Introduction to CINAHL

CINAHL is the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied health Literature, and includes hundreds of nursing journals. Use this database to find evidence-based, peer-reviewed articles on nursing and other medical topics. CINAHL is one of the best places to start looking for articles related to nursing for many reasons.

• Comprehensive nursing-focused resources - Whether you are looking for peer-reviewed articles focused on evidence-based practice, clinical guidelines for many clinical settings, systematic reviews, or quick information, CINAHL offers you access to all these within one database. You can easily find Evidence-Based Care Sheets and Quick Lessons on a wide scope of medical conditions for quick reference.
• Reliable information - The resources you find on CINAHL are curated, and only come from proven reliable sources. You never need to worry if you can trust the information. 
• Strong searching and limiting functions - You can search by keywords, CINAHL/MeSH headings, by publication, and by author. In addition, you can limit your results quickly and easily.

On this page:

• Searching in CINAHL
• Advanced Search Filters
• Video Tutorials for Using CINAHL

Searching in CINAHL

• MeSH/CINAHL Subject Terms - Use MeSH and CINAHL subject terms to get more relevant results. Subject headings are powerful because they are the words and phrases the database has tagged articles with.
• Keywords - You can also search by keywords to find articles that may not have been labelled with subject headings
• Limiters - Limit your search by date, publication, resource type by using the column on the left side of the screen.
• Truncation - Use the * to get results for all words with a specific root. For example using "nurs*" will get results for nurse, nurses, and nursing. This helps you get more complete results than using "nurse".
• Creating/Signing into personal account - Using the Sign In button, create a personal account in the database. You can save and share searches over multiple sessions. This is an excellent way to track and build your searches.

Advanced Search Filters

Use the Advanced Search to filter your results to the type of specific type of evidence-based methods you are looking for. 

• Peer-reviewed: Journal articles reviewed by subject matter experts on the topic and revised to ensure accuracy and credibility.
• Evidence-Based Practice: These journals publish evidence-based research.
• Meta-Synthesis: Research studies and reports based on the findings of a wide scope of other research studies on the topic.
• Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT): A study designed with participants assigned at random to control and intervention groups, with controls in place to ensure other factors that may affect results.
• Explore even more filters! Use "Select a Field" on the Advanced Search field to limit results to Author, Publisher, Original Study, Publication Name, and many more.

Video Tutorials for Using CINAHL