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NURS 283 (Carey)

NURS 281 (Carey)

Steven's Schedule

Steven Deineh

M: OCN 10 - 1

T: SAN 9 - 1

W OCN 8 - 12

TH: OCN 10 - 1

For 24/7 research help LIVE CHAT or call/email/text us.

Live Chat

Live Chat Button with text inside conversation bubble

Sample chat questions:

  1. Can you help me determine if this article is an empirical research article?
  2. Do my APA citations on my References page look correct?
  3. Can you help me locate empirical research articles about handwashing, hospital-acquired infections, and patients?

New Databases Alert!

Generate Key Words and Search Terms

Sample PICO Question:

In hospitalized adult BIPOC patients, does hand hygiene reduce hospital-acquired infections as opposed to no hand hygiene?

Major terms: 

In hospitalized adult BIPOC patients, does hand hygiene reduce hospital-acquired infections as opposed to no hand hygiene?

Additional / Related terms:

hospitalized adult BIPOC patients:

people of color, POC, Black, African-American, Indigenous, Native American, Latinx, Mexican American, Hispanic, Asian American, Asian Pacific Islander, mixed race, biracial, seniors, older adults, adults with age

hand hygiene:

handwashing, hand hygiene, infection control, soap and water, prevention, hand sanitizer, friction, rubbing, alcohol gel

hospital-acquired infections:

MRSA, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, gram-positive bacteria, nosocomial, microorganisms, c-diff, ESBL, VRE

Be CREATIVE with your search terms and try different combinations in databases:

millenials - young, new career, early career, generational differences, first job, first assignment, nurse manager, administrators, etc.

Types of Articles You Need

Green Check Mark Green check mark  

You need articles that are research studies, hard science, empirical studies, contributing new/corroborating already proven scientific knowledge in a field. 

  • Should have most of these sections: Introduction, Methods, Participants, Outcomes, Conclusions, Limitations, Further Research.

  • What is the study? Physically, what does it look like? What is the setting?

  • Who are the participants? Who is being studied (gender, age, race/ethnicity, sexuality, nationality, height, geographic location, eye color, hair color…)

  • What did the researchers find by doing the study? (Look for hard data results like percentages, graphs, tables, visual/graphical representations of data.)

  • Should have lots of in-text citations throughout and lengthy list of References at end.

Red ex mark    Red ex mark    Red ex mark  

If you see these words in an article's title, you may not use it. BUT. They can lead you to empirical research studies that you can use! So If they're a good match to your PICO, spend some time reading them and looking at their references!

  •  LITERATURE REVIEWS

  • NARRATIVE REVIEWS

  • SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS

  • META-ANALYIS/ES

Empirical Research Articles - Library Databases

CINAHL Plus

  1. Advanced Search
  2. Type in keywords
  3. Check the boxes for: Peer Reviewed, Research Article
  4. Scroll down to Publication Date, Custom Range and type in the last 7 years
  5. If you find a good article, use the Citation Tool on the right

Health Search (EBSCO)

  1. Advanced Search
  2. Type in keywords
  3. Check the box for Peer Reviewed
  4. Scroll down to Publication Date, Custom Range and type in the last 7 years
  5. If you find a good article, use the Citation Tool on the right

ScienceDirect

  1. Type in keywords then search (magnifying glass button)
  2. On the left of the results check the box for Subscribed Journals
  3. Choose all years from 2018 - 2026
  4. Check the box for Article type: Research articles
  5. You can either make your citation from scratch, or copy and paste the exact title in the library's OneSearch tool on our homepage to generate the citation. (Or use our green handout or the library's APA website.)

Google Scholar

  • hand hygiene infection control (since 2018)
  • Make sure to limit to articles since 2018
  • If you're logged into MiraCosta (Canvas, etc.) then on the right of the results list it should tell you if an article is available via the MiraCosta Library and which database the article is in. When you click on the article it should open it in our database automatically.
  • If you hit a pay wall and NEED the article you can request article FOR FREE through the MiraCosta Library's InterLibrary Loan Request Form.