NURS 450
Nursing Capstone
Starting your Research
To effectively research health sciences topics, it is essential to use the appropriate resources. Subject-specific encyclopedias are a good starting point for finding background information on your topic and they may be found in the Online Catalog by doing a keyword search for medical and encyclopedia. If you specifically want online encyclopedias, you may wish to search your topic in the Electronic Medical Library Stat!Ref that searches the contents of many medical reference books. Also, Ebrary is a collection of many online books that may prove to be helpful.
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. If you are doing research from off-campus, you will need to log-on to use databases and other online resources licensed by FSU. Click here for information on off-campus database access.
Find Articles and More in Databases (Cross-search numerous journals or books at the same time)
Stat!RefThis databases searches through Reference Books.
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.
PubMed
This is the largest biomedical database, with over 19 million citations. Because the database is so large, you may want to use the Advanced Search to help narrow your search. Consider searching your keywords only in the Title or Title and Abstract in the Advanced Search mode. Make the Related Articles link your friend - it works very well for finding similar articles once you have found a relevant article.
Click here for a PubMed tutorial.
CINAHL
The Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL) currently gathers information from more than 1800 journals. Use the Subject: Major Heading selection from the left-hand side to narrow your results to the major subject selected.
General OneFile
This is a general database that will be useful for searching about any topic you can come up with! Try using the main search box that says Find Subjects, and if that fails, switch to the top search box that lets you search by keywords, or try the Advanced Search.
Cochrane Library
The Cochrane Library is a valuable resource for evidence-based medicine. The Systematic Reviews in this library contain pooled data from numerous studies on a particular topic. The pooled data has been synthesized and scrutinized to arrive at a statistically valid conclusion regarding the effectiveness of a treatment/procedure. This library is growing, so be sure to check back at a later time if you are not currently finding information on your topic. You can search using keywords, such as disease names and treatments, or browse Cochrane Reviews by topic. *Please note that Cochrane Review Records can also be found in PubMed. If you find a Cochrane Review in PubMed, open the Cochrane Database and search for the review within Cochrane to get the full text.
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 image below.
Sample 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.
Other Useful Library Links
Find Articles in Databases:
Choose your topic area, and proceed from there.
Find Journals:
Look for journals by doing title, keyword, or subject searches.
Find library materials in the Online Catalog:
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: October 26, 2009