CINAHL Guide

CINAHL (which stands for Cumulated Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) provides access to virtually all English language nursing journal articles, publications from the American Nurses' Association and the National League for Nursing, and references to articles in primary journals for 13 other allied health disciplines from 1982 to present.

Access via Internet:

  • Any computer that connects to the World Wide Web can access CINAHL.
  • The address or URL for the Health Sciences Library is: http://www.hsc.wvu.edu/library.
  • Click on the Link for CINAHL.

Searching: Basic or Advanced Search:

Type a word or phrase in the Find area. Examples of the types of searches you can enter are listed below in italics.

    Term: headaches

    Phrase: nursing care plans

If you are using Advanced Search, set other limits as needed. The default database to be searched is CINAHL with Full Text. Select the Search Button. CINAHL performs the search and indicates how many records it finds for your search.

  • Must have Adobe Acrobat 5.0 or higher on the computer
  • Recommend saving article to desktop, logging off the Internet and then printing.

Options include: 1) Request current article through ILLiad (which can take several days or a week) or 2) Determining if the next article in the list is available.

Must have Active ILLiad account and active WVU e-mail account to utilize. Most people go onto next article, unless previous article is excellent.

Seems like a lot of these articles aren’t very relevant to what I need or aren’t available. What can I do?

Limits

Limits allow you to restrict your search to types of articles you want such as full text, English language, research articles, and review articles. Narrow your search on headaches to Full-Text, English, and research articles. Click your mouse on the Refine Search tab.

Truncation

Truncation is a method to look for plural, singular, and various forms of a word. For example, typing the word well with an asterisk, well* will search for any word that begins with this prefix, i.e. well, wellness, and wellbeing. If you need internal truncation, the question mark is used. For example, wom?n retrieves records on woman or women.

Combining Search Terms

Often research topics are not limited to one topic but combine multiple topics. You need to understand how the program combines topics.

    And is the intersection of two sets or topics (these topics are usually different).

    Or is the union of two sets or topics (they are often synonyms or similar topics).

You may enter one or more terms (e.g., vitamin c common cold) in the query box and press the enter key or click the Search button. CINAHL automatically combines (ands) significant terms together.

Example: You are asked to find articles on a career in nursing.

    1. Type career and nursing on separate lines.
    2. Turn off the limit of Research articles.
    3. Select the Search button.

Refining a Search: Using CINAHL Headings

CINAHL subject headings are used to index the literature contained in the database. These subject headings were developed to reflect the terminology used by nursing and the allied health professionals. CINAHL subject headings follow the structure of the Medical Subject Headings, or MeSH, used by the National Library of Medicine. These subject headings are used to effectively search the database, using a controlled vocabulary, and to retrieve literature citations on a specific topic.

1. Click on CINAHL headings link.

2. Browse for the term “arthritis”.

3. Click the term to view the tree and subheading details. Tree views of the subject heading are shown on the left side of the screen; subheadings are on the right.

4. To retrieve results with arthritis as a subject heading click the box to the left of the term arthritis.

5. To retrieve results in which arthritis is the major point of the article, click Major Concept.

6. To expand on a subject heading, click the box to the left of Explode. Specific sub-headings can be selected by checking the box to the left of each.

7. Click Search Database to view results. To narrow the focus of your search, click the Refine Search tab. Select the limiters you want to apply to your search, then click Search for a more focused Result List.

Printing Records
  • Print Records separately (preferred) or
  • Add the records you want to print to the folder.

E-Mailing Records
  • Email records separately (recommended) or
  • Add the records you want to email to the folder.
  • Select the Email hyperlink.
  • Complete the form below.
  • Select the Send Button.

Saving to Disk
  • Save records separately or
  • Add the records you want to save to the folder.
  • Select the Save to Disk hyperlink.
  • Complete the form below.
  • Select the Save Button.
  • When the next screen appears, Select File then Save As from your browser’s toolbar.
  • Be sure to save as a text file (.txt) or as an HTML file (.html).

Please always exit the program in this method so the next person can use the database(s).