Resources for Research in Nursing

Journal Articles 
Other Types of Research Materials
Books
Obtaining Items not Held at CSC (Interlibrary Loan)
Selected World Wide Web Sites
APA Style Manual

Journal Articles

To find journal articles on nursing topics, use an index from the list below. Some indexes contain the full text of a journal article while others provide a citation or abstract of the article.

CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature)

CINAHL is the main index to journal articles in nursing and allied health fields. With coverage from 1982- present, CINAHL provides access to journal articles, book chapters, research instruments, guidelines and many other publications. 

See Guide for Searching CINAHL

CINAHL Tutorials

These tutorials will show you how to use the CINAHL database. 

Searching with CINAHL HEADINGS (find nursing research articles)

Smart searching with keywords

How to use Quick Lessons

How to search for Cited Articles

Organizing your Research Articles (create and use an online folder)

Take a quick survey when you've completed a tutorial.

MEDLINE

MEDLINE is the National Library of Medicine's database covering the fields of medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and the preclinical sciences.  Coverage begins in 1966. Two versions of MEDLINE are available: MEDLINE from Ovid and MEDLINE from PubMed
See Guide for Searching Medline

Other journal indexes that may be helpful:

ALT-HEALTH WATCH
A full-text database related to complementary and alternative approaches to health. In-depth coverage on both professional and consumer levels.
See Guide for Searching Alt-HealthWatch

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Other Types of Publications

Nursing Research
In addition to using CINAHL and Medline to locate nursing research, information about unpublished and in process research studies in nursing are maintained in the Registry of Nursing Research database from Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society for Nursing.
See Guide for searching help.

Evidence Based Reviews

The Cochrane Library consists of several databases providing evidence of the effectiveness of various treatments and protocols. The full text of evidence based reviews and publications are updated periodically by scientists and researchers of the Cochrane Collaborative Review Groups.
See Guide for searching help.

Conference Proceedings and Papers

Two databases on the FirstSearch system, PapersFirst and Proceedings, provide access to papers and proceedings of professional and scholarly conferences. PapersFirst includes abstracts of papers presented at conferences and Proceedings provides summaries of conference publications.
Connect to FirstSearch (password required), then select PapersFirst or Proceedings from the list of databases. See the FirstSearch guide for searching help.

Dissertations and Theses

Abstracts of master's theses and doctoral dissertations are available in a database called Dissertations on the FirstSearch system. Most theses and dissertations can be borrowed via interlibrary loan.
Connect to FirstSearch (password required), then select Dissertations from the list of databases. See the FirstSearch guide.

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Books

CLICnet

The online catalog for book holdings of the College of St. Catherine Libraries and 7 other local private colleges in the Cooperating Libaries In Consortium.
Connect to CLICnet. See Guide.

MNCat

The online catalog for book holdings of the University of Minnesota Libraries. Also, contains the journal holdings. Search by title to see if the U of M subscribes to a journal.
See Find Books to connect.

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Obtaining Items not Held at CSC

Once you've found citations or abstracts, locate articles by

Use the Find Full Text link within databases or The Periodical Cat to see if the College of St. Catherine subscribes to the needed journal. The Periodical Cat is an alphabetical list of the holdings (print and electronic) of the College of St. Catherine Libraries.

If the CSC Libraries don't subscribe (or if the journal is held at the other campus library), you may request it through interlibrary loan. Use the online ILL request form to obtain a copy of an article. Only current CSC students, faculty and staff may use interlibrary loan.

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Course Reserves

Both print and electronic reserves are frequently used in courses at CSC. A list of items on reserve (print or electronic) is available by searching Reserves on CLICnet. See Reserves web page for details.

Web Resources

In addition to using search engines to retrieve information from the web, here are some Nursing site lists to explore.

Hardin MD (www.lib.uiowa.edu/hardin/md/)
A meta-directory (directory of site lists) from the University of Iowa Hardin Library. This site ranks and rates sites by size and quality and offers a broad array of links to nursing practice issues, care plans and various types of nursing.

Health Web Nursing (http://healthweb.org)
From the Taubman Library at the University of Michigan, this well organized and frequently updated subject directory provides links for many types of nursing practice.

Health Science Library Nursing Links (http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/hsl/internet/nsgsites.html)
From the State University of New York at Buffalo, an excellent collection of links for various nursing sites, including sites about nursing theorists, professional associations, advanced practice and evidence based nursing.

Minnesota Board of Nursing (http://www.nursingboard.state.mn.us)

The state agency responsible for licensing nurses and regulating the practice of nursing.  The page includes fulltext of the Nursing Practice Act and the Board of Nursing Rules.

Nursing World (http://www.nursingworld.org)
The official web page of the American Nursing Association with links to ANA publications, position statements, CE opportunities, and other professional issues and concerns.

APA Style

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is often used as a guide for writing and citing sources. A current copy of the manual is located in the reference collection (REF BF76.6 .P83 2001). For a short guide to citing common publication types, see APA Guidelines for Citing Sources.

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