CINAHL is a well-known resource that keeps getting better. The premier database for nursing and allied health literature can now be accessed from mobile devices by pointing your browser to: http://search.ebscohost.mobi/. Select EBSCOhost Web, then CINAHL and use your MSK user name and ID when prompted.

Another feature you might not have tried yet in CINAHL is the “Cited References” search. For example, if you wanted to find out who has cited publications of the nurse theorist Dorothy Orem, you could select “Cited References” (on the top blue bar) and enter her name as cited author. Be sure to use only last name and first initial followed by an asterisk, for example, Orem, D*, so that you retrieve references in which the journal uses any variation of her name (Orem, DE; Orem, Dorothy; Orem, Dorothy E; Orem, D). You could also search to see who has cited a specific publication by an author of interest.

Using the CINAHL Headings is often the best way to search the database. Doing so will ensure that you don’t miss publications that use variant terminology. For example, CINAHL uses ‘pressure ulcer’, although individual authors may call them ‘pressure sores’ or ‘decubitus ulcers’, depending on their background. A tutorial for using CINAHL Headings is available.

Did you know that when you search CINAHL you can apply a LIMIT that excludes MEDLINE (and PubMed) records? Or that you can require that the results include only those articles for which at least one of the authors is a nurse?

CINAHL is an acronym for Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature, and it is an EBSCO database.

A free downloadable iPhone/iPad app for CINAHL is also coming soon.