Some staff and learners need to carry out complex, robust and reproduceable searches including for systematic review and informing research. These advanced searches should be conducted in healthcare databases via the provider interfaces, and can be supported by your library service. Information on how to access and use these databases is linked below. For any further support please see our user guide or contact your library
Databases contain references to journal articles, guidelines, manuscripts, dissertations and book chapters. The following databases can be accessed anywhere. An NHS OpenAthens username and password is required to access those databases marked with an asterisk(*).
AMED*
Specialising in complementary or alternative medicine.
Access via Ovid
User Guide (nb. guide has been produced by Northern Care Alliance library service, but step 2 onwards is applicable to all)
BNI*
Covering the UK's most popular nursing, midwifery and community health material.
Access via ProQuest
User Guide (nb. guide has been produced by Northern Care Alliance library service, but step 2 onwards is applicable to all)
CINAHL*
Access to virtually all the English language nursing journals as well as journals from allied health disciplines.
Access via EBSCO
User Guide (guide has been produced by Northern Care Alliance library service, but step 2 onwards is applicable to all)
Cochrane Library
Set of databases of high quality evidence on the effectiveness of healthcare interventions and treatments.
EMBASE*
Information on drugs and pharmacology and all other aspects of human medicine and related disciplines.
Access via Ovid
User Guide (guide has been produced by Northern Care Alliance library service, but step 2 onwards is applicable to all)
Emcare*
Covers all nursing specialties and nursing healthcare professions. Emcare includes international coverage of allied health, education and training, development and management, midwifery, health and healthcare economics, clinical medical and healthcare social work, psychiatry and mental health, and traumatology, emergency and critical-care medicine.
Access via Ovid
User Guide (guide has been produced by Northern Care Alliance library service, but step 2 onwards is applicable to all)
HMIC*
Areas covered include health management and services, social care and NHS organisation and administration.
Access via Ovid
User Guide (guide has been produced by Northern Care Alliance library service, but step 2 onwards is applicable to all)
Medline*
Covering all aspects of medicine including dentistry, veterinary medicine and medical psychology.
Access via Ovid
User Guide (guide has been produced by Northern Care Alliance library service, but step 2 onwards is applicable to all)
OT seeker
Contains abstracts of systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials relevant to occupational therapy.
PsycInfo*
Covers psychology and psychological aspect of medicine, nursing, physiology and linguistics.
Access via ProQuest
User Guide (guide has been produced by Northern Care Alliance library service, but step 2 onwards is applicable to all)
PubMed
Covering all aspects of medicine including dentistry, veterinary medicine and medical psychology. A limited version of Medline, available to all.
PsycArticles*
This is a database of of full-text articles from journals published by the American Psychological Association, the APA Educational Publishing Foundation, the Canadian Psychological Association, and Hogrefe & Huber
Social Policy & Practice*
SPP brings together information from six of the UK’s leading collections of social policy and practice resources:
- Centre for Policy on Ageing
- Idox Information Service
- National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
- Social Care Institute for Excellence
- Greater London Authority
- National Children’s Bureau
Healthcare Databases Advanced Search (HDAS), provided by NICE and HEE, closed on 31 March 2022.
Whilst HDAS has previously been the main interface for NHS staff to search key bibliographic databases, these databases are still available to NHS staff via the provider interfaces (Ovid, EBSCO and ProQuest).
If you have been a regular user of HDAS and have saved searches or alerts, information to support you with this transition is available from NICE.
Much of the content from these databases is incorporated in the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub, a new single gateway search tool which offers a more intuitive search experience for quick searches, and options for more in-depth searches.