CINAHL Basics
The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) is an online
database that allows you to search the bibliographic records of journal articles, books and
book chapters, pamphlets, CE materials, and even web sites using single words or word
phrases. Nursing is the prime focus of the CINAHL database, but Allied Health, Biomedicine,
Consumer Health, and Alternative/Complementary Medicine are also well represented.
Using keywords is the broadest way of searching and can result in a large number of
citations. When you enter a keyword or word phrase in the search boxes and utilize the
default fields selection, CINAHL will only look for these words within the Title,
Abstract, and Subject Heading fields of each record. It only looks for YOUR
WORDS – it has no idea to look for synonyms or alternate spellings or other
terminology for the came concept!
Topic: Preventing Pressure Sores in Nursing Homes
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When you execute a search, it shows all the results that literally contain the words you entered in
the citation. It does not search the full text of the article. Newest results appear first. Use the
“pdf full text” if CINAHL-provided full-text is available or use the “check for full text” links to
see if the McGoogan Library has access to the article outside of CINAHL.
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Clicking an article lets you view a fuller citation display. A nice feature of this display is the
ability to see the CINAHL subject headings, which can give additional ideas for search terms.
This is covered more fully further down in this handout. Another handy option is citation
searching in both directions, that is, the ability to see other articles that cited this one as well as
articles that are cited by this one.
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When you click on a “check for full text” link, a separate window, called a “link resolver” opens
and lets you know if and in what format the UNMC McGoogan Library can provide the item.
1)Electronic full-text will appear in the upper field.
2)If no electronic options, check the library catalog
3)If article not available at McGoogan, you can elect to “order article”
4)Note UNMC and NMC have different access options.
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You can clarify your search using truncation (*) and quotes (“”). Truncation tells the database to
find all forms of the word (“pressure sore”, “pressure sores”, “nursing home”, “nursing homes”)
and quotes tell the database to look for the full phrase rather than independently occurring
keywords. You can add desired items to your folder for later action.
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When you add items to your folder, you can “view folder” to email, print, save, or export records
to RefWorks.
While keyword searching can be useful, it is important to be aware that keyword searching relies
on the article containing the words that you enter. An article could be ABOUT your concept
without using the exact words you choose to describe it. This is why searching with CINAHL
subject headings can be useful. Subject headings are standardized vocabulary applied by human
indexers to describe a given article based on its content regardless of exactly what vocabulary the
article uses. Is it possible an article might be about “pressure sores” or “nursing homes” but use
a different term? If it does, it won’t be returned in our keyword search. Conversely, might an
article that uses the term not necessarily be about that concept? This is why we search with
CINAHL subject headings. To do a subject heading search, you must first locate the proper
terms used in the index by clicking the “CINAHL Headings” tab.
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You assemble your subject heading search in the CINAHL Headings lookup utility. First type in
the concept in the keywords you chose.
The CINAHL Headings lookup tool will then suggest possible subject terms. You may have to
play with some different wordings to come up with the right heading. When you locate a term,
you can select it or click on it for more options.
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Clicking on a term shows you subheadings you may wish to use as well as a scope note which
tells how the term is defined in the database.
Once you check a term and/or subheadings, it is committed to memory and you are free to locate
your next term.
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Once you have selected all your terms, you combine selections with “AND” to let the database
know all terms must be present in an acceptable article, and then click “search database”.
You can add further limits to your search to refine your results using the “search options” button.
Adding limits will always reduce your number of results.
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Once you learn a subject heading, it can be entered directly. Just use the dropdowns to designate
your term as being searched only in the subject heading field, not as a general keyword.
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