NURS 341 - Teschendorf
Nursing Theory I Library Class Help Page
**Note, the textbook Health Promotion Throughout the Life Span is available on reserve at the library, so it may be checked out for several hours at a time***
**Note 2: Also check out the NURS 324 webpage that has hints for finding information on nursing theory.Starting your Research
You may want to start off by gathering background information from encyclopedias and other reference books. Consider using:
Stat!Ref: This database searches the contents of many medical reference books.
Ebrary is a collection of many online books that may prove to be helpful. For more information on how to use Ebrary, click here.
Online Reference Resources: This is a collection of online reference books (mostly encyclopedias). Of particular interest for this class are the collection of Health & Medical encyclopedias and handbooks, as well as Psychology, Social Work, and Sociology resources. Search through multiple encyclopedias at the same time by using the Gale Virtual Reference Library
After gathering background information on your topic, you will want to focus your search in general and research databases to find articles on your topic. When doing research from off-campus, you will need to log-on to use databases and other online resources licensed by FSU. Simply use your MyFSU username and password to log-on. For more information on off-campus database access, click here.
Finding Articles using FLITE Databases
Stat!Ref
As stated above, Stat!Ref is an excellent starting point for researching medical topics. Enter your search term into the search box and you will obtain a rank-ordered list of results taken from various medical encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, and other medical reference books. A very helpful feature of this database is the Related Concepts box to the left of the results that will provide you with synonyms for your topic. These related concepts or synonyms can be used to enhance your searches in this database, as well as the other databases.
Click here for a Stat!Ref Database Guide.
CINAHL
The Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL) currently gathers information from more than 3000 journals. Once you've run a search, use the options on the left-hand side to narrow your date range, and consider using Subject: Major Heading to limit your search to a major topic of interest. . You can narrow and expand your search using other options available in this database.
To get the full text of the articles, you will need to click on the Find It link. For more information on getting the full text of articles, see the Obtaining the Full-Text of Articles section below.
Click here for a CINAHL database guide
Health & Wellness Resource Center
Find information from medical encyclopedias, journal articles, pamphlets, videos, and more using this database that is filled with information oriented towards health care consumers. This is a nice place to get a general overview of different diseases and conditions, as well as medications.
The default list of results from Books and Fact Sheets is automatically available in full text. If looking under the Magazines and Journals tab, articles that are not immediately available may be located using the Find It link. For more information on getting the full text of articles, see the Obtaining the Full-Text of Articles section below.
PubMed
This is the largest biomedical database, with over 20 million citations, made available by the National Library of Medicine. Because the database is so large, you may want to limit your search if necessary using the Limits link and consider using the bottom pull-down menu from the Limits tab that says Search Field Tags and select Title to limit your keywords to being searched in only the Title. Other useful limits include the related citations link, or selecting the Review link to see only review articles. The Related Citations link works really well in PubMed, so when you find an article that is on topic, don't be bashful about clicking on Related Citations!
To get the full text of the articles, you must click into the PubMed record, then click on the Find It link. For more information on getting the full text of articles, see the Obtaining the Full-Text of Articles section below.
Another great resource from the National Library of Medicine is: MedlinePlus/Consumer Health that provides reliable information oriented towards patients.
Click here for a PubMed Tutorial.
General OneFile
This is a HUGE general database that will be useful for searching many subject areas. Start off using the Find Subject search box, and if you don't find your subject, use the search box at the top of the screen to search by keyword. Also consider switching to the Advanced Search that will let you limit your articles to particular journals, as well as to full-text, peer-reviewed, etc. Academic OneFile is a database that will have many similar articles, but will also have unique content, so try them both! Academic OneFile operates in the same manner as General OneFile
There is a lot of full text available through General and Academic OneFile. Need the full text of an article that's not immediately available? You guessed it, use the Find It link.
Obtaining the Full-Text of Articles
In some databases you will see an option for a Text version of the document or a PDF version. In general, the PDF version is preferable as it is most often a scanned version of the original and will therefore contain the graphics. When e-mailing, printing, or saving a group of articles, be sure to select the full-text or PDF option if available.
Some databases contain little full-text, but allow you to link out to Ferris' holdings or the interlibrary loan request form. You will notice the Find it! links following individual citations that will indicate the availability of the article online, in the library, or the need to interlibrary loan the article. Click on the Go button and you will be taken to the online version, library holdings record, or interlibrary loan form to obtain the article you desire. See the example below:
Sample Journal Article Link-Out:
Evaluating your Articles
Before requesting articles from interlibrary loan, please review the abstract and make sure that the article is on-topic. Also, please insure that the article is in a language that you speak, as some databases, such as PubMed index many non-English articles that have abstracts written in English. After you have evaluated the topical coverage and language of the article, please do not hesitate to request it through interlibrary loan if it is not available on campus.
Books
Books may be found in the Online Catalog. You can search by keyword, subject, title, etc. Below are lists of books retrieved through keyword and subject searches:
•Nurse Patient Relations
•Maternity Nursing
•Neonatal Care
•Pediatric Nursing
•Child Development
•Human Lifecycle
•Aging
•Geriatric Nursing
•Women's Health
•Men's Health (with some women's health mixed in)
•Reproductive Health
•ebrary Online Books: Search by keyword to find interesting e-books.
Other Resources on Reproductive Medicine/Women's Health
•Global Library of Women's Medicine: A freely available database on women's medicine.
•POPLINE: A freely available database on reproductive health.
Getting Library Help
• Call us at the oval information desk: (231) 591-3602
• E-mail the reference desk or e-mail
Ali.
• Chat with us
Other Useful Library Links
Library Homepage
Find Articles: Look for articles using FLITE's databases.
Find Journals: Look for journals by doing title searches.
Find Books and More: Look for books, videos, and other library holdings.
APA Citation Style Guide: Learn basics about APA style, a prevalent citation format in the medical field.
Any more questions? Contact: Alison (Ali) Konieczny / Email / Phone: 231-591-3696 / Office: FLITE 315
Don't forget, you are welcome to come to the Oval Information Desk and ask for help any time. You can also call us 231-591-3602 or chat with us.
Last update: May 18, 2011