NURS 325
Professional Nursing Skills Development Library Guide
Recommended Starting Points to Familiarize Yourself with FLITE (the library) & Information Literacy
- Association of College and Research Libraries Information Literacy Website: The Introduction to Information Literacy page provides a good starting point for familiarizing yourself with this topic.
- Medical Library Association (MLA) Definition of Health Information Literacy
- Project Information Literacy Online Tutorial (PILOT): This is an excellent resource for building information literacy skills
- FLITE Getting Started with Research Tutorial
- FLITE Citations/Avoiding Plagiarism Webpage
- FLITE Distance Education Webpage
- MLA's Guide to Finding and Evaluating Health Information on the Web
Finding Library Materials
To find books, journals, videos, and other library materials, you may go to the library's homepage and use the Find link, or use the library tab when logged on to MyFSU and click on the channel for the library homepage. This will allow you to:
- Find Books, videos, and more using the online catalog. The online catalog is set-up so you can perform keyword searches, subject searches, title searches, etc.
- Find Articles using databases. You can select Health and Medical Resources if you are specifically searching a health-related topic, or select other subject areas as necessary.
- Find Journals using the online catalog journals tab. Journals may be available online, in print, or in microform. You can search by the full journal title, title words, or by subject. You will then need to click on the journal title, and link out to the journal information (see the example below in Obtaining the Full-Text of Articles)
- Find Online Encyclopedias, Handbooks, and other Reference Books using the Online Reference Resources.
Finding Articles using FLITE Databases
To find articles pertinent to your topic, it is essential to use the appropriate databases that provide access to many citations and full-text articles. If you are doing research from off-campus, you will need to log-on to use databases licensed by FSU. You can log-on to the databases using your MyFSU username and password. Click here for more information on off-campus database access.
General OneFile
This is a general database that will be useful for searching about any topic you can come up with! You can do either a subject search or a keyword search. If having difficulties finding what you need, go to the Advanced Search.
Stat!Ref
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. You can also use medical acronyms and abbreviations when searching in this database.
Click here for a Stat!Ref 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.
CINAHL
The Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL) currently gathers information from more than 1800 journals. Use the CINAHL Headings tab to get more subject-specific information on various topics. When you have found your subject heading, you may click on it to break your topic down by subdivision. Click on the search options link to the right of your results to add limits such as peer-reviewed or publication date limits. You can narrow and expand your search using the options available in this database.
PubMed
This is the largest biomedical database, with over 17 million citations. Search using keywords and then limit your search if necessary using the limits tab, related articles link, or selecting the Review tab to see only review articles. Other highly useful resources linked from PubMed include Single Citation Matcher and Consumer Health.
Note: You must click into the article record to see the Find It link that will attempt to link you out to the article (see the example below under Obtaining the Full-Text of Articles)
Click here for a PubMed 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. The picture below is an example of the options you may see when trying to locate an article or journal.
Evaluating your Information
When writing research papers, scholarly articles from Academic Journals and other reliable sources, such as reference books should be utilized. The databases discussed above can help you locate reliable information. If you are using websites as sources of information, be sure to evaluate the website - this is part of information literacy!! Please see the links above in the Familiarize Yourself with FLITE and Information Literacy section, or for more information on how to evaluate a website, please click here. Also, don't forget the link-out from Pubmed to Consumer Health, which links you out to reliable information sources that have been selected by the National Library of Medicine.
Citing Your Sources
- Northern Michigan University's APA Style Guide: This was the guide shown in class. For Nursing Specific examples, including how to cite books from Stat!Ref, click here.
- APA Citation Style Guide: Learn basics about APA style, a prevalent citation format in the medical field.
- New APA standards for citing Electronic Resources
- Citation Machine (Son of Citation Machine): Select the citation style you want to use, the type of resource you were using, and fill in the form to have your citation arranged to the proper citation style.
- KnightCite: Another website to help you format your citations using APA, MLA or Chicago styles. Select your resource from the column on the left, fill in the necessary information, and KnightCite will generate a citation for you. If you complete a free registration, you can build a bibliography to export into Word.
- Refbase: A tool that will help you put citations in APA style.
- Refbase Tutorials: Need help using Refbase? Check out the tutorials.
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: Sept. 1, 2009