Nr 360 Unit 2: Database Search

NR 360 UNIT 2: DATABASE SEARCH Choose a topic related to health that has meaning to your personal health, interests, and well- being. This may be a disease, such as diabetes, or a healthy fitness activity. Conduct a database search comparing one of the following database directories with Google Scholar. CINAHL and Google Scholar PubMed and Google Scholar Explain how you were able to narrow down the number of article hits you had initially, and present within your post a summary of the credible article you chose as your resource. How do you know your article choice is credible? Which database do you prefer and why? How will using a database search facilitate your • scholarly work; • nursing work (evidence-based practice); and • personal self-development? (CO 2,4,5,6,8) The topic I chose to search was hypertension. The two databases I used for comparison was CINAHL, and of course, google scholar. In both databases, I initially started my search by typing in just the word 'hypertension.' In google scholar, that one word yielded over 2 million results! Wow! Using CINAHL, I got back almost 80,000 results. CINHAL returned a significantly smaller amount of results than google scholar did. I believe the reason behind that is CINAHL is what is considered a professional online database, whereas google scholar is referred to as a search engine. The difference between the two is that only those with professional/academic affiliations would be granted access to databases such as CINAHL. Google scholar is a search engine that allows anyone to search for information if there is access to the internet (Mastrian & McGonigle, 2015). Another reason I believe resulted in the smaller number is that articles and information found within professional online databases have been published into journals, making this information viable and considered peer-reviewed material or sources (Mastrian & McGonigle, 2015). Our text explains how search engines can contain a lot of unsubstantiated information that can be passed off as credible. If not careful with our searches, we can receive false and potentially dangerous information (regarding health-related search topics). A good way to help filter out incredible information is to pay attention to the web domain suffixes (.com, .edu, .gov, and .org) .Edu web domains most often only visible to those involved in a higher learning institution