This guide includes resources helpful for the NURS110 history paper. This guide includes information to help you choose a topic and get started finding sources for your paper. Appropriate academic level sources might include journal articles, books or book chapters, reputable professional websites (such as from a nursing association or a college/university), videos, or even personal interviews. Make sure to review the source requirements, as you need a specific number of sources, and there may be recommendations for the types of sources you should use.
The tabs across the top of this guide provide useful information for nursing students, including guides for other nursing classes, resources for APA citation, tips to search for articles and use CINAHL, and more.
Please reach out to Karla Block with questions or for help. One-on-one appointments are available where we can work together.
This paper requires APA style for formatting and citations. Your program will provide more detailed information and examples, but the library is an additional resource to help you master APA style.
The APA Citation tab provides links to handouts on citations and formatting (just how do you format those hanging indents, anyway?) plus information on citation tools available in the library's resources (like CINAHL) to help you with your citations.
The library has extensive APA help that will make the process a little less intimidating.
Some students find it easy to choose a topic for their nursing history paper, while others find it more challenging. Some students focus on people (such as Dorothea Dix) while others focus on specialties (such as mental health nursing). Other topics like Civil War nursing are popular but provide opportunities to focus the topic in interesting ways (did you know that Walt Whitman and Louisa May Alcott both served as nurses during the Civil War?).
Still other topics are interesting history of medicine topics but may not provide enough of a nursing focus for this assignment (examples include history of vaccinations or development of insulin as a treatment for diabetes). There are other fascinating topics (like Mary Todd Lincoln's work as a volunteer nurse) that may be hard to find enough sources to support a research paper. Feel free to come talk to Karla Block about whatever topic you're interested in.
Take a look at these possibilities for nursing history topics that might spark your interest. They're not all guaranteed winners, but they do provide ideas to think about! This list is by no means exhaustive. Karla Block, the nursing librarian, would be glad to brainstorm and discuss topics with you and often can quickly give you a sense of whether you'll likely find enough resources or struggle with your research. It's also a great idea to run your topic past your reader.
Journal articles are one type of source you might use for this paper. You are required to use at least three articles from nursing journals.
General information about finding articles within the nursing field can be found on the Find Articles tab. The Library Handouts tab includes information on how to access the full text of journal articles, as well as how to limit your search to current nursing journal articles and how to tell if a journal is a nursing journal. The ability to find high quality sources from nursing journals will be important not only for this paper, but in upcoming semesters as well.
You're encouraged to work with Karla Block, the nursing librarian, for help with searching.
CINAHL is the recommended starting point to find current nursing journal articles, and is often a good source of information for the history paper as well. Sometimes you may be unable to find enough information using CINAHL. In that case, you're encouraged to work with Karla Block, the nursing librarian. We have other health and nursing databases too, and you may also find relevant articles for the history paper by using some of our other databases.
Main database for literature in nursing and allied health. Coverage is primarily journal articles but also includes some dissertations, continuing education modules, and more. For nursing, there is some overlap between CINAHL and MEDLINE. For help searching CINAHL (including limiting searches to current nursing journal articles), see our CINAHL Guide. (EBSCO)
Books (or book chapters or sections in books) are one type of source you might use for this paper. The link below includes books (and a few videos) in the library on a wide variety of nursing history topics - browsing the list may help you find a topic you're interested in! A different view of highlighted nursing history books is available in our library catalog's Nursing History collection.
We have a strong collection of nursing history books, so feel free to come browse in person in the library too. Most nursing books are in the "R" call number range, with RT being especially rich in nursing history. However, some books related to nursing history are found in other call number sections, including the D and E call number ranges. We're happy to help you find good browsing sections.
General information about finding books can be found on the Find Books tab.
If you're interested in a book that is already checked out or we don't own in our library, we can help you order a copy for your use.
Please reach out to Karla Block for help, or Ask a Librarian.
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