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Nursing & Allied Health Resources

Find reliable, scholarly sources for topics related to nursing.

Organize and strategize

  • Have a strategy!
  • Write down your topic
  • Brainstorm terms with the same meaning
  • Search for keywords, not sentences
    • Do: addiction alcoholism
    • Don't: What are the effects of alcoholism and addiction?
  • Group phrases within quotation marks
    • Do: "substance abuse"
  • Review descriptions/records of useful items for more search terms
  • Keep track of where you have searched and what keywords were helpful
  • Ask the experts for some help

Don't know where to start your research?

Check out the Researching at Jacobs Library Guide:

Research Journey

What are you searching for?

Library databases can be picky about the search terms you choose. Don't search by simply typing in a sentence!

In the following example, the highlighted words would be your search terms. 

  • What are the diagnostic indicators of type 2 diabetes?
  • Is yoga an effective treatment for chronic pain?
  • Patient care plan for post-transplant surgery
Synonyms
Healthcare Care Plan
Healthcare system

Treatment plan
Health System Plan of care
Health Policy support plan
Using Phrases to Search

For search terms that include multiple words, use quotes " " to keep the database from splitting up the phrase. "Type 2 diabetes" will search for the exact phrase "Type 2 Diabetes."

Boolean Operators

Use the Boolean Operators AND, OR, and NOT to create search statements to enter in databases, SOAR, Google, et cetera. 

Examples:

  • College AND Technology AND Learning
  • (College OR Higher Learning OR University) AND (Technology OR Computers) AND (Learning OR Instruction)
  • (Technology AND Learning AND Elementary) NOT College
Truncation

Truncation allows you to search for multiple terms with the same root at once by using an asterisk:

  • Educat* = Educate, Education, Educational, Educator
  • Child* = Child, Children, Childish

 

Source: Carnegie Vincent Library, Boolean Operators: Pirates vs. Ninjas

Too few results? Broaden your search!

  • Choose general terms
    • nuts instead of peanuts
    • treatment rather than drug
  • Use fewer keywords
  • Incorporate the OR boolean
    • "peanuts OR pecans"
    • "drug OR medicine "
  • Try the Search In field options to search the full text, not just the title or subject lines

Too many results? Narrow your search!

  • Choose specific terms
    • "type 2 diabetes" instead of "diabetes"
    • antibiotic instead of drug
  • Use multiple keywords
  • Incorporate the AND operator
    • "type 2 diabetes AND heart disease"
    • "alternative treatment AND drug therapy"