Welcome to the research guide designed especially for students in the RN-to-BSN program at Goodwin University. Information posted here will be aimed at answering the most frequent questions the library gets from students in your program, so you should check here first if you get stuck doing research for an assignment. Of course, no guide can answer all your questions, so feel free to contact a reference librarian.
The following information can be found on this guide:
For tough research questions, it may be best to contact your Embedded Librarian, Cynthia Hunt, directly; you can find her contact information to the left of this page.
Health Sciences Databases
These databases contain varying levels of evidence. Ranging from expert opinions to systematic reviews and meta analyses, these health sciences databases are the best place to start your search. Most of the information in these databases has been peer-reviewed, but most articles have not been evaluated by experts to determine the strength of the evidence. This is called unfiltered information.
Content: EBSCO’s nursing database covering biomedicine, alternative/complementary medicine, consumer health, and allied health disciplines.
Purpose: Database for research in nursing, medicine, and consumer health.
Special Features: Strong qualitative studies. Filter studies by nurse as author, evidence-based practice, and type of study. Includes MESH indexing, PICO search functionality, text-to-speech feature for some articles, and a tool for discovering citing articles.
Content: Includes citations to millions of biomedical journal articles, as well as some books, book chapters, and reports.
Purpose: An essential database for biomedical and health topics
Special Features: Includes MeSH search functionality
Provides citations and summaries of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations, all in psychology and related disciplines, dating as far back as the 1800s. 99 percent of the covered material is peer-reviewed. The database also includes information about the psychological aspects of related fields such as medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, anthropology, business, law, and others. Journal coverage, which spans 1887 to present, includes international material selected from nearly 2 000 periodicals in more than 25 languages. Can limit by publisher, publication year, publication status, publication type, document type, book type, peer reviewed, language, population group, age group, intended audience, methodology and classification codes.
The premier full-text medical database. Contains scholarly articles on all health sciences topics.
Content: A point-of-care, evidence-based clinical resource.
Purpose: Useful for quick information about conditions, drugs, etc.
Special Features: You will be prompted to create an account the first time you log into UpToDate that will allow you to search UpToDate and save reports using the default windows in Chrome or Firefox. The registration link might not work if you use a Chrome incognito window or Firefox private window. Students must be enrolled in selective Nursing program for access.
Evidence-Based Practice Databases
Many evidence-based practice groups publish their findings online.
You can also search for specific Publication Types or Article Types like Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis, Guideline, or Randomized Controlled Trial in Health Sciences Databases like:
Content: EBSCO’s nursing database covering biomedicine, alternative/complementary medicine, consumer health, and allied health disciplines.
Purpose: Database for research in nursing, medicine, and consumer health.
Special Features: Strong qualitative studies. Filter studies by nurse as author, evidence-based practice, and type of study. Includes MESH indexing, PICO search functionality, text-to-speech feature for some articles, and a tool for discovering citing articles.
Content: Includes citations to millions of biomedical journal articles, as well as some books, book chapters, and reports.
Purpose: An essential database for biomedical and health topics
Special Features: Includes MeSH search functionality
Other Useful Databases
These databases are not focused on nursing, but they may also be useful depending on your topic. This information will also be unfiltered because it has not been appraised by experts.
Provides citations and summaries of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations, all in psychology and related disciplines, dating as far back as the 1800s. 99 percent of the covered material is peer-reviewed. The database also includes information about the psychological aspects of related fields such as medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, anthropology, business, law, and others. Journal coverage, which spans 1887 to present, includes international material selected from nearly 2 000 periodicals in more than 25 languages. Can limit by publisher, publication year, publication status, publication type, document type, book type, peer reviewed, language, population group, age group, intended audience, methodology and classification codes.
Content: Government (Department of Education) database focusing on education research and information.
Purpose: Excellent database to use for all topics in education.
Special Features: After an initial search, filter by audience, grade level, survey used, and main topic. Includes a thesaurus to aid in the discovery process.
