Upon completion of this tutorial, you will be able to:

•  Login to a WSU database/index to find journal articles to complete class assignments and conduct your own research.
• Conduct a basic search in CINAHL - the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature.
• Conduct a basic search in PubMed - the preeminent index to the biomedical literature from the National Library of Medicine.
• Conduct a basic search in the Cochrane Library -- evidence-based systematic reviews for health care decision making.

There are many more topical databases available through WSU, but these three will get you started.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Vancouver students must always enter and authenticate through the WSU Vancouver website.

Watch the short YouTube video then explore the appropriate campus database entry screens.

For off-campus access to WSU databases, enter your Network ID when prompted.

Using the PubMed database as an example, these tutorials offer techniques for finding subject headings, focusing your search results, and keeping track of the process and results. Various databases use different approaches, but nearly all support some version of these strategies.

For now, you may choose to continue with the CINAHL, PubMed, and Cochrane tutorials, returning to this topic as you gain comfort and proficiency searching those databases. 

Selecting Subject Terms with Key Word Searching (5 minutes)

Limiting and Focusing Your Search  (2 minutes)

Recording and Documenting Your Search History (4.5 minutes)