HELP! Research paper sources!

[miss_pitty_pat]

I am writing a paper focusing on cultural aspects of childbirth and parenting of the Hispanic culture. Sources cannot be older than 2004. I am struggling to find sources pertaining to my topic. Are there any websites that would have good nursing articles about culturally competent nursing care? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks!

[llg, PhD, RN]

What search engines (and keywords) have you already tried?

[miss_pitty_pat]

I have used google (of course) and EbscoHost, Medline, LexusNexus, etc...

I have tried

Hispanic pregnancy

Hispanic childbirth

hispanic pregnancy traditions

hispanic motherhood

hispanic nursing care

and others that I can't think of b/c I am so tired from staring at my computer screen for 2 hours lol. I have found a little information, but not enough to get a 7 page paper. I have also searched all of the above replacing Hispanic with Latina. I though with the increasing Hispanic population in the US that there would be a large amount of info. I just don't think that I am searching right and my brain hurts from trying to come up with stuff lol. Thanks for any help you may have!

[llg, PhD, RN]

I just got 71 hits in EBSCO host (Cinahl plus) for "childbirth" and "Hispanic" combined as one search ... but most of those are research articles. But research articles might have the information you need and/or list references that you could then find.

If you want a complete cultural discussin, you might want to try to find a book on different cultural traditions related to childbirth. That might require an actual trip to a library ... or perhaps you can find something on "Google scholar."

[miss_pitty_pat]

I have been to my local library and being in a small town, they have nothing. The majority of their culture books are in the children's section and none relate to childbirth. I am thinking of making the hour trip to my school library (I attend class at a satellite location, so closest campus is an hour away). I got to EbscoHost through my school site...is there another way to get to it? When I entered my search I got several hits, but nothing that I felt I could use.

[One1, BSN, RN]

Have you tried google with "Hispanic childbirth in site:*.edu" (you can replace .edu with .org). That way, you skip all the .com pages and often stumble about other papers and school research. Like the previous poster said, if you cannot use the result directly, you can then at least look through the reference lists.

[itsmejuli]

Google "cultural diversity in healthcare"

[miss_pitty_pat]

Thank you everyone for your help. It is starting to come together.

[llg, PhD, RN]

Here's a tip for students in general: (from an old experienced student and faculty member)

A lot of students make a strategic error when picking topics for school papers. The assignment requires that they only use references from the last few years -- and they pick topics that have not been written about much in the last few years. Students wrongly assume that there IS recent literature on every topic that interests them.

When a topic is discussed thoroughly in the literature ... researchers, authors, and journal editors move on to other topics as they have nothing significant to add to the discussion. So, for the next few years, there will be very little in the literature on that topic. Similarly, when really good research answers the basic question, people stop investing the time and money to investigate it further. A student coming along writing a paper on that specific topic might have to go back further than 3 or 5 years to find the good literature on such a topic.

So ... when a student picks a topic for such a paper, it's a poor strategy to pick a very specific topic and then expect to find the exact literature you need (all written within a relatively short specific period of time) on that topic. The student might get lucky and pick a topic for which a lot of literature exists ... or they might get unlikely and pick a topic for which there are there ARE no recent good articles to be found.

A better approach to such a student project would be to pick a general topic (such as cultural variations of childbirth ... or hispanic health care practices ... etc.) and then invest some time exploring the literature on the broad topic to see what specific topics within that general field have been "hot" in the last few years. The literature search and review can and should be used to narrow-down your topic.

Students often think of the literature as a place to go to find the answer to a specific question. While it can do that ... the literature is also a good source of ideas and questions to stimulate your thinking. Researchers and students should read the literature to search for ideas and questions ... and not just use it to answer specific questions.

I recommend to students that they explore the literature and find out what has been studied and written about BEFORE they settle on a specific topic for a paper -- and not committ to a specific topic for a student project without knowing whether or not they can get the references they need to meet the course requirements. It makes the school assignment a lot easier and less stressful.

[miss_pitty_pat]

The assignment is to research a culture outside your own as it relates to the cultural practic/beliefs related to child birth and child care. I chose Hispanic because it is the fastest growing minority population in the United States. I had actually researched several cultures to see what I could find the most information on before I chose my topic. This one seemed to show the most promise, although none of them had alot of information. I would love your input on how to make this broad and then narrow it down because to me the assignment itself is pretty specific. I'm not a great researcher, so your tips and advice is appreciated. Thanks.

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

I don't know about the websites for your specific topic, but Google books (http://books.google.com) has over 7 million books scanned in that you can look through, including textbooks, periodicals and references. A lot of them are complete scans; most have some pages withheld...but even so, it's a good resource. If it doesn't have the book in its entirety, at least you'll know what book to look for when you go to the library.