- Choose an appropriate database.
Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition and OVID are databases with lots of articles written by nurses. You may find Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition easier to use. When you use OVID, choose "Truxal Library Full Text Ovid Journals" to avoid results from PubMed. Access to both of these databases is available on our health database list: http://libguides.aacc.edu/az.php?s=15428
- Choose search terms.
Combine the topic AND nursing in the database search box. Now you have results that meet several of your criteria.
Another possibility is to use the advanced search, which will allow you to search for journals that have nurse in the title. To do this enter your topic in one search box. In another search box enter 'nurs*' and set the search to SO-Publication Name.
- Use the LIMITS feature to define the 5 year range for the publication date. Consider using other Limits like Full Text or Scholarly Peer Reviewed Journals.
- Among your results, find an article related to a topic covered in your class. You might just browse through the list for something you recognize, or you can add another term to your search box – something you’ve discussed in class or seen in your textbook.
- Verify that the author is a nurse. Having chosen an appropriate database, and included all the required elements in your search, chances are excellent that most of the articles in your results list are from nursing journals and are written by nurses. Verify by locating the journal title, and the authors’ qualifications. If the qualifications of the authors are not evident, you may need to examine the PDF of the article to verify that the authors are nurses.
