11/01 Nursing students
Introduction to Databases and searching
for literature
Workbook
January 2011
Medicine & Health Sciences Team
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Section 1: Using the eLibrary Gateway
Go to the Intranet Portal at: http://my.nottingham.ac.uk
Login with your University Computer username and password
Select the Library Tab
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Click on the Button in the centre of the screen to launch the eLibrary Gateway.
Don’t forget that you can also search UNLOC the library catalogue and the
Reading Lists from this page as well.
You’ll need to login again with your University computer username and password
Choose Medicine and Health Sciences from the Subject list and wait for the
subcategories to load.
Choose the eBooks subcategory
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Task 1
Have a look at the eBooks listed in this subcategory
Click on the link to Oxford Reference Online and see which reference books might
be useful for nursing
[Hint: Click on the link for Medicine]
Try keying in some terms you’ve come across already
Task 2
Some resources require you to login to be able to use them. If you are at
University you may not be required to login but if you are working from home you
will need to login to identify that you are a University of Nottingham student.
This task demonstrates how to login to a resource
Stay in the eBooks database list and click on the link to eBrary
eBrary is a collection of electronic books covering many different subject
areas including health and nursing.
eBrary will open in a new window with a screen as displayed below. To login to
eBrary click on the Alternative login link
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Key nottingham into
the search box
Click on the link for
University of
Nottingham
Click on Go
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Click here on the first line
Login with your
University
computer
username and
password
Click on OK
Use the search box in eBrary to look for books on a relevant topic
Examples of topics you might look for include:
Diabetes
Nursing
Study Skills
To finish your eBrary session, just close down the browser window.
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Section 2 : Planning your CINAHL search
Start by thinking about the information you want to find
What do you know already?
How much time have you got to search for information?
What do you need the information for e.g. presentation, essay etc.
Task 1
Choose one of the following topics as an example to work through today when
planning and carrying out a search on CINAHL

Look for research about whether pressure stockings help to
prevent deep vein thrombosis

Look for research about the effectiveness of handwashing to
prevent the spread of Clostridium difficile or MRSA.

Look for research on the effectiveness of nurse-led smoking
cessation programmes
Task 2
For your chosen topic, identify the different concepts that you are going to search
for. You should have at least 2 but possibly more.
Concept 1
Concept 2
Concept 3
Concept 4
Task 3
Identifying keywords. For each concept, see if you can think of any different
ways in which the same idea might be expressed.
Look at the slide about obesity and heart disease as an example.
Concept 1
Keywords
Concept 2
Keywords
Concept 3
Keywords
Concept 4
Keywords
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Section 3: Searching CINAHL
To locate the link to CINAHL, choose the Nursing and Midwifery subcategory in
the eLibrary Gateway
Click on the link to CINAHL (EBSCO)
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CINAHL (Ebsco) will open in a new Internet Explorer window
Key your first search
term in here
Task 1
All the articles which are indexed on CINAHL are assigned headings depending on
the subject that the article covers.
Type in the first keyword and click on search
The CINAHL database will search through all the different CINAHL headings to see
if there is a suitable heading.
You should be presented with a list of different CINAHL headings.
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Task 2
Tick next to the most suitable subject to view the CINAHL heading in more detail.
Each Cinahl heading has associated subheadings, selecting one of these will
restrict your search further.
If an article concentrates on a particular topic, it will be classified as a Major
Concept. Selecting Major Concept will narrow your search.
When you are happy with your selections click on search database
Explode to
broaden
your
search
Subheadings
Each Cinahl heading has associated subheadings, selecting one of these will
restrict your search further.
If an article concentrates on a particular topic, it will be classified as a Major
Concept. Selecting Major Concept will narrow your search.
When you are happy with your selections click on search database
You’ve done the first stage of your search!
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Here are the
results from the
1st part of your
search
Task 3
Click on Clear then key in a term for the other concept you wish to search for
and follow the same steps as above.
Continue until you have all the different concepts listed in the results tab
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Task 4
Combining your search terms
You now need combine your searches to find the articles which are relevant to
your topic. Remember to click on Clear to remove the last search from the
search box before you try to combine any sets.
To find articles which contain both terms, tick the box to the left of the search
and then use search with AND to combine them together.
If you have different alternatives for the same concept, you need to remember to
use OR e.g. obesity or overweight
Click on
search with
And
Task 5
View your results to see if you have found articles which are relevant to your
search.
View the full record by clicking on the title of the article. You may then be able to
see an abstract (summary) of the article, plus the different CINAHL headings
Click on the SFX link to see if the full text is available electronically or in print.
The correct year,
volume, issue and
page numbers
may be displayed.
Click on Go to link
to the full text
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Sometimes there will
just be a link to the
home page of the
journal
There may not be
electronic access to
the article you are
interested in.
You may need to click
on the link to check
the library catalogue
to see if the journal is
available in print in
the library.
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Task 6
You may wish to refine your search further.Click on
Edit
Scroll down the screen to see the different limiters. You might find the following
useful:
Peer reviewed
Journal subset = UK & Ireland
Age Groups
Specialist interest e.g. emergency care, hospice/palliative care, wound care
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View your results again.
When you’re searching for information you will find that you need to review the
results of your search to assess whether you are finding relevant material. You
may need to revise your search terms and recombine different terms.
Don’t forget that CINAHL indexes journals which we don’t subscribe to in addition
to those we do. You may come across articles where the full text is not available
either electronically or in print. However, there is often an alternative article
which you can use and you should look through the results of your search
carefully.
If you do need an article from a journal we don’t subscribe to, please ask at the
Lending Desk to find out if we can obtain it for you from another library. There
would be a fee for photocopying/supplying the article.
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Appendix 1: Accessing CINAHL Ebsco from off
campus
From the eLibrary Gateway, choose Medicine & Health Sciences >Nursing and
Midwifery
Click on CINAHL Ebsco
Click on Athens Users login
Click on Alternative login
Then follow the instructions from the workbook about accessing resources from
off campus (pages 5 – 6)
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Select EBSCOhost Web
Click on CINAHL to access
the database
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