When doing nursing research, the CINAHL Complete search options can be your best friend. Nursing research is very specialized and there are some great limiters/filters that can really help you get the articles you need more quickly.
Some key limiters are highlighted below. Articles can be limited to only those that are peer reviewed, evidence based practice, nurse authors, or select specific criteria to apply to patients, such as age group or gender. Multiple limits can be applied to any search.
Just a few of these limits are available have to be applied before your search. Other search limiters or filters are available after you search and show up in the articles themselves.
Insert your search terms in separate boxes, unless it is a phrase. You can add another search box by clicking the plus sign +
Savvy Search Tip! Use the asterisk * for truncation. Use infectio* to get results for infection, infections, & infectious with one search.
Think creatively! Think of more, related search terms.
Within every article summary, you'll see the citation even more possible search terms.
catheter care, adverse effect*, catheter removal, complication*, peripherally inserted central catheter*
Use boolean terms to broaden or narrow your search results.
AND = to get FEWER results
OR = to get MORE results
Search results will have all 3 of these terms
Search results will have at least 1 of these terms
Let's say you want to research whether obesity is an important risk factor for breast cancer. What are the key main concepts?
obesity, breast cancer
Now, think of synonyms for both of these key concepts:
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Synonyms may be broader or narrower terms, depending on your topic. These will serve as your search terms ('keywords") when you begin searching the CINAHL database. If one keyword doesn’t work, swap it out for another and notice how or if your results vary. As you get more comfortable with the database try using the CINAHL headings link to find alternate terms.
