Nursing - research collaboration: Home

This guide will provide a variety of processes and tools that provide the best support for initial research explorations the health sciences.

Define the research topic

• scope, depth, synonyms, best article title (concepts)

Design the best search strategy

• combine key terms, limitations, expansions, known seminal materials

Determine the appropriate types of information ... and aligned search tools

• definitions, news, research reports, summaries, media, data, visualizations

Perform iterative searches

• synonyms, subject headings, facets, impact analysis -- use critical thinking
• create autoalerts for automatic updates on terms, authors, citations

Identify key materials and capture/annotate materials

• remember the CRAAP test: look for balanced perspectives, authority, timeliness, purpose
• Zotero for articles, web pages, personal notes and other materials (intelligent organization)
• Outwit for raw data, links, images, etc.

Create a position and support with evidence (citations)

• know your required citation style (Purdue OWL)
• Zotero seamlessly integrates with word processors for references and bibliographies

Share materials (raw and final) with your community

• publish in journal literature
• present at conferences
• use Groups in Zotero for sharing and collaboration
• consider Diigo for sharing links and exploring related interests
• submit to Institutional Repository for outside discovery?

 

---

 

Nursing Databases by TYPE of Information

 

EVIDENCE-BASED:

Cochrane Collection Plus. Controlled trials and other healthcare interventions, which include the Central Register of Controlled Trials, Abstracts of Reviews of Effects, Systematic Reviews, NHS Economic Evaluation, Health Technology Assessments, and the Methodology Register.

Clinical Trials - search the ClinicalTrials.gov registry.

National Guideline Clearinghouse. Objective, detailed information on clinical-practice guidelines.

PubMed Clinical Queries - subset of PubMed containing results limited to specific clinical research areas.

TRIP database - overlay of many sources containing high-quality clinical-research evidence.

CINAHL Complete

• Use the Clinical Queries search option to limit to therapy, prognosis, and causation (etiology).
• Check the box for Evidence-Based Practice.
• Use the Publication Type search option to limit to Evidence-Based Care Sheet.

 

JOURNAL INDEXES (search and connect to full text materials):

CINAHL Complete. Articles and evidence-based care sheets on nursing and allied-health topics.

MEDLINE with Full Text. A search tool from the U.S. National Library of Medicine–National Institutes of Health. Articles from over 1,400 medical journals.

PsycINFO. Articles and books in psychology and related fields.  -- to be replaced by the Central Index database.

Academic Search Complete.  Multidisciplinary database of full-text articles from scholarly journals, magazines, government documents and other sources.

Scopus. The world's most comprehensive listing (with some full text) of articles in science, medicine, technology, and the social sciences.

 

FULL TEXT JOURNAL ARTICLES (specific materials are best found using the above indexes):

Health Source Nursing/Academic Edition. Articles from medical journals, plus the Lexi-Pal Drug Guide containing 1,300 generic-drug patient-education sheets with more than 4,700 brand names.

JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association. Articles from 1998 to the present.

Ovid LWW Nursing & Health Professions Premier. Articles from major nursing journals.

PubMed. Biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life-science journals, and online books.

 

DRUG INFORMATION:

Drug Information Portal. From the U.S. National Library of Medicine, containing information on over 36,000 drugs from U.S. government sources.

Health Source Nursing/Academic Edition. Articles from medical journals, plus the Lexi-Pal Drug Guide containing 1,300 generic-drug patient-education sheets with more than 4,700 brand names.

 

TESTING:

Health and Psychosocial Instruments. Reviews of tests.

 

MULTIMEDIA (images, videoes, etc):

Nursing Education in Video. 260 full-length videos for the education of nurses, nursing assistants, and other healthcare workers. All the videos have been created with the guidance of the Medcom-Trainex advisory board, and are regularly reviewed for accuracy, currency, and compliance with US Federal regulations from agencies such as OSHA and CMS.

 

NEWS:

The latest news on health-related topics can be found using various indexes on our News Resources page.

FACTS:

The latest facts on health-related topics can be found using various tools on our Facts/Definitions page.

BOOKS:

Search our book catalog.

DATA:

Data on health-related topics can be found using the resources found on our Handling Information and Data page.