Literature searching in CINAHL for Masters of Cancer/Palliative Care Nursing students at La Trobe University

1. Foundations for Specialty
Practice
Searching the Literature CINAHL
Sharon Karasmanis
Faculty Librarian, Health Sciences
s.karasmanis@latrobe.edu.au

2. Tools for searching the scholarly literature
• A database is a specialised research tool that
identify useful journal articles
• There are a range of nursing/medical databases:
– CINAHL, Embase, Medline, Cochrane Library,
Clinical Evidence, Proquest Health, Informit
Health, PsycInfo and more ..
– Access from Databases tab on Library home
page: www.lib.latrobe.edu.au

3. Types of databases
• Citation databases include the citation, subject headings,
abstract - sometimes they link to full text e.g. Medline and
CINAHL
• Full Text databases include the citation, abstract and in most
cases the full text of an article e.g. Proquest Nursing and Allied
Health
• Pre-appraised evidence databases:
– Clinical Evidence summarise the current state of
knowledge and uncertainty about the prevention and
treatment of clinical conditions, based on thorough
searches and appraisal of the literature
– The Cochrane Library is a multi-database resource which
varies in output e.g. the Cochrane Database for Systematic
Reviews contains complete systematic reviews

4. CINAHL Search Screen

5. Searching in CINAHL
• You can search by keyword (broader), subject
term (more precise) or both

6. Search by keyword example
• Breast cancer
• Results 24,003!

7. Search by subject term example
• Breast cancer with box ticked

8. List of suggested subject terms
• Breast cancer Use Breast neoplasms

9. Scope Note
• Important to check the Scope Note
• For example palliative care:

10. Select Breast Neoplasms
• Then scroll down and check Used for in blue
column
• Don’t tick individual subheadings
• Used For is at the end of the blue column

11. Search the database
• On the right hand side of the screen, click on
Search Database
• Results = 33113!

12. Combine subject term and
keyword search

13. Add another concept by subject term and
keyword
• Palliative care

14. Lets combine the two concepts

15. Limit your results
• On the left hand screen, there is option to Refine your results.
Show More provides additional limits such as age groups

16. Show more …

17. Results display

18. Full citation record

19. Useful tools
• On the right hand of the full record screen there is a list of tools:

20. Save Search History
• Access search history from the folder
• Rerun the search at any time

21. Search results – finding the full text!
• Select the Full Text Finder to link you to the article
• If not available, search the journal title from Journals tab
on the Library home page
• If the journal is not held, request the article from
Document Delivery:
– access via Quicklinks on the Library home page

22. Help!
• Nursing and Midwifery guide
• http://latrobe.libguides.com/nursing_midwifery
• Postgraduate Cancer Nursing Guide
• http://latrobe.libguides.com/cancernursing
• Live chat available from the Library home page
• Faculty librarians: www.latrobe.edu.au/library/contact-us/

23. Homework!
• Check the subject terms for the following:
– Read the Scope note; check Used for; click on the term to see narrower
terms (Explode); do a search using each of these examples and try
combining the results using And with another concept e.g. Cancer
fatigue AND Self Care (as a subject term)
• Cancer fatigue
• Cancer pain
• Oncologic care
• Cancer patients
• Oncologic nursing

24. Homework continued ..
• Look for terms relating to your work or your assignments:
– Can you find a subject term?
– Try combining a subject term search with a keyword
search using OR e.g. Breast neoplasms OR breast
cancer
– Practise refining your results by date, peer reviewed,
language.
– Practise finding the full text
• 1. click on Full Text Finder, if not found
• 2. search the journal title under Journals
• 3. still not found? Order from Document Delivery Services