Nursing Doctoral Students Workshop
Advanced Search Tips

Library Instruction Program - Research and Instructional Support
For more information about this topic contact Mary Boulanger

Table of Contents

  1. Research tips
  2. Library and Research Assistance
  3. Finding Nursing and Health Information
  4. NEW! Saving Searches and Search Results
  5. Using the Web Wisely

Research Tips


Tips for Constructing a Search

For example: Is family stress a predictor of job loss?

Sample searches:   family stress and employment                  family relations and work*


Library and Research Assistance

Distance Education Resources
Students pursuing education through distance education methods are entitled to access to library resources and services equivalent to those provided in traditional campus settings. The UWM Libraries offer a number of services to assist students and faculty with their research, coursework, and instruction. For more information, contact the Libraries' Distance Education liaison toll free at 1-877-893-8583.
Proxy Server
This link allows UWM students, faculty, and staff with Internet access to connect to most of the Libraries' subscription databases and electronic journals from home (a few titles are licensed for on-campus or in-library use only).
AskaLibrarian
An email and at times chat service, AskaLibrarian provides a forum for questions at all hours. Check this web page for chat room hours.
Electronic Reserve
E-reserve materials generally consist of scanned journal articles, book chapters, lecture notes, and sample exams. These printable materials may be accessed from off-campus computers using the proxy server [see above].
Document Delivery [see Distance Education Resources]
Research Consultation
Though this service is primarily an in-person one, Distance Education students may arrange to have a consultation via telephone or chat.

Finding Nursing and Health Information

The Library Catalog

Panther Cat
Truncation symbol is ?    For example work? searches work, works, working, worked...
Sample Keyword (and, or, not) search in the catalog:   "family stress" and work?

Indexes and Databases

On the UWM Libraries home page under "Find Articles", the Databases A-Z link leads to an alphabetical list of databases. Some index journals, magazines and newspapers from various subject disciplines. Others are collections containing the electronic full text of such journals. The ones listed below relate to Health Sciences and Nursing. They each have online guides and CINAHL also has an online tutorial.

CINAHL
The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, or CINAHL, indexes over 1,200 journals in the areas of nursing, allied health, physical and occupational therapy, alternative therapies, biomedicine, consumer health, and health administration. Full-text of articles is available for more than 260 journals. For further information there is both a *tutorial and an online *guide to this database.

MEDLINE
The most comprehensive index to the medical literature, MEDLINE indexes over 4000 journals in medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine and the preclinical sciences. There is world wide free access to MEDLINE via PubMed.

Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition
This database covers 520 scholarly full text journals focusing on many medical disciplines. Also featured are abstracts and indexing for over 560 journals.

ProQuest Nursing Journals
1986-present; indexing and full text to over 250 journals in nursing, allied health, biomedicine, consumer health, and health related articles from journals and magazines in other subject areas.

Nursing Consult
Dates vary; Designed for the clinical nurse, nurse administrators, nursing faculty and students. It contains drug information, patient handouts, full text of some nursing and medical journals (back to 2001), health reference books, nursing news, evidence-based content, clinical updates and more.



Nursing and Health Related Internet Resources

There are many places to get medical and health information on the Internet. Deciding what is reliable, however, is a critical distinction in the health fields. The following resources offer a sampling of critiqued web sites.
Selected Health Related Internet Sites
This guide gives a sampling of various aspects of medicine and the health professions as reflected on the Internet. These include search engines, guides to medical specialties and general medical sites, nursing, health and disease topics, government resources, electronic journals and indexes in the health sciences. It is maintained by UWM Libraries staff.

Life and Health/Biological Sciences Subject Guide
One of thirty subject guides created by UWM Libraries staff, the Life and Health/BiologicalSciences guide lists indexes, databases, other research guides, and selected web sites in biology, medicine, nursing, and other health fields.

Nursing and Health Multi-link Sites

Selected Nursing Websites [SUNY Buffalo]

HealthWeb [nursing section]
allnurses.com

Nursing Graduate Programs

Hardin MD: Nursing [Univ. of Iowa] Nursing on the Net [National Network of Libraries of Medicine]
History of Nursing Resources [V Commonw ] Nursing Theory Links Page [Clayton St. U.]
The Nursing Page [UWM] Evidence Based Nursing [Univ. of Minn.]

Nursing Associations, Government Agencies and Information
American Nurses Association National League for Nursing
Wisconsin Nurses Association National Institute of Nursing Research [NINR]
Canadian Nurses Association Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
National Health Information Center Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Registered Nurses [US Bureau of Labor Statistics]

.

Saving Searches and Automatic Updates

 


Using the Web Wisely

Though not specifically related to the health fields, the first three resources are Subject Directories to web sites evaluated by people (as opposed to "selected" by a computer). The other sites listed give some general guidelines to evaluating and citing web sites.

Librarians' Index to the Internet
Search by keyword or look through the directory - keyword can lead to directory sections to search further

Internet Scout Report
Subject Directory maintained by UW Madison

Infomine - Scholarly Index Resource Collections
Contains over 20,000 well-selected and described links to scholarly resources on the Internet. Searchable. 

How to Evaluate and Cite Web Sites

Evaluating Websites (from Colorado State University Libraries)

Citing Web sites (from Bedford / St. Martin's)