CINAHL - Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature - is a major literature database for nursing and allied health. This section covers searching for best evidence in CINAHL Plus with Full Text, and sharing and saving your searches. You don't need to have an account to share a search strategy, but you do need one to save searches.

When you are searching on a complex topic and want to take advantage of the system of official subject headings, you need to search for one idea at a time, and then combine the results later.

If you need to share or save your search strategy, you can do this by using the Share drop-down menu at the top right of your results list. If you click on this, you will see a persistent link ("permalink") to your search in the drop-down, as displayed in the screenshot below:

You can copy and paste the link into a browser window, or a new email and email the search to yourself or another person.

Your search results are presented as brief records. (Clicking on the title takes you to the full record.) The links beneath the article may include the following options:

• PDF Full Text - a downloadable PDF of the article, which can then be read online, or saved straight to your computer
• HTML Full Text - the entire article will display in HTML. There won't be a download option
• Linked Full Text - you will be taken to an external site which will allow you to view and (usually) download the article.

But some of the results won't have the full-text attached. In those cases, click on the  link, which activates a search for the full article elsewhere in the Library's online subscriptions.  The link should take you to the record for the article in Primo Search and, from there, click on one of the listed databases to get to the full article.

If you wish to ...

• save records more permanently
• save searches
• set up Search Alerts

... you need to create a personal folder (account). Here’s how ...

1.     At top right of screen, click on Sign in.
2.     Beneath the login and password boxes, click on the link for Create a new Account.
3.     Follow the instructions and prompts to set up your new account.
4.     Make a note of your login and password for future use!

   You can use your personal account to:

• Save records of articles, until you choose to delete them
• Save searches, until you choose to delete them
• Set up search alerts
• Set up journal alerts
• [And, also, download an eBook from the EBSCOhost eBooks collection].

    For more information on setting up and using a personal account, see EBSCOhost Help, or contact the Library.

If you wish to save your search for later:

1. Log in to your CINAHL account
2. Go to your Search history
3. Tick the box beside the search you wish to save
4. Click the Save Searches/Alerts link above the table.

You can save your search or create an alert. Tick the Save Search (Permanent) box, and click the yellow Save button.

The next time you need to access your search, simply log in to your personal folder, and choose Saved Searches from the left menu.