Find Scholarly Articles for Nursing in CINAHL
This page offers handy tips for searching the database, CINAHL Complete, a powerful research database for nursing and allied health professionals, providing full-text access to top journals, evidence-based care sheets, quick lessons and more.
Basic Keyword Searching
Let's say you want to research whether obesity is an important risk factor for breast cancer. What are the key main concepts?
obesity, breast cancer
Now, think of synonyms for both of these key concepts:
| Obesity | Breast Cancer |
| excess body fat, eating habits, overweight, body mass index | cancer risk factors, carcinoma, breast tumor, breast neoplasms |
Synonyms may be broader or narrower terms, depending on your topic. These will serve as your search terms ('keywords") when you begin searching the CINAHL database. If one keyword doesn’t work, swap it out for another and notice how or if your results vary. As you get more comfortable with the database try using the CINAHL headings link to find alternate terms.
