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National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR)

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Introduction to Health Services Research : A Self-Study Course

Module 4: Search the Literature of HSR: Databases (Page 19 of 29)
Section 1: Health Services Research Databases and Information Resources

CINAHL - Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature

Health services researchers with nursing backgrounds will be familiar with CINAHL and keen to use it in their search for quality references. Started in 1982 it has been responsive to the needs of nurses and to allied health professionals. It provides access to English language nursing journals, and other related publications including some full-text, as well as publications of the American Nurses' Association and the National League for Nursing.

It is an excellent source for alternative and complementary medicine and consumer health content.

More on CINAHL

  • Producer: EBSCO Nursing Resources - https://www.ebscohost.com/nursing
  • Vendor:
  • Topics: Nursing and allied health issues, including research and practice; biomedicine, behavioral sciences, education, and consumer health; use of physician assistants and nurse practitioners.
  • Document Types: Document types are numerous and varied and include: research, research instruments, chat groups, cartoons, standards, biography, bibliography, audiovisual and so on. Contains journal articles, books, dissertations, and reports. Some full-text documents available.

Exercise

  1. If you have access to this database, do a search on a topic of interest. Now try limiting your search to one of the document types. Then answer these questions. What advantages does using the CINAHL database give to you over some of the other databases discussed previously? Is the audience for CINAHL the same as the audience for Medline, for example? Give reasons for your answer.

Discussion Questions

  1. Alternative and complimentary medicine as well as consumer health are two of many hot topics these days. Based on your knowledge of CINAHL and PubMed, which one would you be more likely to start with to get relevant content on the topics mentioned in the first sentence? Why? Does CINAHL have any advantages over PubMed?
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