This FAQ is a companion to the Finding Journal Articles - Health workshop. It includes a recording of the workshop and an outline of the demonstration. Please contact the library for more in-depth information and advice.
Finding Journal Articles - Health
This demonstration uses the ProQuest - Nursing & Allied Health Database
Choose other Health related databases from the A-Z Database list.
This introduction to finding journal articles for health uses this example question:
Step 1: Identify the key concepts or keywords from your assessment question
Databases don't understand natural language so you need to identify your main keywords:
Discuss the efficacy of honey as a topical treatment for wound care in nursing practice.
Step 2: Brainstorm for related terms or synonyms
| "wound care" | honey | Nursing |
| "wound management" | manuka | nurs* |
| "wound healing" | Medihoney |
Step 3: Select a health database from the Health Subject Guide or the A-Z Databases list
https://library.torrens.edu.au/az/databases?a=all
Select ProQuest - Nursing & Allied Health Database
Step 4. Use Advanced Search to construct your search
The search strategy can also be created in one line or search sentence, using Basic Search option:
(honey OR manuka OR Medihoney) AND ("wound care" OR "wound management" OR "wound healing") AND nurs*
Once you have created a search sentence, it can be copied and pasted into the basic search screen of another database, e.g. CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature). Remember you can select CINAHL and other health databases from the Databases list or Health subject guides.
More help with database searching:
Ten Tips for database searching
Searching made easy with AND, OR & NOT
Step 5: Apply filters:
Step 6: Analyse your search results and select relevant articles
Referencing journal articles
Use the APA 7th edition Referencing Tool for referencing different types of resources. The instructions to reference journal articles are here.