Academic textbooks are a valuable introductory source in healthcare as they:

• Are written by subject experts
• Give introductions to topics, often with overviews
• Discuss the core concepts and theoretical developments
• Often include the evolution, details and use of related models and frameworks.

Some textbooks are narrow in focus and therefore self-explanatory, e.g. 'Pain: a textbook for health professionals'. Many others cover broad areas of care or professional practice and can be useful sources throughout your programme. For these, use the index, if consulting in print, or the eBook's 'search within' function, to find the entries for the term or subtopic that you are exploring.

For example, McCormack et al.'s (2023) book on person-centred care may, or may not, be the first that springs to mind for a communication assignment but this has 30+ entries in the index related to effective communication.

You will likely see references to textbooks on your module resource lists as these will support your core learning. These references will sometimes be generic for you to dip in and out as relevant. Many though will be to a specific section or chapter to enhance your understanding of topics under discussion. These will serve as starting points when preparing assignments. You will be expected then to search for, and use, other titles to develop your ideas further.

References:

McCormack, B., McCance, T., Bulley, C., Brown, D., McMillan, A. and Martin, S. (eds.) (2021) Fundamentals of Person-Centred Healthcare Practice. Chichester: Wiley.

Van Griensven, H. and Strong, J. (eds) (2024) Pain: a textbook for health professionals. 3rd edn. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Journals - collections of articles on a topic published on a regular basis - feature prominently in healthcare as they collate and promote developments in practice including new research studies and topical discussions on ethical issues and more. Journal titles tend to have a defined subject focus but vary in style and intended audience.

Health-focused journals are also diverse in coverage and purpose. Some titles are aimed at front line practitioners, e.g. Nursing Standard or Practising Midwife, and mainly include short snappy entries with accompanying images. Others are aimed at academics or subject specialists and mostly contain multi-page articles describing and promoting research studies or in-depth topical discussions, e.g. British Journal of Psychiatry.

You may see journal titles on your programme reading lists as browsing the contents of several issues will give you an indication of the topics under discussion and the research studies that are driving practice improvement.

On a day-to-day basis though, you will likely be focusing on individual journal articles. These will help you to extend your knowledge of the topic, any impact of current events, areas of research and other developmental activities.

Again, you will see some links on your reading lists but you will be expected to search for others then use these to provide additional evidence to support your arguments when completing assignments. 

You can use generative AI tools to help you develop your ideas but remember to check the original sources to ensure accuracy and minimise the impact of any bias in the AI-generated responses.

The Library favours online access to resources for both books and journals as this enables greater access overall. 

We arrange to have online access - eBooks - to core and recommended textbooks whenever feasible.  Other book titles are available in print from the campus libraries.

Similarly, some journal titles are also available in print in the campus libraries but we access the vast majority of journal articles online, either through open access, direct subscription or via the bibliographic databases. Either way, you will find links to the majority of items on our One Search catalogue.

Decisions on print purchases and online subscriptions are dependent on several factors, including the relevant licensing agreement, access arrangements, terms of usage and our internal financial guidelines. You may notice changes in access arrangements to items throughout your programme if amendments to licensing agreements are implemented.

The vast majority of textbooks and journal articles we can access are indexed on our One Search catalogue and discovery tool.

You may find it beneficial though to access some collections directly. For example, you can export anatomical and other images directly from the Clinical Key collection into your own PowerPoint presentations.

The SpringerNature collection includes many health-focused journal articles and eBooks that are ever evolving.

For those on nursing and related programmes, the Royal Marsden procedures will also be an important source.

You can access these specific sources from this guide's Module Resource List 

Other resources are available through One Search or the Find a database: A-Z listing - the databases can sometimes provide more focused search results than One Search