Download LibKey Nomad for quick access to PDFs through Wikipedia, PubMed, and Google Scholar! 

By Nicole Daly and Margot Accettura

Do you use Wikipedia, Pubmed, or Google Scholar and struggle to know whether Falvey offers you access to the articles mentioned in their reference lists? Check out LibKey Nomad, the browser extension that connects your Villanova library account to various databases including Wikipedia, Pubmed, and Google Scholar!  

Instructions on downloading the browser extension:  

• • Go to https://thirdiron.com/downloadnomad/  
  • Select Get LibKey Nomad Now
  • Choose your preferred browser. There’s no need to sign in or make a new account! Just make sure you choose Villanova University.

Once connected you will notice the Nomad button popup offering pdf access for articles linked from the library. If a PDF is not available, it will automatically send you to Falvey’s site to find access. It will even send you to the ILL link if it’s not in our holdings! 

 

Happy searching! 

P.S. Don’t feel like adding the extension? LibKey also offers a website where you can easily copy an articles DOI into the search bar and quickly see if we have access to a pdf file. 

Go to: https://libkey.io/  

 

P.P.S. Falvey also has access to BrowZine which makes journal browsing and reading easier! At https://browzine.com/libraries/764/subjects you can browse Falvey provided journals by discipline. You can even keep your own bookshelf and article list.

 

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Nicole Daly is Communication and Sociology and Criminology Librarian at Falvey Library.

 

 

 

 

Margot Accettura is STEM Librarian at Falvey Library. 

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Please join us on Thursday, Nov. 16 from 1-2:30 p.m. in room 205 of Falvey Library for a talk by the 2023 Outstanding Faculty Research Award recipient, Elizabeth Burgess Dowdell, PhD, RN, AFN-C, FAAN, Professor & Coordinator Undergraduate Research, M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing, Villanova University. Dr. Dowdell will be giving a talk titled “Illuminating Health Risks Facing Vulnerable Populations: A Call to Action.”

Vulnerable populations have often experienced significant trauma and display high-risk behaviors which influence their health outcomes. Exploring the interrelationships among various forms of victimization, cyber aggression, and exposure to violence has led to new strategies for risk profiling and understanding perilous behaviors across the lifespan. Populations discussed will include infant abductions, victims of violence, high-risk online behaviors, mass shootings, missing and murdered Native American Indigenous women as a call to action in order to inform.

This ACS-approved event is part of the Scholarship@Villanova Lecture Series. It is co-sponsored by Falvey Library and the Office of the Provost and is free and open to all. Light refreshments will be served.

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If you are looking for an alternative way to search PubMed (MEDLINE), check out MEDLINE via EBSCOhost.

Created by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), MEDLINE is an authoritative bibliographic database that contains citations and abstracts for biomedical and health journals used by health care professionals, nurses, clinicians, and researchers engaged in clinical care, public health, and health policy development. MEDLINE uses Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), which help for crafting a more focused search.

Nursing students and faculty are likely very familiar with searching on CINAHL via EBSCOhost. Please feel free to try searching MEDLINE on a familiar platform like EBSCOhost. A quick tutorial video is available through EBSCOhost. As always, please feel free to reach out to a librarian with any questions on searching on any of Falvey Library’s databases.

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Sarah Hughes is Nursing & Life Sciences Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library.

 

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We are pleased to share that we have recently added new items from The Museum of Nursing History to their digital partner collection in the Digital Library. The latest additions include photographs, newspaper clippings, ephemera, letters, and documents relating to the nursing careers of several women spanning from a WWI U.S. Army nurse, a WWII U.S. Navy nurse, and a career school nurse who worked thirty-three years from 1952-1986.

The items were scanned during the fall semester by one of our student workers, Mikiahya Black ’21 B.S.N., pursuing her own career in nursing through Villanova University’s M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing.

By Shawn Proctor

National Nursing Week, May 6–12, celebrates and honors the sacrifices and many contributions of nurses to improving and saving lives. At Falvey Library, Sarah Hughes, Librarian for Nursing, Biology, and Health Sciences, supports the academic and research efforts of the students in the M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing as they join the proud tradition of Villanova nurses.

We sat down with Hughes to learn more about her work with nurses, before and after joining Villanova University in 2019.

Question: Your experience working in the emergency department at University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro gave you insight into the role of nurses in that clinical setting. Can you tell me more about the work and challenges of those nurses?

Sarah Hughes: At Princeton Medical Center, I worked with nurses as both a medical librarian, but also in a separate role when I worked evenings at the emergency department (ED) assisting the front desk, basically as a glorified greeter. In both roles, I saw different sides to the nursing profession.

As a librarian, I helped with information-seeking behavior, mostly many of the nurses came to the library to get access to BLS, PALS, and ACLS books for recertification. I also did searches for nurses and doctors, provided patients with consumer health information, interlibrary loan services and maintained the nursing intranet page.

