You can ask several questions when adapting your search. Look through the questions below and click on some links for ideas on adjusting your search. Return to the building of your search pages for reminders about combining your keywords. Once you have rebuilt your search, move on to stop 8.
Are looking for scholarly peer reviwed journal articles? Make sure you are searching in a research database.
Are you getting too many results?Try switching to a subject specific database for a list of health sciences databases
Are you hitting paywalls? Try switching to a library database
This will probably be one of the most effective strategies for finding more information.
Information about synonyms
Research isn't about finding a perfect source that makes all the connections for you. You might have to break your topic into several subtopics, search for each separately, and then synthesize this information to create your argument.
If a complex search strategy does not yield many results, try simplifying your terms or topic.
For instance, if your question is,
"Does hand washing among healthcare workers reduce hospital-acquired infections?"
There may be important, relevant information about hand hygiene and nosocomial infections that does not include healthcare workers. Alternatively, there may be information about how healthcare workers perform hand hygiene that does not discuss nosocomial infections.
Please take a look at the searches below to see different examples of how the initial searches in CINAHL were adjusted to find better results.
In all the examples below, the adjusted search returned more results than the initial search.
All of the topics could be further refined by adding in population characteristics such as age or health conditions and filters like publication date.
Take a look at the information below for strategies for adapting your search.
