Pathophysiology

1) Select the major terms used to describe your topic

• Use the term OR in between terms to broaden your search and get more results, or to look for terms that have lots of synonyms
  • Example: Vaccination OR Immunization

2) You may also want to select additional terms to describe a specific population, outcome, or aspect of your topic

• Example: Children OR Juveniles 

3) Select terms that indicate what kind of research you are looking for

• Example: Quantitative OR Randomized Control Trial OR ANOVA

PubMed's main search screen gives on search box.  Group your terms together in parentheses and separate the groups with the word AND.

A basic search in PubMed is a great start.  To get even more specific, you can use Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) for your disorder.  

1. Go to the MeSH Database Link:

2. Type the name of your disease/disorder. To search for every aspect of the disease, find the correct term in the list of results, put a check in the box next to that term (1), click Add to Search Builder (2), then Search PubMed (3).

3. To search for a specific aspect of your disease, click on the correct term from the search list. Put a checkmark next to the subheadings that interest you.  Next, hit Add to Search Builder, then hit Search PubMed. 

Some useful Subheadings: Diagnosis, Epidemiology, Etiology, Genetics, Pathology, Physiopathology

1. Browse the titles of articles.  Click on one that interests you.

2. Find the 360 Link to Full-Text icon under Full-Text Links.  Click that link.  

3.  If the library has full-text access to the article, you will be taken there automatically.  If not, you will be prompted to request the article through InterLibrary Loan.

Many PubMed Articles are also available in Free Full-Text through PubMed Central.  You can see quickly which articles are available by clicking the PMC icon.

After you've typed in your search and hit enter, you can narrow your search based on publication dates.

You can search for a specific date range.  You can choose to include month and year or just year.  If you want to search up to the present, leave the second month and year spots blank.

To find articles written by Nurses or in Nursing journals, scroll down and check the box next to "Any Author is Nurse."

You should confirm that the article is in a nursing journal or if an author is a nurse by looking at the first page of the article.

If you are trying to find articles in CINAHL related to the definition or operationalization of a particular nursing concept, consider a search like the one below. 

• In place of NAME OF CONCEPT, put your particular concept; ie. prevention. 

NAME OF CONCEPT N5 (defin* OR concept* OR operational*) 

N5 tells CINAHL to look for the word you typed for your concept within five (5) words of the word definition, concept, or operational.  This increases the likelihood that your results will be ABOUT your concept rather than articles that simply include the word.

The asterisk (*) used here provides truncation, which allows the search to include variations on a word. For example, defin* will find definition, defined, definer, defines, etc.