Key Resources for Pharmacy, Nursing, & Health Sciences
These pages bring together library resources for your studies and research. Each of the tabs above highlight key subject-related resources which you will find useful during your course.
Hello! I’m here to help you with using academic resources specific for health to search for evidence-based research and clinical guidance.
You’ll see timetabled sessions with me built into some of your modules and , for additional individual support, you can book a one-to-one appointment.
I look forward to meeting you.
To book a study skills session or visit a study skills drop-in go to the Study Skills pages
For more details on using the library facilities have a look at the Library Essentials videos and training sessions
Books & eBooks
Books and eBooks in the Library collection not only reflect the titles on your reading lists but also offer titles for background and wider reading. The majority of the books you’ll need for Pharmacy, Nursing & Health Sciences subjects can be found at Murray Library.
All books and eBooks available at Sunderland are listed on Library Search.
Search for books using Library Search (via the library web page)
eBook Collections for Health
Clinical Key Student (Nursing & Midwifery)
ClinicalKey Student (Physiotherapy & Medicine)
Clinical Key Student is an excellent resource of high-quality health related eBooks, images and videos. You can search the full text of all the titles at once, add images to PowerPoint slides, create flashcards, and read the book in various fonts and colours once you Launch the Bookshelf. You can also have the book read to you using the audio button in Bookshelf function. You can download a “Bookshelf” app where you can read offline on-the-go.
Click play on the video opposite for an introduction to ClinicalKey Student For Nursing focusing on Search and Bookshelf
LWW Health Library is an interactive resource providing access to reference and textbooks, videos, images, case-studies and quizzes. Our subscription includes access to Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Pharmacy and Medical Education.
To access LWW Health Library click on the title and log in with your University Username and Password when prompted. The video has instructions for making a personal account within LWW Health Library and guidance on how to use the collection.
SAGE Catalyst is a collection of over 700 social science eBooks. Included within the collection are 53 nursing titles, 94 books covering research methods and evaluation, plus 16 study skills titles.
You can access the eBooks directly from SAGE Catalyst via Database Search on the library homepage, search for Sage Catalyst and click the link under View Online:
From the categories list choose the topic you would like to browse to see a list of the eBooks available. All of the titles are also discoverable when you search using Library Search
AccessMedicine is an online medical resource incorporating textbooks, examination and procedural videos, a diagnosis tool, practice guidelines, an integrated drug database and cases files.
Access is currently available via Shibboleth. Click on the title above and Sign In from the AccessMedicine homepage.
Click on the video for a tour of the key features and contents of AccessMedicine
Where can I find my books?
Books for Pharmacy, Nursing & Health Sciences are located on the lower floor of the Murray Library. Once you have found a book using Library Search note down the shelf number and use the signs on the ends of the library shelving to help you locate the book you are looking for.
How do I find my online reading lists?
Your online reading lists (Library Reading Lists or LRL) are reading materials recommended by your lecturers. Lists may include key textbooks, journal articles, videos and links to websites. You can access your reading lists via your module pages in Canvas, from the Library homepage or by clicking on this link https://libraryreadinglists.sunderland.ac.uk/leganto/readinglist/searchlists and typing in your module code/title
What books have the Library recently bought?
If you want to keep up to date with new stock arriving in the library then check out our new books list. It is updated monthly with details of new books that have been purchased for all Health Sciences and Wellbeing subjects.
Academic Journals
Academic Journals are an important source of information for helping you with study and research. Journals contain articles relating to a specific subject/topic area; they are essential for finding original research, analysis, case studies and literature reviews that you can then cite in your assignments.
The Library subscribes to journals chosen by the Faculty that you can access in print and online. The most effective way of searching is to use Library Search so that you can search across all available sources.
If you know the title of the Journal you would like to search for select the ‘Journal Titles’ option from the library web page. It is easier to start at our website and follow a link from there to the journal or specific article but sometimes you will need to log in once you are on the publisher’s website.
Finding the full text of an article
Sometimes you may find accessing the full text of an article that you haven’t found through Library Search difficult. You may have found the article on Google Scholar where the links do not take you to full text or through a publishers website that asks you to pay for access or from a list of references in a book.
Using Library Search to search for the title of the article you have found will often solve this, if what you are looking for is not available through Library Search then you can request a copy of the article through Inter Library Loans. Watch the videos below for instructions:
Some quality academic research is published in free to access journals, known as Open Access journals. You can find many of these in your subject area from the Directory of Open Access Journals and MDPI Open Access.
Health Databases
Databases contain journal articles and other types of information such as conference papers and book chapters. They usually have specialised search functions so you can search very specifically for your topic.
The core resources for health subjects are listed on this page.
Links to databases containing health-related journal articles
Nursing and allied health: CINAHL
A comprehensive source of journal articles covering a wide range of subjects aimed at nursing & allied health professionals, also useful for medicine.
Psychology: PsycARTICLES
A good range of psychology-related journals where you can search for Psychology-related articles.
