Brandel Library

NURS 5010: Scientific Inquiry & Knowledge

Database Search Techniques

MeSH Subject Headings

Click here for a quick tutorial (2 mins.) about using MeSH

MeSH stands for Medical Subject Headings.  They are the official medical subject terms used in many databases. By using terms from the MeSH thesaurus, all articles on a given topic can be found regardless of the terminology used by authors.  MeSh can lead to finding terms not commonly known or used and allows you to search complex medical concepts using a single term.

Advanced Search Techniques

BOOLEAN LOGIC

Uses the words AND, OR, and NOT to connect search terms.

Example 1: A search for handwashing retrieves article citations only containing that term.

Example 2: A search for: handwashing AND hospital acquired infection retrieves citations containing BOTH terms.

Example 3: A search for hospital acquired infection OR cross infection retrieves citations containing EITHER terms.

 

TRUNCATION

The truncation symbol (*) allows you to search for variations of a word that contain the same root or stem.

Example 1: A search for the word  nurs* will retrieve citations containing the terms nurse, nursing, nurses, etc.

Example 2: A search for the word child* will retrieve citations containing the terms child, childs, children, childhood, etc.

 

WILDCARDS

The wildcard symbol (?) allows you search for words that have spelling variations. 

Example 1:  A search for the word wom?n will retrieve citations containing the terms woman, women. 

Example 2: A search for the word colo?r will retrieve citations containing the terms color, colour.

 

STOP WORDS

Insignificant words that databases tend to ignore. Stop words vary by databases.

 Common Stop Words:       a, and, of, but

 

How to Read an Article Record in CINAHL