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Nursing


This and other research guides are on the ACC Library web page under
Research Guides & Tutorials: http://library.sunyacc.edu

Adirondack Community College, 640 Bay Road, Queensbury, NY 12804
(518) 743-2260

Books | Reference books | Articles | Web sites


At any point in your research, please consult a reference librarian. Librarians are available whenever the library is open at (518) 743-2200 ext. 2462. Library hours are listed on the ACC Library's home page: http://library.sunyacc.edu.

Finding Books:

To find books or multimedia items, search the ACC book catalog (ACC Library web page > Finding Books > Catalog):

  • Reference books, on the library’s main floor, don’t leave the library, so are always available.
  • Circulating books, on the upper level of the library, may be checked out for four weeks.
  • Videos, DVDs and music CDs may be borrowed by faculty. Students may use equipment near the video/DVD shelves.

Search tip: Start with a keyword search. When you find an interesting book, look for the subject headings in the book's online description. Click on any that refine your search best. We recommend visiting the ACC Library's Research Guides & Tutorials page, which offers a narrated tutorial on searching the online catalog and two tutorials called "Research Steps," offering important search strategies. Here are some subject headings to consider using:

Psychiatric nursing

Caring

Geriatric nursing

Nursing care plans

Patient education

Cancer

Pediatric nursing

Rehabilitation nursing

Nursing - Dictionaries

Physiology

AIDS (Disease)

Maternity nursing

When you find a relevant book on the catalog, write down the entire Library of Congress call number.  Find the books on the shelves using the call number. Science books start with the call number Q; medical books start with the call number R. The call number for Nursing is RT. Ask a librarian for assistance if needed.

 

Reference Books:

Reference books, on the main floor, can help you select a research topic. They also offer quick background information and overviews on subjects.

Nursing Care Plans and Documentation REF.  RT 49 .C38 2004
Multiple copies of this essential book are shelved in the reference collection.

Mosby's Medical, Nursing & Allied Health Dictionary  REF. R 121 .M89 2002
Illustrated, up-to-date information on health and health-care terminology.

International Classification of Diseases, Clinical Modification REF.  RB 115 .I57 2006
ICD-9-CM is the international classification system used for cause-of-death reporting
in U.S. and by the World Health Organization (WHO). Diseases and injuries are listed, followed by numerical code.

Exploring Health Care Careers REF.  R 690 . E97 2006
Educational requirements, skills, salary ranges, licensing and outlook for health careers.

Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment  REF. RC 71 .C976 2007
Dictionary plus suggested readings, illustrations and many appendices.

Nurse's Drug Guide  REF. RM 301.12 S73 2002
A comprehensive guide to medications.

Physicians' Desk Reference  (The  PDR)  REF.  RS  75 .P5 2007
This annual drug dictionary contains illustrations of prescription drugs.

Gale Encyclopedia of Nursing and Allied Health   REF. RT 21 .G35 2002
This book is full-text in the Gale Virtual Reference Center database mentioned below. You can search this database from home.

Photo Atlas of Nursing Procedures REF. RT 41 .S96 1996

Manual of Nursing Diagnosis REF. RT 48.6 .G67 2002

Encyclopedia of Nursing Research REF. RT 81.5 .E53 2006

Handbook of Nursing Diagnosis REF. RT 48.6 .C385 2008

Nursing Diagnosis: Application to Clinical Practice Circulating Collection RT 48.6 .N869 2008

Nurse's Quick Reference to Common Laboratory and Diagnostic Tests REF. RT 48.5 .N88 2002

Nursing Malpractice REF. KF 2915.N83 N874 2007

 

Gale Virtual Reference Library:

You can search thousands of full-text chapters from more than 250 reference books published by Gale Cengage Learning. The ACC Library owns many of these books in printed format also. The Document Title search will search for your term in the chapter titles, giving you full-text chapters from the reference books. The content is the exactly the same as the original printed books. Thisis a subscription database, available from off-campus to ACC students, faculty and staff. Find this database with these links: ACC Library Web page > Finding Books > Reference > Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Among the health-related reference books that are full-text in this database are:
Biology, Encyclopedia of Aging, Encyclopedia of Bioethics, Encyclopedia of Drugs, Alcohol and Addictive Behavior, Encyclopedia of Public Health, Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine, Gale Encyclopedia of Cancer, Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders, Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine, Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders, Gale Encyclopedia of Nursing and Allied Health, Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology, Genetics, Macmillian Encyclopedia of Death and Dying, Science in Dispute, Science of Everyday Things, Social Trends and Indicators USA, Tobacco in History and Culture, and World of Microbiology and Immunology.

