Nursing Guide Ask Us

Lots of our library resources are available to you online.  Here are just a few that you can take advantage of while studying at UNB.

Catalogue

The catalogue is where you go to find books.  In the nursing program, a big effort is made to purchase as many materials as possible in e-format to make them quick and easy for you to access no matter where you are.  If you need a book that isn't available in e-format, you can order it through our Document Delivery service.

Journal Articles

For peer-reviewed research, you can access any of UNB Libraries' 200+ databases from anywhere.  For authentication purposes, you should always access library databases through the library website (or this research guide).

List of the key nursing article and research databases.

Research Help & Ask Us

To get help with the libraries or with your research, you can use contact your librarian directly, or you can use our Ask Us service to talk, chat or text with one of our Research Help Desk staff.

Journal Articles

Most of the research you will be doing at UNB will involve articles databases. Several of the most important databases for nursing are listed here, but for topics that may cross disciplinary lines (like ethics, education, prosthetic devices, etc) you may also want to explore the databases for other disciplines.  You can access lists of those databases by visiting the subject guides for those disciplines.

Key Resources

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For additional databases, go to Article Databases.

If we don't have the article you need...

If you locate resources in your search that are not available through UNB Libraries, you may be able to borrow them from another library using our document delivery service.  Visit the Document Delivery page for information about how to request resources and library policies associated with such requests.

How do I know if an article has come from a peer reviewed journal?

One tool you can use is Ulrichsweb. Use this to search for the journal title and if the title is there, look for the icon (black and white stripes) which indicates the journal is refereed (aka peer reviewed). You can also visit the journal's homepage and look for their About, Editorial, Author, Publication pages for wording that indicates the journal has a peer review process.

*Note: Not everything published in a peer review journal has gone through the peer review process. Journals regularly publish editorials, book reviews, commentaries, etc. (usually only a few pages in length which can be a good indication that your "article" hasn't been peer reviewed and isn't the type of article you should use). Consult your instructor or librarian if you're still unsure after checking whether your article has been peer reviewed.

Explore our Resources

We subscribe to a number of online and mobile resources like UpToDate.  Explore some of the most important reference tools below.

Key Resources

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Search for Books

Once you have found the item you are looking for, use the call number listed in the search results (if it is a physical item) to locate it on our library shelves.  Click here for information on how to read call numbers.  Alternately, you can visit the Research Help Desks for assistance in locating items in the library.

Browse for Books

On the UNB Fredericton Campus, most books on nursing and medicine are in the Harriet Irving Library, and on the UNB Saint John Campus they are in the HWK Commons. To browse the library shelves for books of interest, try the following call number ranges:

Get Books from Other Libraries

If you locate resources in your search that are not available through UNB Libraries, you may be able to borrow them from another library using our document delivery service.  Visit the Document Delivery page for information about how to request resources and library policies associated with such requests.

Population, Patient, and Clinical Resources

In addition to articles, reference tools and book, there are a number of resources types that can be used to complement your scholarly research and clinical practice.  These types include reports, new articles, government documents, statistics, patient education, and skills videos.  Below are listed some reliable sources of these types of information and links to the websites or tools you can use to access them.

Population

Government & Major Organization Websites: Many major organizations, especially ones related to national and global health, produce reports that can be used to supplement the information you obtain in peer-reviewed research. You can find additional resources on the Health (Government Information) Guide.

• Health Canada
• Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI)
• World Health Organization (WHO)
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Health Statistics: UNB Libraries has a page devoted to the many different sources and types of statistics that are available for your use.  Click here to access our Data Services page.  For some specific health-related website, try some of the links listed below.

• Statistics Canada
• Census Program
• Global Health Observatory

Other

• Newspapers
• CBCA Complete - All Canadian content

Patient Education

Find patient handouts and other consumer health information suitable to share with patients through UNB Libraries' resources.

The Online Health Information Aid is also a useful, free resource available to you and to share with patients. This website:

• provides tips and resources on searching, evaluating, and using online health information;
• aims to improve skills and confidence in finding trustworthy health information online, enabling positive outcomes while reducing negative ones;
• was developed based on research evidence and co-designed with users;
• ultimately, supports lifelong learning and empowers people to participate in their own health care.

Clinical Skills

• Clinical Resources Guide: points to you specific resources based on what you need to know
• Films on Demand (UNB licensed resource - search for nursing)
• Augmented Reality Healthcare Scenarios (ARISE): freely available clinical case studies and scenarios
• Open RN project: YouTube channel with ARISE clinical videos and open textbook videos

Library Toolkit

A self-paced, interactive set of modules for learning the basics of library use and academic research. Housed in D2L Brightspace, the Toolkit provides an introduction to library services and the academic research process at UNB.

Find it in the Free Course Registration section in D2L under Libraries' Research Toolkit.

Video Tutorials

5 Tips to Transform Your Search - Academic Databases: a 17 minute video that covers the top 5 tools you can use to improve your searching. (Printable Handout )

Searching the Grey Literature - This video explains why searching the grey literature is often needed to supplement more formal academic sources, and offers several tips for doing it effectively. (Printable Handout) (Worksheet)

Canadian Content Searching: A brief introduction to how to find Canadian information from reliable sources. (Printable Handout)

Introduction to Academic Integrity: The first of three videos that cover academic integrity rules at UNB, what constitutes plagiarism, how to paraphrase, and why proper citation is important.

Introduction to UNB WorldCat: A brief introduction to the library catalogue and how to use it.

How to Find Journal Articles: Learn how to search for journal articles using the catalogue (UNB WorldCat) and specialized article databases available from UNB Libraries.

Good Searching (And a Couple Other Topics Too): Originally designed for 3rd year kinesiology students, this video covers database searching, bias in literature, how to track citations, and citation management tool Zotero.

Zotero Tutorial: An introduction to citation management tool Zotero from installation to bibliography.

For more videos and tutorials, visit the UNB Libraries YouTube channel.

Citing your Sources

The standard citation style for Nursing is APA (American Psychological Association).

• Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association,
  • 7th edition 2020 UNB Libraries holdings
  • 6th edition, 2nd printing [with corrections]
    HIL-REF BF 76.7 .P83 2010b
• APA Style: Style and Grammar Guidelines
• The Concise APA Handbook

Finding permalinks to use in your citations

For regular websites it's okay to copy the url/link from your browser and use that in your citation. When you click on it again, you'll see that it opens the page you want it to. This isn't the same when you find sources through databases, so you need to know where to find permalinks or DOIs (depending on what you need to include).

• Getting a permalink from UNB Worldcat (search box on library homepage)
• Getting a permalink from an EBSCO database (like CINAHL)
• Getting a permalink from a Proquest database (like Nursing & Allied Health)

What's a DOI, how to find them, and when to use them

• APA Style: DOIs and URLs
• DOI Help: Digital Object Identifiers DOIs)

Resources

Writing and Study Skills Center

UNB Writing and Study Skills Center (Fredericton), and the Writing Centre (Saint John) provide a number of brief guides to citing various types of information sources, as well as a guide to avoiding inadvertent plagiarism. Simply login to the Sharepoint site and click on "Writing Answers".

Purdue OWL

Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (Purdue OWL) maintains extensive resources and instructional material on APA style and formatting:

• Purdue Online Writing Lab: APA Style

Zotero

Zotero is a web-based citation manager, available freely online, that allows you to create a database of references that can be organized, searched, and used to automatically construct bibliographies and reading lists in many citation styles.

• Guide to getting started with Zotero