Nursing students now have access to 'CINAHL with Full Text'

The library's subscription to the allied health database CINAHL has been upgraded.

That means Union students and faculty now have quick access to the full-text PDF versions of top nursing and allied health literature on topics that include nursing, biomedicine, health sciences librarianship, alternative/complementary medicine, consumer health and 17 allied health disciplines.

That's full text for more than 610 journals, with indexing for more than 3,000 journals, including publications from the National League for Nursing and the American Nurses' Association.

A quick search of "rheumatoid arthritis" and "women" and "pain" brings up 177 results. That number shrinks to 31 results by clicking "full text."

Having trouble coming up with search terms that yield the results you want? One helpful limiter has to do with subject headings generated by the database.

Having already typed in some search terms, the user can then click on "Subject: Major Heading" on the lefthand side of the page.

The user will find that 20 of those 31 articles about rheumatoid arthritis pain in women fall under the specific heading "arthritis, rheumatoid."

Another helpful tool for searching is the 'CINAHL Headings' feature in the main menu.

After clicking on "term begins with" underneath the search window, I typed in "arthritis" and gleaned a long listing of search headings.

By checking the box next to "arthritis, rheumatoid," a long list of subheadings pops up (see below), showing everything from "diagnosis" to "ethical issues" to "prevention and control" and so on, all the way to "ultrasonography."

By choosing one or more of those subheadings, I can then click the "Search Database" button found on the same page and glean articles from those specific results.


The index of publications is another helpful feature: After a quick search under the 'Publications' heading, I chose "N" and, after scrolling down, got access to volumes dating back to 1992 (see below) from the "National Women's Health Report."

If you need help using "CINAHL with Full Text," don't hesitate to set up an appointment with a research coach.