 


Finding Articles:

Journal articles offer current and specific information and research. Search for journal articles by subject through any of the ACC Library's dozens of article databases. Many but not all offer full-text links to articles. (If needed, ask a reference librarian about finding an article though another database, print sources or interlibrary loan if it's not full-text.).

Article databases are subscription-only products. ACC students and faculty may search these from home by following screen directions. To get your ACC student username and password, see Lookup Account and Password on the Student Portal page. For a full list of journals ACC Library receives, see the online Periodicals at ACC list or check the card file at the Circulation Desk.

From the ACC Library Web page, go to Finding Articles. Then, choose either:

  • General Databases to find articles on a current, popular or multidisciplinary topic and need a mix of newspapers, magazines and scholarly journals; or
  • Subject Databases to find specialized articles on one subject only, such as business, science, literature, nursing, etc.

Among the General Databases are:
EBSCO's Academic Search Premier: Over 8000 journals; about half are full-text.
JSTOR:
full-text; 117 journals covering the arts, sciences and social sciences.
New York Times: Current (1980-present) and historical editions (1851-2003).
WilsonSelectPlus: Completely full-text; 1+ million articles from 1400 journals.
New York State Newspapers: includes New York Times full-text.
Opposing Viewpoints, CQ Researcher, more.

Nursing Journals:

The ACC Library offers a variety of article databases to access nursing journal articles. These will give you citations and abstracts to articles and sometimes the full text of the article.                 

The Library subscribes to almost 70 journals in nursing and health areas: RN, American Journal of Nursing and more. Consult the Periodicals at ACC booklet in the library or on our Web page. We also have access to hundreds of journals through subscription article databases. Ask a librarian for details.

Health Sciences Databases:

To search the health sciences article databases from ACC Library's web page, go to Finding Articles > Subject Databases > Sciences:

 
CINAHL Plus with Full Text :
   

- Go to Finding Articles > Subject Databases > Sciences > CINHAL
-
CINAHL is the Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature, listing over 1700 sources in nursing and allied health.
- To find the best search terms for your subject, click the "CINAHL Headings" box and type in your subject. It will suggest the subject headings to use and offer words to broaden or limit your search.
- Many listings have abstracts; some link to full-text. Choose the "Full Text" option to search only articles you can directly download from CINAHL.
- Under the "Journal Subset" option, choose the "Core Nursing" journals to search the set of 86 of the most highly-regarded journals dealing with topics strictly from a nursing perspective.

For narrated, online tutorials on searching CINAHL, see these:
- CINAHL: Basic Searching (runtime 4.5 minutes): http://support.epnet.com/training/flash_videos/CINAHLBasicSearching.html
- C INAHL: Advanced Searching (runtime 8.5 minutes): http://support.epnet.com/training/flash_videos/CINAHLAdvancedSearching.html


Other databases you may want in the Finding Articles > Subject Databases > Sciences category are:
    - Health Reference Center: Current health-related articles (many full-text), encyclopedia entries, definitions, pamphlets, more.
    - MEDLINE (Under FirstSearch - Medicine and Health Sciences Databases): MEDLINE, from the U.S. National Library of Medicine, covers all areas of medicine. Indexes over 9,000 sources, most with abstracts.
    - PsycFIRST (Under FirstSearch - Medicine and Health Sciences Databases): Covers current three years of scholarly literature in experimental psychology, psychosexual behavior, education, applied and sports psychology.  Material selected from more than 1,300 journals.


Web sites:


Here are some recommended Web sites. Of the billions of Web sites in the world, these are more appropriate for college-level research.

Online Journal of Issues in Nursing
RN Central: Care Plan Corner    http://www.rncentral.com/careplans/contents.html
Centers for Disease Control http://www.cdc.gov
American Nurses Association http://www.ana.org 
MedlinePlus (National Library of Medicine)     http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus
Librarians' Index to the Internet (click on Health & Medicine) http://lii.org

For more information:

Consult a reference librarian at any point in your research. You may also want to see other online ACC Library research guides.

ACC offers a one-credit course, LIB187, Library Research Methods. Check the ACC course schedule for availability.           

Updated July 2008/JM