CINAHL: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature
CINAHL is the primary specialty bibliographic literature database for nursing and allied health. It includes MEDLINE subject headings in addition to over 11,000 subject headings specific to CINAHL.
Nursing publications include the American Nurses Association and the National League for Nursing Subject coverage includes the following disciplines from allied health
Physical Therapy Physician Assistant Radiologic Technology Medical/Laboratory Occupational Therapy
Additional resources for this database include
Access from the Library’s “Quick Links”—CINAHL Full Text Full-text articles are accessible using the Find It @ MCG icon |
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CINAHL Full Text via EBSCO Search Strengths
Uses thesaurus of subject headings developed for this database
Subjects Headings adapted from NLM MeSH Headings for MEDLINE
CINAHL is divided two separate databases by publication date
Citation results can be filtered into seven different types of publications
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“Cited References” presents a list of records cited in your original article (a.k.a. the articles Bibliography records)
“Times Cited in this Database” links to how many times that particular article has been cited in CINAHL
Additional limits include special interest groups, inpatient, outpatient, evidence-based practice, research article, and peer reviewed
Publication toolbar tab lists the journals and magazines available in CINAHL with available publication dates and years available to full-text articles
Download citation to a citation manager like Endnote Web
Can save search strategy in CINAHL to use at a later time
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Turn on/off auto complete keyword search suggestions in the preferences
My EBSCOhost personalized folder allows users to store Images, Videos, Persistent Links to Searches, Saved Searches, Search Alerts, Journal Alerts and Web Pages.
CINAHL Full Text via EBSCO Search Cautions
When combining searching terms using CINAHL Headings the default is OR
Default search page is a basic search
Basic keyword searching does not automatically run a search that includes CINAHL subject headings
Subject heading terms are not automatically exploded to include more focused terms
CINAHL interface language is atypical. For example, “Refine Search” is the limits page
Combining two or more concepts as subject headings, the second/third searching term is entered into the browse for box
For a complete tutorial on how to use CINAHL see the Tutorials and User Aids page.
