Page Information
Your Librarian is Denise Gehring
This page is to help you in locating materials for the course Nursing Research:
Description of the Course:
This course introduces the steps in the research process. Emphasis is placed on the principles and methods of the research process, including how this process contributes to the development of nursing knowledge and the improvement of nursing practice. This historical evolution of nursing research is examined and current issues impacting nursing research are analyzed. Ethical considerations and rights of human subjects are explored. Students have the opportunity to evaluate selected nursing studies throughout the semester in small groups with faculty input and guidance.
Getting Started
- Recommended Databases in the Health SciencesThis includes a list of recommended databases in the different areas of health sciences as well as a video on how to locate these on the library website.
- APA ResourcesResources compiled for Health Science students.
Introduction to the Library
Selecting a Topic & writing a Research Question Tutorial
Checkout these suggestions on selecting a topic and writing a research question:
Boolean Operators & Other Searching Techniques
How Boolean Operators Work
Placing the words “AND” and “OR” (also called Boolean operators) between your search concepts and synonyms can help you create a search statement that retrieves the most relevant sources.
As the diagrams illustrate, using the word “AND” reduces the number of results you get, by requiring that both terms appear in each result. Placing “OR” between search terms expands the number of results because it retrieves sources that use any of the words. Generally speaking, you should use “AND” between each of your concept terms, since you want to find books and articles that address all the aspects of your topic. You should use “OR” between synonyms, to make sure that you find closely related sources.
Searching Techniques
| Truncation | Phrase Searching | Wildcards | Nesting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broaden your search to include variant word endings and spellings. Enter the root of the word then the truncation symbol, usually the asterisk *. | Use quotation marks " " around search words to search for a phrase - only use this around two or more words. Using the phrase search will help you narrow your results. | Substitute a symbol for just one character. The most commonly used wildcard symbol is a question mark ? | Use parentheses () to put search words into sets. Terms in the parentheses are processed first. Use nesting with AND, OR, & NOT. |
|
Examples: nurs* = nurse, nurses, nursing religio* = religion, religions, religious, religiosity |
Examples: "end of life" "spiritual care" |
Examples: wom?n = women, woman m?n = men, man |
Examples: (screening or detect*) and lupus (cancer* or neoplasm*) and "spiritual* care" |
More information on Effective Search Techniques can be found on this tutorial: