Skip to Main Content

Nursing Research Guide for FHSU Tech Students

Nursing Information Sources

Best databases for scholarly articles about nursing research. Accessible from on campus with a TIGERNET ID. Not accessible from off-campus. For databases you can use from home, click the Fort Hays Tech Accessible Databases tab above.

(E-books are accessible from the FHSU campus only)

Use the search box on the library's home page, selecting the "Books & More" tab. On the results page, limit to Books using the filters under "Filter My Results".  If you only want E-books, also limit to "Full-Text Online".  You can also search our e-book databases directly. Note that ProQuest Academic Complete and ProQuest EBook Central are only available to students enrolled at FHSU.

Brainstorm Keywords

Brainstorm Additional Keywords

Before you start searching, it's helpful to brainstorm keywords relating to your research topic. You may need to do some background research on your research question before you can identify additional keywords.

For example, let's say your research question is: In the past decade, how has the flu shot impacted the number of flu cases among elderly patients in the United States.

The main concepts would be: 

  • flu shot
  • flu cases
  • elderly patients
  • United States

There are three main ways to brainstorm keywords based on key concepts:

  1. Look for synonyms. Synonyms are terms that mean the same thing as your original key concepts:
    • Ex: "aging populations" is a synonym for "elderly patients"
  2. Look for narrower terms. Narrower terms are specific examples of your key concepts:
    • Ex: "Influenza A" is a type of "flu case"
  3. Look for broader terms. Broader terms are bigger categories that your key concepts can fit into.
    • Ex: "flu shot" fits into the category of "vaccinations"

Connecting Keywords

Connecting Keywords with Search Operators

Once you've brainstormed keywords for your research question, think about what operators you may use. Operators are a way of combining keywords to get the best results from your search.

 

 

AND

Use AND when you want to find articles or other information that contains both/all keywords

Ex: flu shot AND flu cases AND elderly patients

 

 

OR

Use OR when you want to find articles or other information that contains at least one of the keywords

 Ex: influenza vaccination OR flu shot

 

"Quotation

Marks"

Put quotes around phrases when you want that phrase to be found in that exact order      

Ex: "influenza vaccination"

Using PICO to create a research question

Using PICO to generate the question "Is acetaminophen or ibuprofen more effective at reducing fever in children?"

Examples

The asterisk (*) after child will bring up child, children, childhood, etc. Using the synonyms fever or febrile yields more results. Use the plus sign at the end of the search box to add additional rows.

Why FHSU Library Resources?

This video discusses why searching with library database is more effective than searching the internet, covering the following topics:

How to Embed This Tutorial in Blackboard:

  1. Select and copy (Ctrl+C) all of the following Embed Code text:
    <iframe title="Why Forsyth Library?" width="640" height="360" allowTransparency="true" mozallowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen allowfullscreen style="background-color:transparent;" frameBorder="0" src="https://app.vidgrid.com/embed/umGEdzdAzL7O"></iframe>
  2. In Blackboard, create and name an Item (or any other Blackboard tool that includes the standard Text Editor) 
  3. Click the HTML button at the bottom right of the Tool Buttons to open the HTML editor 
  4. Paste (Ctrl+V) the embed code within the HTML window and click Update and Submit. 

Link to VidGrid Video: https://use.vg/Fk9ICi

FHSU Library Tutorials