Introduction to CINAHL
How to Search the CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Literature) Electronic Database
On the BHCC Library's Web Page (http://www.noblenet.org/bhcc/), click on the Articles Online link, and then from the top of the page select Ebsco. To access the database from off-campus, you need to use your BHCC student ID number (which is a 14 digit number on back of your ID), and your last name.
Once the EbscoHost home page is displayed, scroll down to CINAHL with Full Text and click to access the database.
"CINAHL with Full Text is the world's most comprehensive source of full text for nursing & allied health journals, providing full text for more than 550 journals indexed in CINAHL. Of those, nearly 400 have cover-to-cover indexing in CINAHL. With more than 600,000 full-text articles dating back to 1982, CINAHL with Full Text is the definitive research tool for all areas of nursing and allied health literature."
Additional CINAHL database "CINAHL is the authoritative resource for nursing and allied health professionals, students, educators and researchers. This database provides indexing for 2,737 journals from the fields of nursing and allied health. The database contains more than 1,000,000 records dating back to 1982."
CINAHL Select "is a valuable resource for nursing and allied health professionals, students, educators and researchers. This database contains more than 170 full text journals with PDF coverage back as far as 1973 including 120 peer-reviewed publications. All journals in this collection are indexed in CINAHL. CINAHL Select is updated on a weekly basis via EBSCOhost."
Start searching the online CINAHL Subject Headings by clicking on the "CINAHL Headings" button below the Advanced Search tab at the top of your screen.
After you define your search terms, you can do a subject search to find the information on your topic. If you want to retrieve existing full text articles, check the full text box on the search screen.
Basic search:
To conduct a simple subject search, type a
search term or phrase in the Find text box.Click Search. Note: Search
Limits are available on the lower part of the page.
Find: diabetes
(Finds records with the term diabetes anywhere in the record)
Find: diabetes mellitus
(Finds records with the phrase diabetes mellitus anywhere in the record)
Three commands, called Boolean operators, are available to combine concepts: AND, OR, NOT. In the EBSCO search tool, Boolean operators do not need to be capitalized.
AND- Combines search terms so each result contains all the
terms. AND is used to narrow searches.
Find: diabetes and
patient centered care (Finds records containing both concepts)
OR- Combines search terms so each result contains at least one of the
terms. OR is used to broaden searches.
Find: AIDS or
acquired immunodeficiency syndrome
(Finds records containing at
least one of the concepts)
NOT- Excludes terms so each result does not contain the term following
the not operator.
NOT is used to focus searches.
Find: sport injuries
not baseball (Finds records containing the concept sport
injuries but not
the concept baseball.)
Advanced Search:
There are many other search options under the
Advanced Search. Advanced Search allows:
- a concept to be restricted to any field in the record (i.e. author, title, source, issue);
- for terms to be combined with Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT);
- for limits to be applied to a search.
A new feature for CINAHL with Full Text, the Visual Search, allows to view search results in graphic navigational design and select articles by zooming in and out the results in squares. By using filtering function (Show Filters), the search results can be limited or expanded by date, and/or full text. To learn more about the Visual Search, "Take our Tour" link is available to view the audio presentation.
For more tips on how to use CINAHL via EBSCO Host, please look at the http://www.library.health.ufl.edu/help/CINAHL/tutorials.htmtutorials created by the University of Florida Health Science Center Libraries.