NURS:5043: Advanced Health Promotion to Diverse Populations; A Course Guide  

CINAHL (see link at the bottom of this page)  stands for the Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature. It is the very best first step to finding articles for any nurse. While you can often find good articles in CINAHL just by putting into the first search box, whatever words and phrases that just come into your head, you might do better by starting your search using some standard Nursing Subject Headings.

Here are some Exact Nursing Subject Headings that that should get you started on the right track: HEALTH PROMOTION; HEALTH BEHAVIORS; COMMUNITY HEALTH NURSING; CULTURAL SENSITIVITY; TRANSCULTURAL CARE; IMMIGRANT; MIGRANT. Overall, you can enter one of  these in the first  search box, and then narrow down your results with other words and phrases in a second search box.

You can also narrow your search by checking off boxes on the search that limit your results to: Only Scholarly, Academic, or Peer-Reviewed journals; Only English language articles; Only articles that link you directly with the full text of the article. You can also limit your search by using the slide bar or entering specific date ranges.

CINAHL's EBSCO format is easy to directly export to Refworks.  You can save the citations to all the articles you find (but Not the whole text) and have them automatically sorted alphabetically by author in  a perfect APA formatted bibliography to cut-and-paste at the end of your papers, by following simple instructions.

ADVICE ON SEARCHING & SORTING OUT GIVEN ETHNIC GROUPS & DIVERSE COMMUNITIES BEING SERVED:

Using BLACKS  gets you more hits overall, but AFRICAN AMERICAN  is used  more often in more recent articles.

NATIVE AMERICANS is the preferred search term, but be aware that different tribes have different health beliefs and practices. ALSO search under specific tribes such as SIOUX, CHEROKEE or  NAVAHO. You can find excellent Canadian studies searching under FIRST NATIONS.

While you can often get good results using search terms like LATINO, HISPANIC generally gets more hits. You can also search using more specific regional designations: MEXICAN; PUERTO RICAN; CUBAN. Be aware when searching that some immigrants from the most  rural parts of Mexico, and Central &  South America, will actually speak various local minority Indian dialects and adhere to native folk beliefs that may present special problems in delivering health care, that are not as common among more urban and educated Hispanic immigrants.

CARRIBEAN groups and health behaviors are conveniently divided along linguistic and cultural lines. While they may share the same large island, people from the DOMINICAN REPUBLIC are Spanish-speaking  and enjoy a vastly higher standard of health care than the French-speaking HAITIANS. JAMAICANS and persons from TRINIDAD & TOBAGO are English-speaking, members of the British Commonwealth, and still have some  British traditions in their health care delivery systems  .

The search term ASIANS is problematic. While you will get many hits, the health experiences and practices of four billiion Asians Asians can be  EXTREMELY  different from  one another in ways that make health promotion generalizations invalid.

As a rule, SOUTHEAST ASIANS tend to be clustered together in studies and include the  VIETNAMESE, LAOTIAN, CAMBODIAN &  HMONG.

SOUTH ASIANS are often clustered together in studies but include wide divergences in health practices based on religious differences, the standing of women, educational levels and especiall socioeconomic class.  This group  include INDIANS (often HINDU or JAIN and often vegan or ovo-lacto-vegetarian) PAKISTANIS, AFGHANS,  BANGLADESHIS & sometimes INDONESIANS (ALL overwhelmingly Muslim but Indonesians are ethnically closer to SE Asians in terms of some anthropological & health behavior aspects. SRI LANKANS  are the inhabitants of the island formerly known as Ceylon, and are generally Bhuddist although a significant minority are TAMILS who are immigrants fron India and generally Hindu in religion and various health behaviors.

EAST ASIANS include the CHINESE from the Peoples Republic, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, as well as the JAPANESE, and the KOREANS. While at one time, these people shared somewhat similar cultural, religious and health beliefs, they are highly divergent now in many cases, and should be searched separately.

AUSTRALIANS, NEW ZEALANDERS AND PACIFIC ISLANDS. The classic ethnic groups one can search for are ABORIGINES (Australia), MAORIS (New Zealand, and Pacific islanders  like the MARSHALLESE, SAMOANS and NATIVE HAWAIIANS