NURS 600 - Teschendorf
Issues and Trends in Nursing Education Research Guide
*** Note, the textbook The Courage to Teach : Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life is available online through NetLibrary. Please click here and log-on using your MyFSU username and password to view this book online.
Staying Current on Issues and Trends in Nursing Education
In order to stay current on issues and trends in nursing education, recent articles and news from relevant associations should be consulted. Recent articles can be found by searching databases, discussed in the next section of this webpage. Some key association websites to consult include:
- American Association of Colleges of Nursing: "the national voice for America's baccalaureate- and higher-degree nursing education programs."
- American Nurses Association Especially for Educators section: here you will find current issues and resources designed especially for nurse educators
- National League for Nursing: "the preferred membership organization for nurse faculty and leaders in nursing education".
- National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission: As the accrediting body for nursing education, this is an excellent resource for nurse educators, and includes the 2008 Accreditation Manual.
Finding Articles using FLITE Databases
When searching for articles, you will want to focus your search in general and research databases. For off-campus database access, you will need to log-on. Simply use your MyFSU username and password to log-on. For more information on off-campus database access, click here.
PubMed
This is the largest biomedical database, with over 20 million citations. Search using keywords and then limit your search if necessary using the Limits link, Related Citations link, or selecting the Review link to see only review articles. Many citations are available in this database for nursing education. In order to link out to the full text of articles through PubMed: 1) click into the full record 2) click on the Find It link to try to access the full text. For an example, see the Obtaining the Full-Text of Articles link below.
Click here for a PubMed Tutorial.
CINAHL
The Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL) currently gathers information from more than 3000 journals. Scroll down when your initial results screen pops up, and use the Subject: Major Heading selection from the left-hand side to narrow your results to the major subject selected.
Click here for a CINAHL Tutorial.
General OneFile
This is a general database that will be useful for searching many subject areas. For General OneFile, the default search is a subject guide search. In the subject guide search you can only search one term at a time. Nursing education is a subject with many records in this database. If you would like to refine your search or are having difficulties finding the proper subject term, use the keyword search box at the top of the screen, or switch to the Advanced Search and perform a keyword search, then select a pertinent article to find the proper subject heading. Also use the Advanced Search if combining search terms. In the Advanced Search you can limit your articles to particular journals, full-text, peer-reviewed, etc.
ERIC
The Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) is the premiere education database and contains many articles with information relevant to nursing education. When using this database, consider clicking on the Advanced Search tab and entering "Nursing Education" (with the quotes) in the first search box, and changing the drop down menu from Keywords to Descriptors. You can then enter keywords in the boxes below the first line, and find articles pertaining to specific areas of interest in nursing education. In this database, if the full text of the article is not available in the database, click on the Find It link, and you will be taken to the familiar SFX page.
Click here for an ERIC Tutorial.
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
There are many books available on nursing education that you'll likely be able to have delivered to your local public library using MeLCat. You can use the MeLCAT online catalog to do subject searches for nursing education that revealed the following lists of books: **Note, you can also search by keyword, author, title, etc. If a book looks interesting, click on the title, select Get This for Me, and select your local public library and enter the requested information.
Online books are available through multiple sources.
- ebrary Online Books: Search by keyword to find interesting e-books. For more information on how to use ebrary, click here
- Stat!Ref: This database searches the contents of many medical reference books.
- Electronic Reference Resources: This is a collection of online reference books (mostly encyclopedias). These resources cover many different subject areas, including education and health and medicine.
- Gale Virtual Reference Library can be used to search through multiple encyclopedias from the above mentioned Electronic Reference Resources at the same time.
Nursing Education Journals
Some of the relevant journals to nursing education that are available through the library include:- Nurse Educator
- International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship
- Nursing Education Perspectives
- Advances in Health Sciences Education
- Nurse Education Today
- Nurse Education in Practice
- Journal of Nursing Education
- Annual Review of Nursing Education
Getting Library Help
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: Oct. 5, 2010