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Nursing & Health Sciences: Databases

Nursing Databases

Nursing Keywords / Search Tips

As you're searching, experiment with keywords to find out what terms will bring up the best results. Even when two words or phrases mean the same thing, they will often bring up different results when searching in the databases. For example, acronyms like NICU will bring up different results than the full term, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. One way to account for this is to use OR between these two search terms, like this:

NICU OR neonatal intensive care

This will bring up results that use either term, and bring in more results.
 

You should also try searching for multiple keywords at the same time, such as a medical condition, intervention, or population. This will help narrow your search results down to those on a more specific topic. For example:

diabetes AND children AND insulin

If you're having trouble coming up with keywords or finding articles on your topic, you can set up a research appointment to talk to a librarian. For more information, check out the Need Help? tab above!

PICO(T) Information

Evidence-based models use a process for framing a question, locating, assessing, evaluating, and repeating as needed. PICO(T) elements include: Problem/Patient/Population, Intervention/Indicator, Comparison, Outcome, and (optional) Time element or Type of Study.

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