Starting your Search - what to use? - Developing Research Skills for Staff (HWLS)

Key Databases for Nursing & Midwifery, Health and Social Care

These are the key databases that cover the Nursing, Midwifery, Health and Social Care literature. Each database has some information about what it covers and what it is appropriate for, so please read the information carefully to help you choose which one to use.

CINAHL Complete This link opens in a new window
Cinahl Complete with Full Text, the authoritative bibliographic database for nursing and allied health, provides full text for 1350 journals. alternative link
Coverage is from 1937 onwards and also includes books, nursing dissertations, conference proceedings and standards of practice.Cross search available with all EBSCO databases, select Choose Databases and tick those you wish to add to your search.
MEDLINE (Ebsco) This link opens in a new window
MEDLINE provides authoritative medical information on medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system and pre-clinical sciences.
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Created by the National Library of Medicine, MEDLINE uses MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) indexing with tree hierarchy, subheadings and explosion capabilities to search citations from over 4,800 current biomedical journals. Included are citations from Index Medicus, International Nursing Index, Index to Dental Literature, HISTLINE, SPACELINE, PREMEDLINE, AIDSLINE, BIOETHICSLINE, and HealthSTAR.
Cross search available with all EBSCO databases, select Choose Databases and tick those you wish to add to your search.
APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
This database is published by the American Psychological Associations and provides comprehensive indexing and abstracts of the international psychological literature from the 1800s to the present. Documents indexed include journals, articles, books, dissertations and more. 90% of the 3,000+ titles indexed in APA PsycINFO® are peer-reviewed.

Coverage: 1806 - current
Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA) This link opens in a new window
Index and abstracts for health, social services, psychology, criminology, sociology, economics, politics, race relations and education. Currently contains over 312,000 records from 650 journals in 16 different countries, including the UK and US. Coverage is from 1987 onwards. Updated monthly, with more than 1500 records added per update.

Primary Vs Secondary?

These databases contain both primary and secondary research reports. It's important to know which ones to use for your purposes. For literature reviews (of any kind!), it's important to use primary research, rather than secondary.

Here is a really good site with definitions and information about the types of research you will encounter in your searching journey:

https://fitchburgstate.libguides.com/c.php?g=841815&p=6015293

Where Can I Get Help?

You can get help with quick questions using Library chat, or you can get in touch with the Library through the student portal or Hallam Help points. Here are some useful help links:

Get to grips with APA referencing and using our software, RefWorks. Referencing and RefWorks workshops: https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/pages/referencing
Got a quick query? Get in touch 24/7/365 using Library Chat: https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/pages/
Need more detailed or specialist help (such as questions about using Library resources/specialist resources)? Contact Hallam Help: https://libguides.shu.ac.uk/libhelp/contact - this will get your enquiry to the most appropriate team.

Developing Research Skills for Staff (HWLS): Starting your Search - what to use?

What will I learn in this section?

Key Databases for Nursing & Midwifery, Health and Social Care

Primary Vs Secondary?

Where Can I Get Help?