Nursing Research Guide: Welcome

Reference books can provide background material and be a launching point for further research. The following titles are great starting points, but you can find many more in the library catalog advanced search with the Location limited to Reference. You can also search for e-reference items using our Gale eBooks, Credo Reference: Nursing and Allied Health Collection Reference, or R2 Digital Library.

The Library Catalog is the gateway to finding books. Commonly used terms for nursing items are Nursing, Allied Health, and Evidence-based. Nursing books will tend to be in the RT section.

Many of our nursing books are ebooks, these will have an eb at the end of the call number and may be accessed electronically.

Databases allow you to find scholarly articles, disease overviews, care sheets, book chapters, and more. To see a full list of TLU's databases related to nursing, go to the Nursing Databases page. Here are a few of the key databases and tutorials:

TLU librarians offer in-depth research help.

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Finding research instruments like questionnaires, tests, and scales can be challenging. Many of them are proprietary and must be requested from publishers. Some cost money to use. 

Here are some strategies for finding instruments:

• Instruments are sometimes reprinted in research articles. They are usually appended at the end of the article. As you research your topic, keep an eye out for articles that include instruments! If you find an article where the authors describe an instrument that you want to use, but the full instrument isn't reprinted in the article, you can email the authors to ask whether they would be willing to share it with you. 
• In CINAHL, look at the Advanced Search screen. After you enter your search terms in the top box, scroll down to the Publication Type menu. Choose "Questionnaire/Scale" and run the search. This will find articles that used questionnaires and scales. Some of the articles will include the reprinted questinnaire/scale, and some won't. There is not a way to limit your search to only articles that contain copies of instruments. 
• Some instruments are available for free on the Web. Here is another library's list of some places to find instruments: http://libguides.sjsu.edu/c.php?g=230361&p=1528370

This PDF handout lists TLU's nursing resources according to the 6S model: Systems, Summaries, Synopses of Syntheses, Syntheses, Synopses of Studies, and Studies.

Follow this link to TLU's Human Subject Research (HSR) training, required for all Principal Investigators (student, faculty or staff) prior to submitting a protocol to the Institutional Review Board (IRB).

If you are using an off-campus computer, you will be prompted for your last name (Not your network username but last name only) and your 8-digit TLU number.

Need an item that our library doesn't own? No worries, you can email the title, author and date of what you need to ill@tlu.edu or fill out a form. We can get most (but not all) articles within 2 days and many books within 4-8 days. 

For more information, visit our interlibrary loan page.

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