Nursing

Skills review:

a) Get to CINAHL database

b) Use keywords in CINAHL to find results that match your topic

c) Filter and refine to find scholarly journal articles on your topic

d) Find and download PDF of chosen article

e) Find the APA citation:

f) Tweak the APA citation to ensure it is accurate using our APA guide and use the guide to find out how to write the in-text citations. (here's how to format any citation that you paste into the template that looks a bit off, and here's how to add a hanging indent)

g) Be able to evaluate your article using CRAAP

h) Understand your search history in CINAHL 

i) Take a screenshot of the search strategy that led to finding your chosen article (example below) and be able to describe your search strategy in words.

Use the sample questions below to practice searching CINAHL

1. How does pet therapy help in navigating some of the challenges of being autistic?
2. What was the impact of COVID-19 on burnout in hospital nurses?
3. How do nurses’ handwashing practices help with preventing hospital-acquired infection?
4. How do nurses support seniors experiencing loneliness or social isolation in long-term care settings?

A search strategy is a plan of how you will find resources. It can include:

• The database(s) you used to execute your search 
• The type of search you utilized (e.g., keyword searching, field searching)
• Keywords used (i.e. what words did you type into the search box?)
• Any operators (e.g., AND, OR, NOT) or wildcards (e.g., the * asterisk, or the ? question mark) or phrase searching ("quotation marks") utilized
• The filters/limits you applied, if any (e.g., peer reviewed, publication date of last 5 years, etc.)
• The number of results you retrieved with that search

Example of describing your search results from this search in CINAHL:

I searched CINAHL. I did basic keyword searching, and used the AND operator to search for the terms "PET THERAPY" AND AUTISM. I used the quotation marks to search for "pet therapy" as a phrase. I applied the filters of peer reviewed and full text. CINAHL applied the default functions of proximity and applying equivalent subjects. This retrieved 48 results. 

Additional support is available by booking a Virtual Research Appointment with library staff.

Schedule a Research Appointment

Other helpful resources: