Here are some sample subject terms that might be used for nursing. Not all databases use the same subject terms, so check the term index of the database to identify relevant terms for your search.
According to the National Library of Medicine, the standard setter in medical indexing, MeSH is their controlled vocabulary thesaurus. This thesaurus consists of sets of terms naming descriptors in a hierarchical structure that permits searching at various levels of specificity. All this is a fancy way of saying that they have organized search terms in such a way as to begin with general headings, such as anatomy, and then becoming steadily more specific, narrow headings, such as embryology.
Searching with MeSH headings quickly enables researchers to narrow their search to the most relevant results. Using the provided controlled vocabulary is helpful since MEDLINE/PubMED use MeSH to index journal articles from 5,400 of the leading biomedical journals. Whether you're searching in MEDLINE via EBSCO or searching PubMED you will be able to use the same search terms across the various interfaces! Identifying vocabulary at the start of your search, while time consuming, will actually be helpful and time-saving when searching begins.
Fortunately, when searching MEDLINE in Dugan Library's EBSCO interface, they have provided easy to use tools to take advantage of searching using the MeSH headings. ProQuest's Nursing & Allied Health Premium also can by searched using MeSH. CINAHL has its own subject headings, which have a great deal of overlap with MeSH, but not 100%. If you need help navigating this service, please contact one of our librarians.
Subject terms, also often referred to a subject headings or controlled vocabulary, are standardized words or phrases assigned to articles by indexers.
Subject terms limit the need to think of all potential synonyms, since a standard term will be applied regardless of which terms the author used.
Subject terms will only be applied to an article if that concept is a major theme of the article. Keywords for a term can pull in articles that mention a word, but either are using it in a different way or are just making a side reference to it.
For the same reason subject terms can limit to the most relevant results, articles that discuss a concept, but do not have it as the focus may not receive a subject term for that concept. In addition, subject terms are only as good as the work put in to apply them. Many databases are very meticulously indexed, but there can sometimes be gaps where articles have not been indexed with subject terms or a subject term indexed inconsistently for any number of reasons.
In most cases, subject terms will be specific to a single database (there are exceptions such as MeSH being used in multiple medical databases). This means that you can't necessarily use the same subject term from one database when searching elsewhere.
Most databases will have an index of subject terms that can be browsed. From there you can usually directly add terms or sets of terms to your search (subject headings are usually arranged in a hierarchy where you can search either a specific term or that term and all sub-terms). Below are some examples of where to browse in different database platforms:
EBSCOhost
ProQuest
In the advanced search interface of most databases, you can select to search within an individual field (author, title, abstract, etc.). You will usually be able to select a field designated for subject terms/headings and search for keyword results in only that portion of the record.
Searching for keywords in the subject term field is not generally as comprehensive as browsing for the terms (especially since browsing will often include cross-references to relevant terms), but can provide a quick way to focus a broad search.
Even if you don't start with subject term searching, you can use the subject terms assigned to an relevant article that you find. The subject terms will almost always be hyperlinked, so you can click on a relevant subject term from one article to find all the articles in the database that were indexed with that term.