Sports and exercise science: SPORTDiscus
Database of literature for sports and sports medicine journals. Provides extensive coverage in the areas of fitness, health and sport studies.
General health and health science: Health Research Premium Collection (HRPC)
A huge database of health-related journals, books, evidence-based resources, videos and audio and dissertations.
Biomedicine and Pharmacy: PubMed
Key for medical, biomedical and other, life-sciences related journal articles. Includes citations from MEDLINE (see below) and other life science journals.
Biomedicine and Pharmacy: MEDLINE
MEDLINE is a key bibliographic database for medical literature. 25 million+ references to journal articles in life sciences with a focus on biomedicine.
Biosciences and Pharmacology: Embase
Database containing biomedical articles in peer reviewed journals covers drug and pharmaceutical research.
Life, health and social sciences: ScienceDirect
A scientific database offering journal articles and book chapters covering a broad range of science subjects. Includes social sciences and humanities.
Sciences and social sciences: Web of Science
Very large database covering a wide range of science subjects and is particularly good for interdisciplinary searches. Offers citation searching. You can also register for EndNote Online via Web of Science.
Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Science: Reaxys
Use Reaxys to search the world’s most extensive collection of organic and inorganic chemistry data. Designed to support the full range of chemistry research, including pharmaceutical development, the chemicals industry and academic research.
Databases: videos and quick-start guides
Database quick-start guides
Evidence Based Sources
Evidence-based sources of information are secondary resources such as guidelines, summaries, best practice evidence and systematic reviews used to support clinical decision making.
Links to Evidence Based Sources
Trip: Trip is a clinical search engine to help you find high-quality research evidence to support practice and/or care. It also searches other content types including images, videos, patient information leaflets, educational courses and news.
Cochrane Library: Contains independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making including systematic reviews abstracts and individual clinical trials.
NICE Guidelines: Evidence-based recommendations developed by independent committees, including professionals and lay members, and consulted on by stakeholders.
SIGN Guidelines: SIGN produce evidence-based, collaboratively developed clinical guidelines for healthcare improvement in Scotland.
CKS (Clinical Knowledge Summaries): Summary of current evidence and practical guidance on best practice in respect of over 350 common and/or significant primary care presentations. Managed by NICE.
Videos and quick start guides
Drugs & Medicines Information
British Pharmacopoeia: Updated annually, the British Pharmacopoeia (BP) is the only comprehensive collection of authoritative official standards for UK pharmaceutical substances and medicinal products. All monographs and requirements of the European Pharmacopoeia (Ph. Eur.) are reproduced in the BP, making the BP a convenient and fully comprehensive set of standards that can be used across Europe and beyond.
New to using British Pharmacopoeia? Check out the ‘How to use the BP’ guide.
Medicines Complete : Information on drugs and medicines used globally. Provides access to: British National Formulary (BNF); BNF for Children (BNFC); Martindale: The Complete Drug Reference; and Stockley’s Drug Interactions. Log in via Shibboleth for off-campus access.
Medical-related images
Create professional-looking science figures using 1000s if pre-made icons and templates from more than 30 fields of life sciences. Sign up for free – no software to download. It is free for educational use with some caveats; check the website for details.
Detailed interactive 3D models of the human body. Use for your own presentations only, not to be uploaded onto websites.
PHIL (Public Health Image Library)
Free, copyright cleared, images.
TV, Film and Video
Box of Broadcasts (BoB) is an on-demand TV & Radio streaming service for education and research. It contains over 2 million broadcasts from over 65 free-to-air channels including BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and more. You can find a complete list of channels here.
You need to log in with your university ID and password, and then enter your email address and name (one time only) to create an account within BoB. Due to licensing restrictions, BoB can only be used in the United Kingdom.
Theses
PhD theses can be useful sources of unpublished information. University of Sunderland theses are added to the Sunderland Repository. You may find theses from other universities via EThOS or PQDT Open.
SURE (Sunderland Repository)
Search research written by University of Sunderland staff.
EThOS (e-theses online service) – from the British Library
EThOS is the UK’s national thesis service with approximately 400,000 records relating to theses awarded by over 120 institutions. Around 160,000 of these also provide access to the full text.
PQDT Open
PQDT Open provides the full text of open access dissertations and theses free of charge where the author has opted to publish as open access. This includes international Universities
Newspapers
Newspapers can be useful as both primary and secondary sources of information. As well as providing commentary on events, newspaper articles can provide insight on how the public viewed an event or incident.
Newsstream – Gives access to many contemporary news sources from around the world – find out more about on our blog.
Legal Information
University of Sunderland subscribes to two key legal databases – Lexis Library and Westlaw – where you can find legislation, case law and journal articles related to your subject.
Find Lexis Library or Westlaw in the Database A-Z list
UK Legislation is also published on https://www.legislation.gov.uk
Need to know more about the Library’s key resources for Law? Take a look at our subject guide for Law.
