This page is designed for NURS 2200 students. The advice it offers might not be relevant for other classes. Below you'll find both pictures and text representations of what limiters to use as you're searching.
Be sure that you are using every variation of your search terms. For example, instead of just searching for ventilator associated pneumonia, try:
VAP OR ventilator associated pneumonia OR ventilator acquired pneumonia
Do the same thing with your interventions. There are a lot of different names for similar ideas. Such as nutrition and diet, or walking and exercise and ambulation.
(DVT OR deep vein thrombosis) AND (walking OR exercise OR ambulation)
If you aren't getting any results for a particular intervention, even when you use a variety of search terms, try leaving the intervention off of your search and search only for the condition to see what interventions are frequently written about. Not every intervention will have an article written in the last five years. For example, instead of searching for DVT AND compression socks OR compression hose, you could just search:
DVT OR deep vein thrombosis
Look at the article record in CINAHL, what words are shown as keywords? Are there any relevant terms that you aren't using? Add those to your search.
Peer Reviewed - limits your results to articles from journals with an established review process
Evidence Based Practice - limits your results to articles that involve a study of interventions in a real world setting
Published Date - set the first year box to 5 years ago, this limits your results to the last 5 years
Geography - limit your results to the United States if you're getting too many foreign results
Age - limit your subjects to Adult if you're getting too many pediatric articles
Language - limit your results to English if you're getting too many articles in another language
Journal Subset - set this to Core Nursing, a collection mostly American nursing journals if you're getting too many non USA results or non nursing results
Any Author Is Nurse - set this limiter if you're getting too many results for non-nursing interventions
Full text - This will unnecessarily limit your results, eliminating relevant articles that you had access to. Don't use this.