1. Welcome to the CINAHL* tutorial By the end of this tutorial you should be able to: Do a basic search to find references Use search techniques to make your results more relevant Email, print or save your results *CINAHL = the Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature

2. Step 1: Accessing CINAHL Go to the student home page and login with the student login ID and password NB: Staff would log in at Staff Homepage and select Resources Online.

3. Select Resources Online from the list of applications

4. Select E-Resources

5. Select your subject (e.g. Nursing) and then select ‘Find Resources’

6. Now select CINAHL from the list NB: When staff click through to the Index, they will be asked for their Athens account details before entering the database.

7. You will now see the list of all EBSCO databases that we subscribe to. Scroll down the list and select CINAHL. TIP: If you want to cross-search EBSCO databases simultaneously, tick the box next to each database title you want to search and select Continue (Continue links are located at the top and bottom of this page). However, it is recommended that CINAHL is searched on its own as there are some unique search limits. Cross-searching with other databases will mean you lose these.

8. Step 2: Search strategy Before you start searching any database you should plan your search strategy in advance as it is a more efficient way of managing your time. Keywords Before you start searching, think about keywords for your given subject. If your topic is: Discuss ways of preventing malnutrition in care homes. Your keywords would be: malnutrition care homes TIP: Authors use many different terms which mean the same thing. Remember, the computer will only search for what you tell it to search for. If there are other words that mean the same (or similar) things as your search terms you must search for these too. Think about alternatives (and the different types of security issues that you know online banking may cause). Authors use many different terms which mean the same thing. Remember, the computer will only search for what you tell it to search for. If there are other words that mean the same (or similar) things as your search terms you must search for these too. Think about alternatives (e.g. different names for care homes). residential care nursing homes residential homes nutrition diet malnourishment TIP ON FINDING KEYWORDS: You may find it useful to do some preliminary reading in textbooks and encyclopaedias which will help you identify some keywords, and perhaps also key authors.

9. In the search box type malnutrition and select search. Make a note of the number of results your search finds.

10. Your search results should look similar to this - you should find that you have over 2300 results.

11. Step 3: Broadening your search The term or will broaden a search and include items where the authors have used different terms. Example: malnutrition or nutrition

12. In the first search box type malnutrition or nutrition. Click on search and make a note of the number of results you get.

13. Items containing either search term have now been searched for and your search results list will have now have increased to over 36000! You can add more alternative words if you want to widen your search more (e.g. malnourishment). Don't panic that there are a lot of results at this stage. We will look at how to cut down the numbers and make them more relevant in the next section.

14. Step 4: Combining your search terms Searching for nutrition or malnutrition will give you everything the database has on nutrition generally (causes, incidence, symptoms etc). You therefore need to be more specific about the subject you are looking for. To do this you can combine different search terms together. The term and will narrow your search

15. Search for malnutrition or nutrition and care homes or nursing homes. Make a note of the number of results you get.

16. You are now searching for items containing either malnutrition or nutrition, as well as care homes or residential homes. Using ‘and’ will usually result in fewer but more relevant hits. Have a look at the result numbers you wrote down and see how the number of results changed. You should now have around 350 articles.

17. Step 5: Refining your search When you have entered all the search terms you want to use you will still often need to cut down on the amount of results you have. To refine your search you might want to: Remove articles which do not have the full text available in CINAHL Remove articles that are not in peer-reviewed (scholarly) journals Remove all the older articles or select a range of year Click on Search options on the right hand side of the screen. There are a number of options here for you to try. Depending on the type of articles you want to find try ticking boxes for: Publication year (enter the years you want) Age group Population group (human or animal) TIP: It is usually best to refine your search by selecting one criteria at a time. Selecting multiple criteria can sometimes mean you get no results.

18. Specialist categories on CINAHL CINAHL contains some specialist categories for refining searches which are particularly relevant to nursing and health. Click on on the right hand side of the screen. As well as refining your search using the full text, peer-review and date options you can also: IMPORTANT TIP: It is usually best to refine your search by selecting one criteria at a time. Selecting multiple criteria can sometimes mean you get no results. Select the origin of your journal (e.g. view UK and Irish journals only) Select the type of patient group you want by age or gender. Click on

19. Step 6: Reading your articles To help you decide which articles are relevant to you look at the citation and abstract. Do this by clicking on the title of the article. You will be given all the information about the article. This will include the title, authors, journal name, year, volume, issue etc. For most articles you will also be able to read an abstract, a summary of what the article is about. If you can access the full text of the article you will see a PDF Full Text or a HTML Full text link. TIP: If you click on PDF you will get a document that looks identical to the original print version, including any pictures, graphs etc. These can be slow to load. If you click on html you will get just the words of the article with no pictures.

20. Step 7: Printing, saving and emailing your results You can print, save or email one or more articles. To print, save or email an individual article open up the article. Click on the appropriate link on the top of the page

21. If you want to print, save or email multiple articles use the folder. Go to your list of results. Click on Add to folder for each of the articles you want to email, save or print.

22. When you have selected everything you want click on Folder

23. Tick the articles you wish to print, save or email. Click on the appropriate option at the top of the page and follow the instructions.

24. Step 8: Search histories and saving your searches To see your search history and to save any searches go back to your results list (if you are in the Folder, click Back to view your results list). Click on Search History/Alerts. You can view, print, re-run and save your searches.

25. Congratulations – you’ve come to the end of this tutorial If you need more advice about constructing your search, such as choosing keywords, or how to combine searches, or if you have any other related queries, please contact ALT staff. We hope you enjoyed the tutorial