CINAHL Search Techniques & Strategies

CINAHL Search Techniques & Strategies Educational Programming by Sladen Library Developed by JoAnn Krzeminski, MLIS

What is CINAHL? • CINAHL stands for Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature • It is a bibliographic database covering the fields of nursing, allied health, biomedicine, and health care • CINAHL indexes articles from over 2900 journals • Coverage dates from 1981 to the present

This Tutorial Will Cover How To: • Get to CINAHL from the library website • Perform a basic (keyword) search • Perform an advanced search using CINAHL subject headings • Apply limits to search results • Access the full text of articles • Save, print, or email search results

Getting to CINAHL from the Sladen Library Website www.henryfordconnect.com/sladen Select CINAHL from the Quick Links box on the right side of the page Or, you can choose the Medline & More Databases link in the left margin

Getting to CINAHL Using the Medline & More link will take you to a page listing all the library’s databases. Choose CINAHL via EBSCO to access the CINAHL database.

CINAHL Overview Various types of searches can be performed in CINAHL. You can search by keyword (Basic Search), author, article title, journal title, or do an Advanced Search that utilizes CINAHL Subject Headings.

Performing a Basic Search A Basic Search only searches the CINAHL record for an exact match of the word(s) entered into the search box. It does not search the full text of an article. Because Basic Search only looks for an exact match of the entered terms, it will not for example, find articles where “bedsores” are referred to as “pressure ulcers”. To avoid missing relevant articles, also search any alternative names or do an Advanced Search using CINAHL subject headings. • Search question: bedsores in intensive care • With Basic Search selected (text in black), type the words you want to search into the search box • Click the Search button

Performing a Basic Search The number of results Result List: The article title is in blue followed by the citation information including the author(s) and journal information. Clicking on the article title will open up a new page with the abstract which is a short description of what the article is about. You can also see a quick view of the abstract by hovering over the magnifying glass icon. After clicking Search, the next page will display the results.

Performing an Advanced Search To begin an advanced search using CINAHL subject headings, click on Advanced Search located underneath the search box.

Advanced Search • Search question: bedsores in intensive care • In an Advanced Search, enter in each search term individually. Terms will be combined later. • Enter in the first term “bedsores” and click on Search.

Advanced Search • You will be directed to the CINAHL Headings page. • The note tells you that to search “bedsores”, use the CINAHL heading “Pressure Ulcer”. • By using the “Pressure Ulcer” heading, you will not only retrieve articles that use the term “pressure ulcer”, but also “bedsores” and related names like “decubitus ulcer” or “pressure sore”.

Advanced Search If you select Explode, the search will be expanded to include not only Pressure Ulcers, but also any narrower subject terms. If you click on Scope, a small window will pop-up with a short definition of the term. If you select Major Concept, the search will only look for articles in which pressure ulcers are considered the main point of the article. Tip: Use cautiously since it can drastically limit your retrieval. A few things to note on the CINAHL headings page.

Advanced Search 2. Once the term is selected, available subheadings will display. Applying subheadings can help narrow a very broad topic. For example, if you were only interested in articles about the drugs to treat pressure ulcers you could select the “Drug Therapy/DT” subheading. Applying subheadings is optional. You can choose not to use them. 3. Finally, click the Search Database button to run the search! 1. To add the CINAHL heading to your search box, check the box in front of the term.

Advanced Search The resulting page will show your Search History with the Results list below it. The CINAHL heading “Pressure Ulcers” turned up 6600 results. At this point you can apply limits and/or add more terms your search. The next 3 slides will demonstrate how to add another term and combine it with the results for Pressure Ulcer.

Building the Search 3 1 2 Follow these steps to add a second term or concept to the search: • First, clear out the search box • Enter in the second term, in this case “intensive care” • Click on the Search button

Building the Search You will be directed to the CINAHL Headings page for the term “intensive care”. You may notice that more than one of the suggested terms could apply to your search. Not a problem, just check off all terms you would like to include and they will be combined with “or”. Lastly, click on Search Database.

Combining Terms 1. Clear out the search box. 2. Check off the searches you want to combine. 3. Combine the searches by clicking the Search with AND button. The Search History now displays the two searches that were added. Follow these steps to combine the two searches.

Applying Limits To access the Limits page, click on Edit within the search line you want to limit, or click on Show More under “Refine your results.” Now that the two searches are combined, limits can be applied to help refine the results. Commonly used limits include publication year and language, but CINAHL offers many other limits such as for research articles, peer-reviewed articles, and “nurse as author”.

Applying Limits • Choose the limits you wish to apply. • Click on Search in the top right corner or bottom left corner to continue. • A new line will appear in your Search History featuring the applied limits.

Accessing Full Text Articles If you come across an article that you’d like to read in full, you can see if the library provides access to it online or in print by clicking on the red Find It @ Sladen button that is located on each citation in the Result List. The Journal Detail page will open in a new window. To see if the article is available online, check the “Is it online?” section. If the library provides online access to the article, click on the red Go button and a separate window will open with the article.

Managing Search Results: Single Citations There may be instances when you wish to save, print, or email your search results in order to review them at a later date. There are a couple of ways to accomplish this depending on what you need. You can save, print, or email citations one at a time; or a group of multiple citations can be saved, printed, or emailed all at once. To print, email, or save a single citation, click on the article title within the Result List.

Managing Search Results: Single Citations Use the tools located on the right side of the citation to print, email, save, or export as needed. Please note that using these tools will only provide a copy of the citation. To obtain a copy of the actual article, you have to use the Find It @ Sladen button mentioned a few slides back. Tip: The Cite tool will show you the article citation formatted in popular reference styles like APA, AMA, and Chicago. This can be used as an example for citing the article in bibliographies and reference lists.

Managing Search Results: Multiple Citations To manage multiple citations, the citations first need to be added to the folder. Items in the folder can then be printed, emailed, or saved as a group. To add a citation to the folder from the Result List, click on the “Add to folder” link at the bottom of the citation. To add a citation to the folder from the full citation view, select “Add to Folder” from the Tools bar.

Managing Search Results: Multiple Citations View Your Folder: You can view the items in the folder at any time by clicking on the folder link located at the top of the page. Or, by selecting Folder View from the yellow box located to the right of the Result List.

Managing Search Results: Multiple Citations Then choose your action: print, email, save, or export. Please be aware that any items added to the folder will be deleted once you exit CINAHL. You can save citations and searches permanently by storing them in a My EBSCOhost account. From the Folder List, check the Select/deselect all box.

My EBSCOhost A My EBSCOhost account allows you to permanently save citations, save a search strategy to re-run at a later date, or set-up an alert to be notified when new articles are added to your topic. Begin creating a free account by clicking on Sign In at the top of the page. Follow the onscreen instructions for creating a new account.

Questions? If you have additional questions about searching CINAHL, please contact the Sladen Library Reference Desk at: Phone: 313-916-2550 Email: sladen@hfhs.org Web: http://www.henryfordconnect.com/sladen

CINAHL Search Techniques & Strategies