Articles and Databases
Core Resources...
- CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health)
provides coverage of the nursing literature. - PubMed (Medline) includes article citations and full-text links to biology and health information for researchers and professionals.
Other Relevant Resources...
- CAB Abstracts references journal articles in global health, nutrition and agriculture.
- Dissertations & Theses includes dissertations from most U.S. institutions.
- Health and Psychosocial Instruments (HaPI) focuses on assessment tools for medical and nursing issues.
- Health & Safety Science Abstracts covers public health, safety and industrial hygiene.
- Web of Science search for new articles which cite an older article by using the "cited ref" search mode.
Don't forget: Try These First if you want general popular interest magazines and newspapers or pro and con debate information.
Article Search Tips: Finding the best articles on your topic requires a number of steps:
- Select a database from the list above.
- Enter and combine terms appropriate to your topic.
- Look at the best references you retrieve and determine the subject terms used for those articles. Then revise your search using these new terms.
- Write down or print off all pertinent information (called the 'citation') including the journal title, volume, date, and page numbers.
- Explore other databases and subject terms (which vary between databases) for more information.
Get the full text: Once you find the citation in a database, try the 
button to see if Penn State has the electronic or print version of the article you need. If the electronic version is available, it will appear as the first link on the Get it! menu. If the article is not available electronically, click on The CAT link to automatically search our catalog and see if Penn State has a print copy. If no other copy is available, you can use the ILLiad link to request it from another library.
Already have a citation? Use Citation Linker to see if Penn State has it online or in print!
Books
Use The CAT for finding books owned by Penn State.
CAT Search Tips: Go to the Browse function if you are looking for a specific title or author (type last name first). Go to the Keyword function and combine terms to search on a topic then use the subject headings from relevant books for additional search terms. Write down the call number and location for any book you want. For more detailed searching information go to the Quick Guide to the CAT.
Suggested CAT Search Terms: nursing careers, nursing theory, perioperative nursing, terminal care, drug interactions, health education, health promotion, cancer, diabetes.
Call Numbers: Nursing information is generally located in the Life Sciences Library on the 4th floor of Paterno Library. Note exceptions in call number listing that follows:
Books elsewhere: NLM Gateway, WorldCat
Call Numbers: Nursing information is generally located in the Life Sciences Library on the 4th floor of Paterno Library. Note exceptions in call number listing that follows:
- QM – Human Anatomy
- QP – Physiology
- QR – Microbiology
- R – General Medicine
- RA – Public Aspects of Medicine
- RB – Pathology
- RC – Internal Medicine
- RD – Surgery
- RJ – Pediatrics
- RM – Therapeutics, Pharmacology
- RS – Pharmacy and Material Medica
- RT – Nursing
- TX – Nutrition (UP location: 3rd floor Paterno)
Books elsewhere: NLM Gateway, WorldCat
Internet Sites
Directories:
- Dirline-Directory of Health Organizations is the National Library of Medicine's online database containing location and descriptive information about a wide variety of information resources, including organizations, research projects and databases.
- The National Academies provides information and publications from the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council.
Professional Nursing Associations (selected list):
- American Academy of Nurse Practitioners
- American Association of Colleges of Nursing
- American Nurses Association
- National Black Nurses Association, Inc.
- National Council of State Boards of Nursing, Inc.
- National League for Nursing
- National Student Nurses Association
- Pennsylvania State Board of Nursing
- Pennsylvania State Nursing Association
- Sigma Theta Tau International
Government Resources:
- AIDS.gov an information gateway to guide users to Federal domestic HIV/AIDS information and resources.
- CDC - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agency responsible for developing programs to prevent and control the leading causes of disease and disability in the United States.
- Department of Health and Human Services is the U.S. government's principal agency for protecting the health of all American citizens.
- MedlinePlus will direct you to extensive authoritative consumer health information on over 700 diseases and conditions.
- National Institutes of Health is the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research.
- NIDA - the National Institute on Drug Abuse supports most of the world's research on the health aspects of drug abuse and addiction.
- SAMHSA'S National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information access to extensive substance abuse information aimed at targeted audiences (i.e. teens, families).
- World Health Organization United Nations specialized agency for health, with a mission of addressing issues related to the health globally.
Statistics:
- Health Data and Statistics links to resources to support data collection.
- NCHS: National Center for Health Statistics a rich source for U.S. health statistics information.
- Penn State Libraries' Social Sciences Statistics and Data Web Page an extensive guide to subject specific data and statistical information resources.
- Statehealthfacts.org (Kaiser Family Foundation) provides data on over 500 health, health care and health policy topics.
- Statistical Abstract of the United States produced by the U.S. Census Bureau, provides a comprehensive summary of statistics, on the social, political and economic organization of the United States.
Web Guides:
- Biological, Agricultural, Medical Sciences INFOMINE is a comprehensive, searchable collection of Internet resources in the life sciences.
- Hardin Meta Directory: Nursing & Nursing Research meta directory of Web sites for nursing resources, created by the Hardin Library for Health Sciences at the University of Iowa.
- Martindale's Virtual Nursing Center database links to journals, medical dictionaries, laboratory and diagnostic protocols, interactive tutorials, clinical procedures, case studies and professional nursing sites.
- MayoClinic access tools for healthier lives, produced by medical experts.
- National Institute of Nursing Research, NIH an inter-mural research program for nursing at the National Institutes of Health.
- Nursing Centre a portal to more than 800 continuing education activities and thousands of clinical articles from 50 leading nursing journals published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
- Nursing on the Net produced by the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) for professional nurses.
- RN Central a virtual gathering place for nurses and nursing students. Also provides a significant collection of patient care plans.
- RN Web is the publisher site for the professional journal, RN. Notable features at this site include a continuing education center, licensure information, licensure information by state and a career center.
- WebMD health resources for consumers, physicians, nurses, and educators.
Evaluating Resources
To evaluate print sources and web sites, you should ask a series of questions concerning the source’s currency, authority, validity, intended audience and bias. See this How to Evaluate Information site for details.
Citing Sources
When using information from another source you must give credit to the original author or you are plagiarizing. You give credit by citing the source. Make sure your citation contains everything you would need to backtrack and find the information again. It is best to pick one citation style and be consistent. Check this Quick Guide to Citation Styles for details and format.
Plagiarism, whether you copy a paragraph from a book or cut and paste someone else's words from an e-mail, is a violation of Penn State's academic integrity policy. See this Statement on Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty.
Evidence Based Nursing
Evidence Based Practice Tutorial for Nurses at Penn State a self-help guide that walks you through a series of steps essential to the application of EBN in the clinical practice environment.
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- Updated: 08/07/09
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