How do I search in CINAHL?

CINAHL is a database that contains references to articles in nursing, physiotherapy and occupational therapy.

• CINAHL has a controlled vocabulary, CINAHL Subject Headings. When you translate a search strategy from PubMed/Medline, you need to look up your MeSH terms in the CINAHL Subject Headings-list to see what the corresponding term is called there.
• To search in the Subject Headings field, type MH before the term. If you write a + after, it means that the term is exploded, i.e. underlying terms are also included in the search.
• The free text search terms are usually searched for in the TI (Title) and AB (Abstract) fields. Put the free text words within a parenthesis and write TI in front of the parenthesis. Rewrite the words within a parenthesis and write AB in front of the parenthesis. Combine the two rows with OR.
• You need to put quotation marks around phrases. If you search without quotation marks, the terms are not kept together as a phrase.
• In CINAHL the proximity operator N is used. Adding a number after N will determine how many words you want to “allow” between your two terms. 

This is how a search in CINAHL can look like. The search terms within each block are combined with OR, then the blocks are combined with AND: