Nursing 106
Information Literacy
Part I. Guide to the Professional Journal Assignment
Your professional nursing journal assignment requires that you select a nursing journal
which is sponsored by a professional nursing association and available, in print, at the
College Library. The Library subscribes to a variety of Nursing journals, some of which
qualify for your assignment. The following serves as a guide to help you complete your
professional journal assignment. Please also check back to the specifics of the
assignment given to you by your Nursing 106 professor.
FIRST Select a current (published in the last year) print Nursing journal
available in the Library that is sponsored by a professional Nursing association.
There is a short Nursing Tutorial on the library website that describes how to identify a
journal that meets the requirements of your assignment. To access the tutorial, login to
the MyMC3 student portal. Click the red Library button on the right. Click Help Zone.
Scroll down to the box for Nursing. Click the link for the Nursing 106 class tutorial. The
tutorial will show you where to look, both inside, as well as on the cover of the journal, for
evidence that the journal is a professionally sponsored nursing journal.
ONCE YOU HAVE CHOSEN YOUR JOURNAL, examine your Professional Journal
Review assignment so that you understand all of the components of this assignment.
Consider the points below to help you to complete the Professional Journal Review
assignment. (NOTE: This is just a guide to help you. .)

What is the full name of the publication? What is the date of issue? Must be
published within the last year.

Name the Professional Nursing Organization that published this journal (this
often appears on the cover of the journal and always in the publication information.)

Who is the intended audience for this journal? Think about whether the articles in
the journal contain general information or are directed to a specialty area of
Nursing.


Examine the Table of Contents:
o
What are the various features?
o
What columns does the journal contain?
o
What sections does the journal feature?
Select an article that you find interesting from the journal. This article
must be a feature article or a research study that contains references.

Read this article so that you understand it and are able to summarize it in your
own words.

Think about the questions that the authors asked and what they
discovered as a result of doing the research.
o
What type of research does the article reflect?
o
What, if any, conclusions did the authors come to?
o
How was the study conducted? This is often described in a section called
‘Methodology’.

What kind of research study is presented in the article?
o
Is it a quantitative study? (This type of study follows a specific plan to
collect information and then analyze it using statistical formulas.)
o
Or, is it a qualitative study? (This type of study describes subjective and
complex experiences. The information is analyzed according to themes and
responses.)

Think about the roles of the nurse: Provider of care; Manager of care;
Member within the Discipline. Think about which of these three roles of the
nurse your article reflects the most.
Adapted by MBP from assignment given by Elizabeth Keene, Nursing Professor.
PART II. Group Research Project – Historical Nursing Topic
The project: For this group research paper assignment, you will select a topic related to
the development of Nursing as a profession to better understand how the Nursing
profession has evolved. In exploring your topic you will think of the influential nurses of
that time and how they impacted the profession and promoted change. Follow the
guidelines for topics provided to you by your professor.
Sources: You will need a minimum of six references, three of which must be nursing books
or journal articles. Journal articles must be published within the last five years. Books
may be older, as appropriate to the topic. In addition to these sources, you may use a
maximum of three internet resources.
For this assignment you will use the CINAHL database, the library catalog, and the
Internet to locate your information sources.
Step 1:
Find some background information on your topic: There are several books on
reserve at the main desk in the Library pertaining to the history of Nursing. Ask a
reference librarian for assistance.
Step 2: Find
articles on your topic using the CINAHL database. To access CINAHL,
login to the MyMC3 portal and then click the box ‘Find Articles & More.’ Then click the
link for ‘Nursing-Dental-Health’ next to Databases by Subject. Then type your search
into the box and click search. Scroll down to select the CINAHL database.
On the next screen, click “Advanced’ under the search box. Then, type in your topic in the
search box at the top, e.g., “home visits” and then scroll down to limit your search to full
text and to articles published in the last five years. Scroll down a little more to also
limit your search to the subset of Nursing journals as well as to Nursing journals published
in the United States, as shown below:
Review the list of articles. If you point your mouse to the magnifying glass at the end of
the title, you will get a summary of the article (called the Abstract) and other helpful
information. Click the PDF link to bring up the article. Use the Email and Cite links in the
tools menu on the right for the citation format. The format is not quite correct -- you will
need to adjust the citation for double spacing and hanging indent, and maybe also
capitalization.
Step 3: E-Books – See if there is an e-book on your topic. Click the box for ‘Find Articles
& More’ and then click E-books next to ‘By Format’.
A search for ‘male nurses’ brings up three e-books. Open an e-book by clicking on the ‘ebook full-text link, as indicated below:
Step 4: Websites. Websites can be very helpful, especially if you are searching for an
individual person. Try a Google search for either an .edu site or a .org site. An easy way
to set up your search might look like this ---- Site: .edu “Mildred Montag”
Step 5: Books. Find print books, e-books, government documents, and audiovisual titles on
your topic by using the Library catalog. Click the box for ‘Find AV & Books’. Type your
search into the search box, as shown, and then click search.
Please remember to stop by, call us at 215-641-6594 or email us at refdesk@mc3.edu – we
look forward to assisting you!
MBP Fall ‘13