1. CINAHL:
Tips and Tricks
An Online Tutorial
brought to you by
Pilgrim Library

2. Watch this tutorial if you:
Want to learn
how to use
CINAHL more
effectively
Think searching
in CINAHL is
tricky
Are a nursing or
health-related
major

3. Get the most out of the tutorial
See things for yourself – follow along!
1. Access CINAHL
• Go to the library homepage
(http://library.defiance.edu)
• Click on Databases A – Z
• Scroll down to C
• Click on CINAHL (Nursing, Allied Health, Consumer Health) Plus
2. Follow the directions in the yellow boxes
Click to continue!

4. On the Agenda
Once you get to the CINAHL database, focus on the
areas of the page that are circled in orange below.
We’ll go through these cool features one at a time.

5. Publications
Lists all the journals,
magazines, etc. that are
included in CINAHL.
Click on Publications!

6. This is a helpful page because:
•You can see what journals will be
included in your searches
•You can see what years are included for
each particular journal
•You can search by subject and see what
journals cover your topic and will be
likely to come up in your searches
•You can create an RSS journal alert that
will notify you when new content from a
particular journal is added to the
database.

7. You can also use the Publications tab to
search within one specific journal.
Let’s try a sample Publication
search for the American
Journal of Nursing.
Type “American Journal of Nursing”
into the search box and click Browse.

8. We can see that the American Journal
of Nursing is covered in this database
from 1937 to present. Impressive, right?
Note though that it says “bibliographic
records.” This means that the citation
information for each article should be
listed, but the full-text may not
necessarily be provided. Some titles will
specify a range for complete full-text
coverage.
Click on the blue hyperlinked
title of this journal.

9. You can click here to search all volumes and
issues of this journal. It will bring up a normal
search box with the title of the journal written
in. Just add the word “and” followed by your
subject keywords.
You can also click on a year and then a volume
to browse through any given journal, just like
you would flip through the print journal.

10. Jumping to the Main Search Page
Starting fresh at the main search page is
easy. You can click the back button of
your Internet browser or use this handy
little shortcut.
Click on New Search to return to
the main search page!

11. CINAHL Headings
Think of this as the “behind the
scenes” section of the database.
It’s basically a terminology
dictionary; you look up a topic
and see what terms the database
uses to describe your subject.
Confused? Click to learn more…

12. Why use subject headings?
What is the image to the left?
Soda? Pop? Coke? Refreshing cola?
That’s the problem with database
searching – or searching in general. If the
people that organized things use a
different vocabulary than you do, it’s
going to be hard to find what you want!

13. CINAHL Headings
The CINAHL Headings section can help.
Think of it as your guide to CINAHL’s language.
If you use the headings they suggest, your search
effectiveness should increase.

14. Sample heading search: therapy
Type therapy into the box and click browse.
Make sure that relevancy ranked is selected.

15. You can see what terms the database assigns to your
topic. Using these terms will bring back the best
search results.
You can click to Explode a term and see its
subcategories. Or you can click Major
Concept or Scope to learn more about what
the term includes.

16. You can select more than one term by checking multiple
boxes. If you want your search to look for BOTH or ALL
terms, combine selections with and. If you want your search
to look for one term or another, but not necessarily both,
then select or. Then click Search Database.
Feel free to explore more or try some sample searches!
When you’re ready to move on, click on New Search at
the top to return to the home page.

17. Evidence-Based Care Sheets
Search by subject or browse
alphabetically for evidence-
based care sheets

18. Search by subject keyword or scroll
through alphabetically.
Once you find the topic that
interests you, click to check the box
to the right of your topic and click
search.
Feel free to explore more or try some sample searches!
When you’re ready to move on, click on New Search at
the top to return to the home page.

19. More
There are several helpful tools hidden under the More tab:
• Quick Lessons: Short fact sheets on various procedures and conditions
• Cited References: Cool feature that lets you see who has cited a given article
• Images: Search for images that have been included in articles
• Indexes: The ultimate list of what is included in the database
Let’s explore the Cited References option a little more.
Click on Cited References.

20. Cited References
Let’s try this out! We’ll check if any other articles have cited the article
Clinical ethics and nursing: 'Yes' to caring, but 'no' to a female ethics of care from the
journal Bioethics in 1995.
Enter “Clinical Ethics and Nursing” into the Cited
Title box, Bioethics into the Cited Source box and
“1995” into the Cited Year Box. Click Search.

21. Bingo! The article we searched for comes up right away. Now we’re
going to tell the database to see who’s been citing this article. When
we run our next search, all the things brought up will have included
this article in their list of references.
Click to put a check mark in the box at the left of the
correct article. Click the Find Citing Articles button.

22. This search will list out all of the articles
that cite the Oxygen Consumption article.
This feature can help you see how esteemed or
influential an article has been. Remember, though,
that it only references articles within CINAHL.
From this page you can access or request full-text,
organize by creating a folder, or launch another cited
reference search.
Feel free to explore more or try some sample searches!
When you’re ready to move on, click on New Search at
the top to return to the home page.

23. Sign In
Registering for an account with EBSCO CINAHL
can be a great way for you to keep your research
process organized. Plus, signing in gives you some
great additional features.

24. When you create an EBSCO account, you’ll be asked
to give your name and email address. Then you’ll
create a username and password that you’ll use to log
into your EBSCO account. It’s that easy!
Why register and log in?
• When you don’t log in, the database can’t remember who you
are and what you’re searching for – so if you accidentally close
the window, sometimes you lose all your work! Logging in can
prevent this.
• You can easily save your progress to a folder and return later;
the database will help you stay organized during your research
process.
• You can create alerts to notify you when your favorite journal
issues a new volume, or you can create and save a search and
have the database notify you when it retrieves something new.

25. This is an example of an EBSCO folder.
Options to the left help organize saved settings.
Individuals articles that have been added to the folder are listed in the
middle. These articles can be easily printed, emailed, or saved in lists
simply by marking the check box to the left of the article title.

26. Folder
CINAHL lets you create folders if you want
to group articles together, or email or save
multiple articles at once - even if you’re not
signed in. Just click Add to Folder next to an
article in your results list. To access your
folder at any time, click on the Folder tab in
the title bar.

27. Help!
If you get confused,
help is a click away!
There is a good Help
guide within
CINAHL.

28. Help!
You can also go back to Pilgrim
Library’s website and get in touch
with one of your librarians!
Use the chat box or text, call, or
email! Just ASK!

29. Choose Databases
CINAHL is provided by a company named EBSCO. EBSCO
actually provides dozens of databases to Defiance College. You
can normally tell when you’re searching an EBSCO database
because they look very similar to CINAHL.
The Choose Databases feature allows you to select and search in
more than one of these databases at one time.
Click on Choose Databases!

30. This lists out all of the EBSCO
databases. To search more than
one database with one search,
simply click and check the box
next to the databases you wish to
add.
This is a great way to broaden a
search or find information for
multi-disciplinary topics. To learn
what a database includes, hold
your mouse over the little speech
bubble to the right of the
database’s name.
When you’re ready to move on, close the window
(click on the X) to return to the home page.

31. Congratulations!
You successfully finished the library tutorial
CINAHL: Tips & Tricks
If you have any questions about this tutorial,
please get in touch with Pilgrim Library or
email adearmond@defiance.edu.

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