Nursing: Websites

ABC checklist is a way to determine the credibility and reliabilty of the source you use for research. 

A - Authorship

A - Affiliation

B - Bias free or Balanced

C - Current

• Search within a specific website (site:): Google allows you to specify that your search results must come from a given website. You can also specify a whole class of sites, for example [site:.gov ] will return results only from a .gov domain

The following tips work in most of our databases as well as Google:

• Phrase search (""): By putting double quotes around a set of words, you are telling Google to search those exact words in that exact order without any change
• Fill in the blanks (*): Use an asterisk (*) as a placeholder for any unknown or "wildcard" terms.   
• The OR operator: Google's default behavior is to consider all the words in a search. If you want to specifically allow either one of several words, you can use the OR operator (note that you have to type 'OR' in ALL CAPS)

A Professional Organization can help you determine what specialty you want to pursue as well as guide you along once you are there. Most organizations offer magazines, online chat groups, and other information resources specific to your desired specialty.

American Association of Colleges of Nursing

American Nurses Association

Massachusetts Nurses Association

National League for Nursing

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

National Institutes of Health

National Library of Medicine

The Office of Minority Health

WHO - World Health Organization

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality or AHRQ, mission statement is to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans.  It is a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that compliments the biomedical research mission of the National Institutes of Health.  Below are a few areas of interest for Nursing:

• Nursing Research
• Evidence Based Practice Centers

Other Professional Organizations include:

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) is an independent panel of experts in primary care and prevention that systematically reviews the evidence of effectiveness and develops recommendations for clinical preventive services.

The Health Care Innovations Exchange is an AHRQ program designed to support health care professionals in sharing and adopting innovations that improve the delivery of care to patients.

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) is the Federal Government's lead agency for scientific research on the diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not generally considered part of conventional medicine.

It is the Mission of the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) to strengthen knowledge and understanding of dietary supplements by evaluating scientific information, stimulating and supporting research, disseminating research results, and educating the public to foster an enhanced quality of life and health for the U.S. population.