the Full Text button (or link) to see if it's available in another database. If this doesn't work, you can request it through Interlibrary Loan and the full-text article will be delivered to your inbox!
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