NU481 - Issues in Nursing Research & Management: Finding Articles

There are many useful search limiters on the main CINAHL search screen, below the search box. Look for the "Limit Your Results" area of the screen.

• For this assignment, you need nursing research articles, therefore you may find it useful to limit results to those published in a nursing journal. Select "Nursing" from the "Journal Subset" limiter

• Another way to limit results to those with a nursing focus is to choose either the "First Author is Nurse" or "Any Author is Nurse" limit

• Because you are going to focus on research-based articles, it will also help to limit results by checking "Research Article" (the "Peer-Reviewed" and "Evidence-Based Practice" check boxes may also be useful.) 

• You may want to limit your journal to "English Language" to eliminate non-English articles.

• Your professor wants articles published within the last five years. Use the date limiter for this!

PubMed includes options to filter your search results after you perform a search:

On the left side of the screen, filter/limit options include:

• Publication dates - 5 years

• Article types - Review, Randomized Controlled Trial, Systematic Reviews, Meta Analysis, Case Reports, etc.  Just click "Customize" to see the full list of article type options.

• To see more limit options, including a "Journal Categories" limit that will allow you to limit to article published in nursing journals, select the "Show Additional Filters" option.

One of the highest levels in the hierarchy of evidence based practice is evidence from a systematic review or meta-analysis of relevant randomized controlled trials (RCT).

Systematic Review- through a well-defined process, researchers identify and analyze multiple research studies addressing the same clinical issue to come to a conclusion on the effectiveness of a specific intervention, diagnostic test, or methodology.

Meta-Analysis- quantitative statistical analysis of data collected from the many studies in a systematic review.

To locate and access this type of evidence, use one of the following databases:

For more about Cochrane Reviews, see: http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/view/0/AboutCochraneSystematicReviews.html

For Cochrane Library tutorial videos, see: http://www.thecochranelibrary.com/view/0/HowtoUse.html

1. Start your search by typing keywords for the disease, condition, intervention, or methodology into the search box and click "Go":

2. Results will display where your search term(s) appear in the title, abstract or assigned keywords of the systematic review. Click on a title to view the full text of the review.

3. Once you have chosen a specific result, you will be shown the abstract for the review. To view the summary or full version of the review, or just the figures, tables, or references, choose one of the options in the middle of the screen:

but, you will probably want to scroll down the screen a bit and start with reading the plain language summery:

1. Start by typing your search term(s) into the search boxes at the top of the screen.

2. Next, scroll down the screen into the portion labeled "Search Options" until you see the limit labeled "Publication Type." Scroll through these options and click on the selection "Meta Analysis" or "Systematic Review."

3. Then click "Search" to see search results related to your search terms with that publication type. Click on full text links to view the systematic review or meta-analysis:

1. Start by searching your search terms in the PubMed search box and hit enter.

2. As described above, in the PubMed Search Limits guide, on the left side of the screen, select "Customize" under "Article Types."

3. Select "Systematic Reviews" or "Meta-Analysis" from the list of article types and and click "Show."

This database does not have as many specific limiters as CINAHL, but is still useful for locating sources for your care plans.

1. Start by typing your search term(s) into the search boxes at the top of the screen.

2. Next, scroll down the page to the search options to find the option labeled "Document Type." Choose "Evidence Based Healthcare," then click "Search."

3. Results will be limited to evidence-based practice publications like systematic reviews, evidence summaries, and best practice information sheets.