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BNURS 520 & 522: Translational Research I & II: CINAHL Complete

CINAHL Complete - Finding Research Articles

CINAHL Complete  - UW restricted. Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature, provides coverage of the literature in nursing and 17 allied health disciplines, full text for over 500 journals, and indexing for over 3,700 journals. Unlimited users. Truncation symbol is the asterisk (*). How-to Guides from the UWB Campus Library and the UW Health Sciences Library.

Truncation and phrase searching can be used in CINAHL Complete:

  • Truncation:  Use the asterisk (*) symbol at the end of a word to retrieve multiple variations of a word; e.g. nurs* will retrieve nurse, nursed, nurses, and nursing (This approach broadens your search results.)
  • Phrase searching: Use quotes around two or more words to search for the the exact order and spelling as what is in the quotes. Examples include: "registered nurse," "Washington State," and "quality of life." (This approach narrows your search results.)

CINAHL Complete Guides and Tutorials:

  • BNURS 525: CINAHL activity in Canvas. Your CINAHL assignment from BNURS 525 applies to this course! It contains how to information such as getting to CINAHL, searching, CINAHL Headings/Subjects, limiters, locating the full text of articles, Interlibrary Loan, My EbscoHost, citing tips, and more.
  • CINAHL Complete Tutorials: Online tutorials on how to use CINAHL Complete include how to access the UW restricted database from off-campus brainstorming search words before you search, using CINAHL Subject Headings, an introduction to searching, locating the full text of the articles, linking to the UW Libraries Interlibrary Loan system to request articles, searching across multiple databases at once, and searching for a citation in the UW Libraries Search system.

To access CINAHL Complete away from campus, click on the CINAHL Complete link above and you should be prompted to login with you UW NetID and password.

To Limit to Research Articles in CINAHL Complete:

1. Type your search into the search box(es). Examples: registered nurse and job satisfaction
                                                                                                                   or
                                                                                      improve and nurs* and job satisfaction and retention

If needed, you can add the word qualitative or quantitative to your search. (Optional UW HSL guide for "Finding Qualitative Research Articles")
            Examples:  -- indigenous peoples and native americans and diabetes and qualitative
                               -- aged and female and chronic pain and quantitative

Can also add the CINAHL Subject Heading of "Qualitative Studies" to your search.

2. Use Limiters (optional), located below the search boxes, to narrow your search to the date, author or publication name.  

For example:

  • Publication Date – Limit search results to specific date ranges.
  • Publication – Limit search results from a specific title.
  • English Language
  • Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals – Limit results to scholarly sources.
  • Research Article – Limit to research studies or examinations of subject matter that use investigational or experimental techniques. Research studies can include data collection, subject selection, methodology, discussion of results, and application, if available.
  • Randomized Controlled Trials – Limit to RCTs.
  • Evidence-Based Practice – Limit EBP sources (Note: May produce limited results)
  • Any Author is Nurse or First Author is Nurse – Limit to resources that have a nurse as an author (Note: Only produces results from 2009-present)
  • Publication Type – Limit results to source types such as Review. Other options might include Clinical Trial, Evidence-Based Care Sheet, Journal Article, Meta Analysis, Meta Synthesis, Nursing Diagnoses, Nursing Interventions, Questionnaire/Scale, Randomized Controlled Trial, Research, Research Instrument, Standards, Statistics, Systematic Review, Tables/Charts, or Teaching Materials. Scroll down in the box to see the full list of types. You can select multiple items either by holding down the control key (Ctrl) on a PC, or the Apple button on a Mac.
  • Clinical Queries – (What are they? Search strategies used, Help Sheet.doc) – Can limit to Therapy, Prognosis, Review, Qualitative, and Causation (Etiology). See the Help Sheet for definitions of High Sensitivity, High Specificity, and Best Balance.
  • Special Interest –Limit to Advanced Nursing Practice, Case Management, Critical Care, Men's Health, Nursing Administration, Nursing Education, Patient Safety, Perioperative Care, Quality Assurance, Women's Health, etc.
     
  • Quantitative article types:  Clinical Trial, Randomized Controlled Trial
  • Qualitative article types:  Meta Synthesis, Qualitative (in Clinical Queries)
  • Review article types:  Meta Analysis, Review, Systematic Review
     

The CINAHL Complete limits shown below include: Published Date (2018-2024), Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals, and the Publication Types of Review and Systematic Review.

Limit your results options in CINAHL

 

3. Click on the Search button Yellow Search button at the top right or bottom left-hand corner of the page.

 

Another way to search: A link for CINAHL Subject Headings CINAHL Subject Headings link is located at the top of the CINAHL Complete page. In many cases, the most efficient way to search is by using these headings which are the terms used to assign subject headings to the articles in the database. See the detailed CINAHL Tutorial: CINAHL Subject Headings for a detailed illustration.