NUR 319 Alternative and Complementary Therapies 

Google is useful for finding Web sites. Check out Google's Cheat Sheet for tips on using Google more effectively. The library also has guides and tutorials to help you navigate the Web.

When deciding what words to use for searching, consider checking a medical dictionary, text, or reference. Call numbers beginning with RM are a good place to start browsing to find books about complementary and alternative therapies. To find a book using IUCAT Catalog (Indiana University's online library catalog) about complementary therapies, the following terms are useful.

For books about herbal remedies: herbals, herbs, medicinal plants.

For books about hypnosis and other like therapies: consciousness, recovered memory, psychotherapy.

For relaxation techniques: stress management, relaxation.

To properly evaluate your Web site, the following tools may be helpful.

Is Your Web Site Credible?

10 Things to Know About Evaluating Medical Resources on the Web, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Critical Evaluation Worksheet, Evidence-Based Practice Tools

Print nursing journals are located on the fourth floor and are shelved in call number order. Most nursing journals begin with "RT."

American Journal of Nursing (Periodicals RT1 .A5)

Computers in Nursing (Periodicals RT50.5 .C645)

Holistic Nursing Practice (Periodicals RT1 .T65)

Journal of the Society of Pediatric Nurses: JSPN (Periodicals RJ245 .J686)

Public Health Nursing (Periodicals RT97 .P824)

RN (Periodicals RT1 .R62)

CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature) (Ovid)

Content:	Provides monthly updated indexing of 1,200 English-language nursing journals, publications from the American Nurses' Association and the National League of Nursing, and primary journals from allied health disciplines, including consumer health, biomedicine, and health sciences librarianship, covering 1982 to present. Most articles include abstracts, and some also provide full text with graphics. CINAHL also provides access to healthcare books, nursing dissertations, selected conference proceedings, standards of professional practice, educational software and audiovisual materials in nursing. An online guide is available. For more details about CINAHL, select the information symbol from the database selection screen.
Access:	Database available to authorized IPFW users (on or off campus). IPFW library owns the printed index 1956-1997 (Reference Z6675 .N7 C8). IU Libraries' license allows 25 simultaneous users systemwide.
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Medline (Ovid)

Content:	Produced by the National Library of Medicine, Medline indexes over 3,500 national and international journals covering all areas of medicine, 1966 to present. Most records include abstracts. Many titles include full text and graphics. New articles are stored in MEDLINE(R) In-Process & Other Indexed Citations and are added to Medline on a weekly basis when they have been indexed with MeSH headings. OLDMEDLINE contains records from 1950 to 1965.
Access:	Database available to authorized IPFW users (on or off campus).
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Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition (EBSCOhost)

Content:	Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition provides access to more than 580 full-text medical and allied health journals, with a focus on nursing and allied health materials. Includes abstracts and indexing for more than 800 titles. Approximately 75% of articles are published in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals. Also included are USP Pharmacopoeia DI: Volume II Advice for the Lay Patient and Stedman's Medical Dictionary. Years of coverage vary by title but may extend to 1975.
Access:	Database available to authorized IPFW users (on or off campus). Database available to authorized IPFW users (on or off campus). Other Indiana residents with an Internet service provider not based in Indiana (AOL, MSN, EarthLink, etc.) must first register for an INSPIRE password account.
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Both CINAHL and Medline are great databases to use for finding nursing and other allied health articles, but generally, using the correct MeSH (medical subject heading) term in Medline or CINAHL term in CINAHL is key. When using the Ovid interface, remember to keep the "Map term to subject heading" box checked. Doing this will help you discover the correct MeSH or CINAHL term to use for your subject. If an index term does not exist for your subject, you can search it as a keyword (look for the check box at the bottom of the list of possible terms).

"Explode" is useful in most searches because it includes articles with subheadings to the term you are interested in. "Focus" will result in articles that have your term as the major subject of the article. Using both explode and focus will result in articles that have the main term as the major subject of the article with or without subheadings attached. Either function can be performed by checking the appropriate box by your term and then selecting "Continue" at the top of the screen while searching in Ovid.

In Ovid, the $ is the symbol to use for unlimited truncation. For example, nurs$ would return results with nurse, nurses, nursery, and nursing.

The following book may be helpful in evaluating your nursing or medical article.

Greenhalgh, Trisha. How to Read a Paper : The Basic of Evidence-Based Medicine. (Science Reference R118.6 .G77 2001)

The Alternative Medicine HomePage Maintained by a medical librarian at the University of Pittsburgh.

MedlinePlus Drugs, Supplements and Herbals Information An A to Z listing of herbs and supplements with evidence grades included. Information provided by a well-respected database, Natural Standard.

Rosenthal Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine A research center utilizing alternative therapy techniques. Member of the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine.

Taubman Medical Library Guide to Complementary and Alternative Medicine, University of Michigan A nice listing of resources on complementary medicine.

The most frequently recommended style guide for nursing is the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (sometimes referred to as the APA style guide). APA's Web site presents examples of Electronic Reference Formats Recommended by the American Psychological Association.