Your assignment for Competency 6 requires you to perform both keyword and subject heading searches in a database of your choice.
Keyword searching is a flexible, natural language approach to database searching on a topic. Search results will be retrieved based on the keywords that you enter into the database search boxes. As you read through your search results, you may begin to recognize additional keywords to use in your search strategy to locate more articles.
Subject heading searching is a targeted way to search for articles. Articles in databases are indexed (or categorized) with subject heading terminology which works like a thesaurus. If there is more than one way of describing a concept or topic (i.e. hypertension or high blood pressure), the subject heading will take all of those varieties into consideration - saving you the time of having to experiment with different keywords. For example, the subject heading for Hypertension will find articles that use the term high blood pressure.
CINAHL and MEDLINE Databases
Database | STEP 1 - To begin a subject heading search, click the corresponding link at the top of each database search screen: | ||
CINAHL | CINAHL Subject Headings | ||
MEDLINE | MeSH 2022 (note - MeSH is an acronym for Medical Subject Headings) | ||
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STEP 2 - Proceed with your search by following the instructions in the Using CINAHL/MeSH Headings video tutorial |
Additional Relevant EBSCOhost Databases
Database | STEP 1 - To begin a subject heading search, click the corresponding link at the top of each database search screen: |
Alt Health Watch | Subjects |
APA PsycINFO | APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms |
Education Research Complete | Thesaurus |
ERIC | Thesaurus |
Health Source: Nursing/Academic | Subjects |
LGBTQ+ Source | Thesaurus |
Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection | Subjects |
SocINDEX | Subject Terms |
Sociological Collection | Subjects |
SPORTDiscus | Thesaurus |
STEP 2 - Proceed with your search by following the instructions in the Browsing Subject Terms in EBSCOhost Databases video tutorial |