CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) is a major source of scholarly nursing resources. CINAHL indexes over 1200 journals in nursing and allied health fields. But first, we should address Troy University's eLibrary.
The URL for the Libraries of Troy University is https://library.troy.edu/. However, accessing library holdings is easy when you're in Blackboard -- just click the eLibrary tab at the top of the Bb window. The eLibrary homepage provides information about site-specific brick & mortar libraries as well as information about how to login to the eLibrary system. The "Library Online" is where you will want to go first, and the steps to locate CINAHL are as follows:-
Click "Library Online"
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Click "Online Databases"
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Select "Health & Medicine" from the drop-down list and Submit
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Choose "CINAHL Plus with Full Text"
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Enter you last name (not your username -- just your last name) and Troy ID number to access the database
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Enter a medical subject that interests you
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Limit your search to Full Text and enter the years 2002 to 2007
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Wait for results
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You may get a lot or a few results, depending on your subject, but make sure that the articles you would choose to use in a paper are either HTML Full Text of PDF Full Text. Check with your professor before using an abstract as a source of information.
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Select one of the articles that meets your criteria and click Add beneath the little gray folder at the far right of the article listing -- the folder will change to yellow and will indicate "added."
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Select two more articles and do the same thing.
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Now look in the area at the top right of the page and click on the yellow folder and "Folder has items."
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All of the articles you were interested in are together and you can look at each one closer. This page also allows you to delete articles that weren't very good. It also allows you to print articles, but even better, it provides a way for you to email the article to yourself so you'll have a digital copy to work from.
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While you're still in CINAHL, look at the headings at the very top of the page, particularly the headings "Evidence-Based Care Sheets" and "Quick Lessons." What a gold mine!
This has been an introduction to CINAHL, but Troy's eLibrary has other high-quality databases. Explore the eLibrary soon. Remember to always choose full-text articles and articles from recent years. Your professors will define criteria needed for each course. For practice, you may want to do these exercises: Find these articles to get used to CINAHL
Quirk, J. (2000). Malnutrition in critically ill patients in intensive care units. British Journal of Nursing, 9(9), 537-541.
Boyle, D. K., Bott, M. J., Hansen, H. E., Woods, C. Q., & Taunton, R. L. (1999). Managers' leadership and critical care nurses' intent to stay. American Journal of Critical Care, 8(6), 361-371.
Pruthi, S., Allison, T. G., & Hensrud, D. D. (2001). Vitamin E supplementation in the prevention of coronary heart disease. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 76(11), 1131-1136.
Lea, S. F., Anema, M. G., Briscoe, V. J., & Allie, H. (2001). The nursing process: What do students know? ABNF Journal, 12(1), 3-8.
Abbott, P. D., Short, E., Dodson, S., Garcia, C., Perkins, J., & Wyant, S. (2002). Improving your culture awareness with culture clues. Nurse Practitioner: American Journal of Primary Health Care, 27(2), 44-47, 51.
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Practice finding some full-text articles about the following subjects:
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the Internet and health care
- iatrogenic malnutrition (malnutrition that develops after hospitalization)
- comprehensive exam preparation
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NLNAC
Don't forget that you can email the articles to yourself!
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