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Accelerated Bachelor's of Nursing (ABSN)

This guide provides resources for students in the ABSN programs.

Using Boolean Operators

Venn diagram with the overlapping section shaded to show the boolean AND The AND operator narrows a search, retrieving only records containing both term. AND is used to narrow a topic to a specific aspect.

Example: anorexia AND "college students"
Venn diagram with all sections shaded to show the boolean OR The OR operator broadens a search, retrieving records that contain either term, but not necessarily both. It is used to combine synonyms or related concepts.

Example: anorexia OR bulimia
Venn diagram with only one section shaded to show the boolean NOT The NOT operator also narrows a search by removing all records that contain a particular word or phrase.

Example: anorexia NOT bulimia

The NOT operator is rarely used. It often screens out useful records.

Key Search Techniques

Quotation Marks/Phrase Searching

Using quotation marks in a search tells the database that you are looking for an exact phrase. Because of this, you only need to use quotation marks for a concept that is two or more words. For example if you were researching Social Security, using quotation marks ["social security"] would tell the database that you only want search results where Social Security appears as a phrase.

Without the quotation marks, the database actually reads your search as [social AND security]. Library databases will interpret strings of terms without any quotation marks or Boolean operators as being connected by the term AND. This is likely to return results unrelated to your research question.

Truncation and Wild Cards

Truncation refers to shortening a word or eliminating characters in order to pick up variant terms in a database. Symbols are used for truncation. The most common symbols are the asterisk (*), the question mark (?), the pound sign (#), or a dollar sign ($). These symbols vary from database to database but are often indicated on a database's "Help" page. Examples of truncation:

  • child* - includes child and children
  • disab* - includes disabled, disability, disabilities
  • environment* - includes environment, environments, environmental, environmentalist, etc.

Wildcards are used for internal truncation. This will replace a single character in a search term. This is useful if a word has a letter difference between American English and British English or if a word is irregularly pluralized. The symbols used are different from regular truncation, but can be determined on a database's "Help" page. Examples of using the wildcard:

  • wom?n - includes woman and women
  • colo?r - includes color and colour

Searching in CINAHL

Searching for Nursing Literature

Limiting Your Search to Nursing Journals

Searching for Articles with Nurse Authors

Using Search Filters

About Search Filters

Search filers, also called search limiters or facets, are features in most academic databases that allow you to filter your search results for greater precision. Common search filters include limiting by a certain publication date range, study type, patient population, or article language. In most databases, you will find filters on the left-hand side of the screen, or in the advanced search screen. See below for more information on how to use common search filters in CINAHL.

Search Filters in CINAHL

In the search results screen, CINAHL has many filters on the left-hand side of the page. Some important ones include the date range, language, and geography. Click on the arrows to see a list of all of your options in each category.

Please be aware that geographical filters are imperfect, so you may accidentally filter out relevant results by using them. This is fine if you want a precise search, but be wary of using them for comprehensive searches.

Advanced Search Filters

There are additional filters in the Advanced Search screen, including limiting your search results to nursing journals, articles with nurse authors, and many other precision searching options.