Databases such as CINAHL Ultimate, rather than relying solely on terminology use a thesaurus of standard preferred indexing terms to describe the content of each article; these terms are known as Subject Terms, Subject Headings or CINAHL Headings. CINAHL will try and match or ‘map’ your topic to the closest matching Subject Heading in its thesaurus.
The Suggest Subject Terms box is automatically checked, this will give a list of subject terms
In this search do NOT use truncation, quotation marks or other symbols, just enter your search terms/keywords
After entering the search words 'bed sore', CINAHL has produced a list of relevant terms which contain the preferred term, 'pressure ulcer'.
At this point it is good practice to check the scope note on the right, to check that the definition of the term matches my understanding of the term.
Next: click the subject heading on this list to delve into the subject tree. This will give a list of broader and narrower related terms
This is the list of headings for 'pressure ulcer' with the Explode check box ticked to reveal other subheadings. The Include all Subheadings box should be ticked to ensure the search is comprehensive.
Click Search Database to proceed
This subject term search will appear on the screen in the Search History/Alerts section, showing how many results have been retrieved for that subject term.
Note it is best practice to compare the subject term search with a keyword search in order to complete a fully comprehensive search.
