Conducting Research for MSN Nursing students

When you click on the Catalog / Discovery System link here or on our web page, you will be able to begin searching.

To begin searching, just type your search term in the large box.  Also note that there is a Sign In box at the top of the page.  You do not have to sign in to use this system.  However, if you do sign in, you will have the opportunity to save items to a list, save your search so you do not have to keep setting it up, and see what items you have requested through Interlibrary Loan

If you click on Sign-In you will see the following screen:

Your User Name is kc plus your ID number.

Your Password is whatever you set your password to be.

Filtering Your Results

Because you are searching all library resources simultaneously, you will end up with many results. For example, we searched for "Nursing".  

You now have a total of 1,100,000 results and not all of them are about your specific nursing topic.  You will need to use the left hand column to narrow your results.  You can narrow by Peer-review, date of publication range, material type such as a print book or an electronic article, or language, geography, etc.  This will give you more accurate results.

Using the Advanced Search Screen

There is an Advanced Search screen option located at the top left of the basic Discovery search screen.  This will allow you to search for multiple terms and set parameters for your search.  

Notice that on the right side of your screen, you are searching in WorldCat.org, which means you will find many results for your searches.  If you would like to search in only one database, you will need to click on the drop down arrow next to all Databases to select your single database to use.

Setting Up Your Database Search

1. Begin by going to the library home page - www.kcu.edu/library.
2. In the left hand column, click on the tab labeled "Research".  This is the 2nd tab down.
3. In the left hand column, click on "Databases".  This is the 1st tab on the list.
4. Once you land on the "Databases" page, you will see Subject headings in bold black type.  Scroll down until you see the heading "Nursing".  The Headings are in alphabetical order.
5. All of the databases that are specific to nursing/biology, are listed in red.  These databases are linked, so all you have to do is click on the title of the database to open it.  The databases under the Nursing heading are pulling information from Nursing/medical journals only.  This saves you time over using Google.  It is not possible to only search for articles from Nursing journals in Google or Google scholar.

Most of the Nursing databases are on an EBSCO platform.  This means that once you have seen one of them, the rest will look and function exactly the same.  The only difference is which journals they pull information from.  Using these databases, it is possible to set your parameters for your search either before or after you do a search.

To Set Up Your Parameters first:

1. Click on a Nursing database such as CINAHL Complete.  This will open the database in an advanced search screen.
2. Below the Search boxes you will see a list of search options.  You can click on the boxes that you want to find articles on specific topics or with specific characteristics.  For example, you may want to click on full text articles, type in a date range, specify the language of the articles such as English, select peer-reviewed, or select an age group that you are focusing on in your topic.
3. Once you have filled out your parameter, type your search term in at the top of the search boxes and then click on the green "Search" button.
4. A list of your parameters will appear in the left hand column.  You can use this column to continue to narrow your results.

To Set Up Your Parameters after your search:

1. Click on a Nursing database such as CINAHL Complete.  This will open the database in an advanced search Screen.
2. Type your search terms into the empty search boxes at the top and then click on the green "Search" button.
3. In the left hand column you can start to set your limits.  You can narrow your date range, select the language for your articles, select for scholarly, peer-reviewed articles, select for a geographical location, and an age group.  You can continue to use this limits column to find articles that best answer your research question.