CINAHL Plus - ADHB Library Links - The University of Auckland

Subject term searching (CINAHL Headings)The CINAHL database is indexed by subject specialists who read each article and then assignsubject terms to describe (as specifically as possible) the contents of the article. These termscome from a standardised list of CINAHL subject headings. The idea is that all articles about thesame concept are assigned the same standardised subject heading (subject term).A subject term is a catch-all word or phrase used to cover all the possible alternate ways ofdescribing a subject, e.g. the subject term Headache is used to pull together all those recordsin EBSCO CINAHL that discuss headaches, head pain, cephalgia, cephalalgia, etc.Using subject terms eliminates the need to search for all of these terms individually.In Exercises 2 and 3 we will be searching for articles on the following topic:Elderly patients suffering a head injury after a fallBefore beginning a search, break your topic into individual concepts and search for each conceptseparately – e.g. elderly, head injury, fall. Then combine the individual searches/concepts toretrieve information on your topic.When you do a subject term search, you are led from the Advanced Search page through aseries of other pages which allow you to make choices about your search.Exercise 21. Finding your subject term:a. Type fall in the search boxb. Ensure the box is ticked beside “Suggest Subject Terms” boxc. Click on the Search button2. You are now at the CINAHL Headings display page where you will see a list of subjectterms:a. Choose the most appropriate subject term from the listb. Click on the phrase AccidentalFalls. This takes you to the TreeView page, which gives you moreinformation about this subjectClick on a Scope Note to seeinformation about the term, e.g.Fall Prevention (Iowa NIC):8