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Finding Credible Nursing Sources
Faculty read sources first. This guide shows you where to look and how to judge what you find.
Search Where Evidence Lives
General web searches return what is popular; databases return what is published and reviewed.
- CINAHL: the core nursing database
- PubMed / MEDLINE: biomedical and clinical evidence
- Cochrane Library: gold-standard systematic reviews
- Google Scholar: supplement only, verify everything
Five Credibility Checks
Run every source through these before it earns a citation.
- Named author with relevant credentials
- Peer-reviewed journal
- Current, usually within five years for clinical topics
- Cites its own sources and describes methods
- Purpose is to inform, not to sell
Red Flags
Some sources look scholarly and are not.
- No author, no date, no citations
- Blogs, forums, and consumer health sites
- Predatory journals promising fast publication for a fee
- Wikipedia: useful for orientation, never for citation
Track As You Go
Save the full citation the moment a source makes the cut. Rebuilding references at midnight before a deadline is where citation errors are born.
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