LibGuides: Nursing: Get started

1. Begin your search process by exploring your topic.

Identify research concepts and alternative terms

Preparation is very important. Think about the key concepts and synonyms relevant to your topic.

undefined TIP: Keep an eye out for new keywords once you begin searching.

2. Searching for background information:

Provides information to answer broad, general questions and enhances your understanding of it, within the larger scope of the discipline.
Helps identify important facts -- terminology, dates, events, history, organizations, etc.
Helps refine/narrow your topic based on the new information you are learning.
Leads to bibliographies which provide additional sources of information.

Knowing where to search is just as important as knowing how to search.

The publication types below, with links to the search tools, contain different types of information on different academic levels.

Through the library, you'll find professional and scholarly resources. The types of resources that you can find via the library include:

When doing any kind of research, you'll want to find a mix of these resources to have a well-rounded and thorough view of your topic.

1. Open Web:
(online encyclopedias and dictionaries, professional organizations’ sites, universities’ and colleges’ sites, and government sites)

2. Article Databases:

CINAHL Complete
Provides more than 1,300 full text journals from the fields of nursing and allied health.
PubMed Central This link opens in a new window
PMC is a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM).
Google Scholar
This is a freely accessible search engine that lets users look for both physical and digital copies of articles. FIND full-text@BCIT indicates articles available via BCIT databases.

Reference books include encyclopaedias, handbooks, dictionaries, bibliographies and directories. Use them to define terms, or find topic overviews. These books will help you get familiarized with your topic. Find more by searching the library catalogue.

Encyclopedias:

To save time, use encyclopedias in the early stages of the research process!

The condensed articles give good topic overview and context for your later research. Perusing an encyclopedia will offer keywords

that will focus on your topic and that you can use in database searches.

Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia

The Gale Encyclopedia of Nursing & Allied Health

MedlinePlus includes an Encyclopedia.

Mosby's dictionary of medicine, nursing & health professions. R 121 M89 2022

Wikipedia (use with caution). Use it for a very general overview of your topic and for its list of References or Further Readings at the end of the essay.

Dictionaries:

Visual Thesaurus -- allows you to try 3 "visual searches" for free; it is subscription based. It creates word maps.

Wordnik -- online dictionary that integrates visualization tools, social media, etc.

Handbook at the BCIT Library:

Current medical diagnosis & treatment RC 71 A14 2021

Canadian Best Practices Portal

BIAS in a literature search

Bias will affect how you formulate the question, where you look for information, and what articles you include in your work.

Publication bias:

Studies with “positive” results more likely to get published.
Helpful to question what types of information might not be represented in the literature.

Database bias:

Relying on a single database can systematically limit what you find for certain topic areas.

Personal bias:

Are you aware of your bias (inclination or prejudice) toward the topic you choose?
Ensure that your biases as a writer have not affected the information you accessed or included
Take a moment to identify any previously held assumptions regarding the topic.

Are you selecting sources which confirm your belief and are you disregarding any contradictory evidence or dissenting opinion?

Please, watch the video on Recognizing and Avoiding Bias