CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) provides access to the literature in nursing and allied health disciplines dating back to 1981. Over 2,900 journals are indexed including virtually all English language nursing journals along with selected titles in biomedicine, alternative therapies, and consumer health.
Connect to CINAHL through the A-Z Databases or the Library Quick Links section on the Wegner Homepage.
Type your search terms into the search boxes on the Advanced Search Screen.
The asterisk (*) searches word roots, e.g. "transplant*" retrieves transplant, transplants, or transplantation
You may change the field(s) you want to search from the pull down menu(s). For example, keyword searches of the Title and Abstract field searching provides more relevant results.
AND operators narrow searches where both terms/topics must be included in the results.
OR operators broaden searches where any of the terms/topics can be included in the results.
Choose the desired Boolean operator by clicking Search with AND or Search with OR.
(A) From your saved searches, run the search, and copy/paste the Persistent URL link from the browser results screen into an email. You may also want to copy/paste the search query next to link.
(B) Save searches to a project folder in a MyEBSCO account. You may use a personal or school email address for a MyEBSCO account. Do not use your Wegner Library Login for the MyEBSCO account.
In most cases, the most efficient way to search is by using subjects, also called CINAHL Headings. These are the terms (or tags) used when assigning subject headings to articles in the database.
Select (1) CINAHL Headings from the menu bar below search boxes or from the side panel to search for headings. (2) Type keywords to search for Subject Terms. (3) Select relevant terms.
(4) After selecting a term, read the notes to determine if it is relevant to your topic.
(5-8) Some terms will have more specific terms to choose from. Scroll down to view tree view and expand (+) to view narrower topics if available.
(9) Check the box for Major Concept if you wish to add the Subject Term to your search. (10) Scroll to the top and select Add to search.
Some terms are marked Explode, indicating there are narrower, more specific terms in the hierarchical list of subject headings. If you like this option, you will "explode" the number of results by automatically including all the narrower terms in your search with the Boolean operator 'OR.'