Knowledge and Library Services: Allied health professionals: Finding AHP literature

Searching guides

e-Learning - Literature Searching
A short course from e-Learning for Healthcare covering searching principles and techniques.
Critical appraisal resources
Useful information on critically appraising literature.

If you are unsure how to conduct an effective literature search, contact us for 1:1 or group training on using databases or critically appraising literature. Alternatively, you can consult our online literature searching guide for self-directed learning resources.

NHS Knowledge and Library Hub

For a simple literature searching the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub is the best place to start. It brings together many different databases (including Medline, CINHAL Ultimate, ClinicialTrials.gov and Cochrane) making them searchable in one place and provides links to full text where available.

Key AHP databases

These following databases are a good starting point for more complex searches and searching to support research. You have access to these databases either by using your OpenAthens account or freely online.

CINAHL Ultimate
CINAHL Ultimate is the new definitive resource for nursing and allied health research, providing full text for more of the most used journals in the CINAHL index than any other database. It covers more than 50 nursing specialties and includes quick lessons, evidence-based care sheets, CEU modules and research instruments. CINAHL Ultimate includes rigorous curation and indexing of open access (OA) journals, which has resulted in a growing collection of 1,253 active global OA journals. Once validated and certified for inclusion, these OA journals are treated with high-quality subject indexing and sophisticated, precise/accurate full-text linking. Note: Includes full text access to the Nursing Times.
Access: NHS OpenAthens account for eligible users
Subjects Covered:
Ambulatory care nursing
Cardiovascular nursing
Critical care nursing
Emergency medical technicians
Gerontologic nursing
Nuclear medicine technicians
Occupational therapy
Oncologic nursing
Pediatric nursing
Physical therapy
Psychiatric nursing
ClinicalKey
ClinicalKey is a clinical search engine to support clinical decisions, access to 1000+ textbooks, 500+ journals, practice guidelines, drug info, 5,000+ patient handouts, First Consult, ProceduresConsult, over 13,000 videos and millions of images.
Access: NHS OpenAthens account
EMCARE (Ovid) 1995 to Present
EMCARE covers all nursing specialties and nursing healthcare professions. 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: NHS OpenAthens account
OTseeker
OTseeker database contains abstracts of systematic reviews, randomised controlled trials and other resources relevant to occupational therapy interventions. Research evidence is retrieved from over 1,000 different journals and numerous bibliographic databases.
Access: Free
PeDro -Physiotherapy Evidence Database
A free database of over 43,000 randomised trials, systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines in physiotherapy. For each trial, review or guideline, PEDro provides the citation details, the abstract and a link to the full text, where possible

Want to find more? See our full list of available databases on our Database A-Z page.