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Nursing Research Guide: CINAHL Tutorials

CINAHL Tutorials

The following pages and tutorials illustrate how to get to 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 article, 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 system.

CINAHL is the best nursing article citation database, and is the abbreviation stands for the Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature.

Please Note: The UW Libraries has transitioned to the new EbscoHost interface as of Sept. 11, 2024, which might make the instructions below inaccurate. We will be learning together about the changes this year. Please have patience while we are create new instructions, as it is a work in progress as EBSCO continues to build the interface during this academic year.

Please contact Juile Planchon Wolf with your questions at email: jspw@uw.edu, or phone: (425) 352-3452.

Please Note: The video tutorial links below, identified by the Video Icon symbol, include a script below each tutorial in youtube.

CINAHL Tutorials

       Getting to CINAHL Complete:

  • Video Icon Accessing CINAHL Complete from Off-campus. (1:53). Steps include starting from the Library home page, going to the Nursing research guide, then clicking on the CINAHL Complete link, and logging in with your UW NetID. (Still accurate except when the old Interface of CINAHL shown at the end.)

Before you search:

  • Brainstorming a search using "and" to connect search words
  • Video Icon Using the CINAHL/MeSH Headings Feature. (3:33) This is a video tutorial from the Ebsco company that owns CINAHL, and it provides a useful illustration of how to search for CINAHL Headings. The Search History feature advice is also good. WARNING - the interface they show in this video is different from the UW Libraries: CINAHL Complete interface. Please let Julie know if you have any questions. (Old Interface - the CINAHL Headings box is now located beneath the search boxes)
  • CINAHL Subject Headings: (New Interface)  Search terms assigned to a topic by CINAHL staff. Can help you find new and related search words. Also, see the CINAHL Help Guide: Subject Headings information page from the UW Health Sciences Library. (Old Interface)

CINAHL Complete searching:

Locating the full text of articles from CINAHL Complete:

Search Tip: How to search across multiple databases at the same time:

You have a citation you need to locate, and want to see if the UW Libraries has it online or in print: