Nursing Databases

These videos from McMaster University will provide you with knowledge of the database tools and features that are necessary for effective and efficient searching.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Keyword Searching

Because most electronic databases store and retrieve information differently than Internet search engines.

A databases searches fields within a collection of records. These fields include the information commonly found in a citation plus an abstract (if available) and subject headings.  Search engines search web content which is typically the full text of sources.

The bottom line: you get better results in a database by using effective keyword search strategies.

To develop an effective search strategy, you need to:

• determine the key concepts in your topic and
• develop a good list of keyword synonyms.

Because there is more than one way to express a concept or idea.  You don't know if the article you're looking for uses the same expression for a key concept that you are using.

Consider: Will an author use:

• Hypertension or High Blood Pressure?
• Teach or Instruct?
• Therapy or Treatment?

Don't get "keyword lock!"  Be willing to try a different term as a keyword. If you are having trouble thinking of synonyms, check a thesaurus, dictionary, or reference book for ideas.Thesaurus.com is an online thesaurus you can use.

To build an effective search for a database it is best to use keywords or short phrases which represent the main concepts of your research question.

A good strategy for building a keyword search is:

1. Begin with your research question

Topic: What role do nurses play in mental health care for children?

2. Draw out the concepts from the topic statement.  In other words, eliminate everything but the main ideas of the question.

Main Concepts (Keywords) of Topic: 
nursing role_____AND______mental health_________AND____ children

3.  Create a list of synonyms for each of the principal concepts.  Think of different ways to express the same idea (children vs. kids).  But remember that every synonym need not be an exact synonym.  Broader or related terms, even antonyms can be useful too. Note: Searching is a process and may require trying several different combinations of keywords or short phrases. For example, you might also choose to search:  Nursing AND role AND mental AND health AND children. 

4. As you go through the research process you will need to add more synonyms to your list as you encounter them.  Remember to be on the watch for new terms and to keep your keyword lists as "running lists."

PICO tutorial from EBSCO
This 45 minute video is an in-depth tutorial on PICO searching.

You may need to combine your synonyms. Here is a short video the Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT. Google’s default is AND.