A-Z Databases: Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition: Library Guide

Learn how to perform an advanced search on EBSCOhost  Research Platformdatabases, e.g. Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition.

EBSCO Tutorials (2019) Creating an advanced search - tutorial. Available at: https://youtu.be/DjKNxqiuwpY  (Accessed: 10 November 2020).

Download the EBSCO mobile app for easier access.

EBSCO Tutorials (2023) The EBSCO mobile app - Tutorial.  Available at: https://youtu.be/LFIOQRqodLo?si=_GcLZv7kQ1WU7DNr (Accessed: 15 December 2023).

Advanced Search

Typing a sentence into a search engine or database will not search resources effectively.

Consider the key words and/ or phrases that describe what you want to search (e.g. nursing students).

Enter these in the search boxes provided.

You can use various search techniques to add in extra terms, combine multiple topics, narrow results down and get more useful results.  These include:

• Phrase search - including the terms in quotation marks to ensure they appear together (e.g. "primary care")
• Boolean search:
  • AND (+) - narrows down the results. All connected terms must be included in the results (e.g. preventing falls AND primary care).
  • OR (|) - broadens out the results. Either connected term can be included in the results (e.g. falls prevention OR preventing falls).
  • NOT (-) narrows down the results. The second term must be excluded from the results (e.g. caregiver NOT family).
• Truncation symbol * can be helpful but should be used with caution.  For example, nurs* will find nurse, nurses and nursing ... but also nursery.

Use the filters on the right of the page to refine your search.  For example, limit results to a specific date range, language or content type.

Extending the search beyond full text items

By default, your search will generate only results for which we have full text access.

Abstracts or references for many thousands more articles are available by unticking the "Full text" box.

Some of these articles may be accessible via the listed 'Check Primo OneSearch for availability' links. 

For others, a free copy may be available on the internet provided under an open access arrangement. Use Google Scholar or Open Access Button to check. Type in one author's surname and add the title of the article in quotation marks (to look for the words in the same order). If the article is freely available, you will see a PDF or HTML notation beside the citation.

You may also be able to get the article by requesting an Interlibrary Loan (ILL).

Go to Databases A-Z and select 'Health Source: Nursing/ Academic Edition'.

Select the 'Access via your institution' option then enter your student, or staff, email address and password when prompted.

To find good quality journal articles related to:

• Nursing,
• Midwifery,
• Allied health professions,
• Evidence-based practice in a health setting.

• In the 'Select a field' dropdown, select Abstract to limit the search results to articles discussing your topic.
• See EBSCO's Create a personal account video for the option to save selected articles, and/ or your searches, for viewing in subsequent search sessions.  
• Click the 'Choose databases' option, above the search boxes, to simultaneously run your search on Health Source and another another database on the EBSCOhost research platform.
• When referencing an article, click an article's title then select the 'Permalink' option to generate an accessible URL to include in your reference list.  Alternatively, click the 'Cite' option then view the appropriate entry, e.g. 'Harvard'.  [The default URL is customised to a user session so generates error messages whenever used by another user.]
• Follow EBSCO Publishing on Twitter - @EBSCO
• Watch videos on EBSCO Tutorials YouTube channel.

• Email library@uws.ac.uk 
• Ask at a campus library Info Point
• Telephone 0141 848 3888