Working in the ED in a non-clinical role, but observing clinical practice really helped me to fully appreciate and understand what nurses do. I observed the triage process for the ED and also helped patients and family while they waited to be seen. Inside the ED, I watched first hand as nurses worked doing a variety of life saving measures including resuscitating patients, treating children that came in with significant burns, bedside assistance, and all sorts of things that the average person will never see with their own eyes.

When the COVID-19 pandemic started, my immediate first thought was with the nurses and other ED workers because their jobs were tough to start with, but the added layer of working through a highly contagious, deadly, airborne virus day in and out was simply unthinkable. The horrors that health care providers have seen over the past years is simply incalculable. Many nurses have chosen to leave the profession due to burnout and unsafe working conditions. Others have chosen to take early retirement because they were exhausted from seeing so much sadness and death.

This is why I personally choose to continue to masking indoors at all times in public, because I don’t want nurses to continue working through this pandemic forever. To me, masking is the most responsible thing a person can do in this moment. I mask to not only protect myself, but for all the nurses and healthcare workers out there.

Q: How would you describe Villanova’s nursing students and your work with them?

SH: I’ve found all students in Villanova nursing to be incredibly dedicated and hardworking. From the undergraduates to the DNP and PhD students, the vast majority of students are serious about their studies and ask me wonderful questions every day.

I tend to be involved early on in the NUR1102 course pointing students towards Falvey Library resources like CINAHL and PubMed for finding credible, peer-reviewed information. I come back again to the undergraduates in the Research Methods class and cover more advance searching and review things like PRISMA charting and use of citation management tools like Zotero. And I’m more deeply involved with long one-on-one research consultations with students in several of the higher level courses.

Asking the right research question and framing it in such a way is highly important to retrieve appropriate search results. I spend time also getting students familiar with citation management tools like Zotero, particularly if students are doing extensive searching and need to organize their search results for publication or group projects.

Q: Why is celebrating nurses and their work during Nurses Week important?

SH: National Nurses Week is an essential celebration and acknowledgement of those in the profession. It’s important to honor the varying roles of nurses and all the ways they make a difference in the different communities they serve. Since many nurses are struggling right now with what they have endured during the pandemic, it is more important than ever that they are commended and provided with safer working conditions in hospitals and health care settings.

These nurses must be recognized for their efforts, and it is imperative that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration implement a permanent safety standard for hospital and healthcare settings to protect our vitally important nurses and healthcare workers. Nurses are highly trained and skilled workers that tend to be in short supply, so it is vital they have a safe environment.

Q: You joined Falvey Library about 6 months before the pandemic. How has your way of engaging students during this time changed? Are there takeaways or practices that you would continue in the years beyond?

SH: I got to have one fully pre-pandemic semester so I had a glimpse of what “normal” was like. The majority of my research consults were conducted virtually on Zoom, even before the pandemic so not all that much has changed. It’s often easier to demonstrate searching techniques on a Zoom meeting than in person, so the student can observe what I do when I share my screen. Or conversely, I can watch what a student is doing and then take control of the screen if they have questions or cannot locate something right away. I also find virtual instruction sessions to be more conducive to online as well, since again students can watch and mirror my actions. We are fortunate to have such technology that allows for virtual instruction and meeting online when it is not safe to be together.

Students who wish to schedule a nursing, biology, or health sciences consultation, visit Sarah Hughes’ staff page or email sarah.hughes@villanova.edu.

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Shawn Proctor is Communication and Marketing Program Manager at Falvey Library.

By Sarah Hughes

 

Falvey Library is pleased to offer a summer trial to Elsevier’s Embase. This science database provides comprehensive coverage of biomedical information with particularly strong reporting for information related to drug reactions, toxicology, medical device data, and evidence-based medicine. Coverage starts from 1947 to present day, and all articles are indexed with both MeSH and Emtree.

The database is useful to all levels of expertise in searching. A simple search can be conducted using basic, natural language, or experienced database users can conduct a more extensive search. For example, Embase is an excellent database to consider when conducting a systematic literature search, like a Scoping or Systematic Review.

Another nice feature of Embase is the PICO (Patient, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) question search builder. As nursing students and faculty know, it is critical to create a solid clinical questions when seeking evidence-based research. By having pre-populated fields available, Embase makes constructing a PICO question incredibly easy.

 

Access to Embase can be found in Databases A to Z page or through this direct link. The trial ends on July 9, 2021. Please feel free to contact ref@villanova.edu with any questions.

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Sarah Hughes is Nursing & Life Sciences Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library.

 

 

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By Sarah Hughes

As we enter the winter season during a pandemic, it is more important than ever to remain healthy. While a wealth of health information may be available when conducting a quick search on the web, much of the content is not always credible. Instead, consider using some of the trustworthy resources available at Falvey Memorial Library.

UpToDate is an evidence-based medicine resource used by medical providers to retrieve the most current information on health topics.

While the content is primary geared towards students and faculty at the College of Nursing, it does have features that can be helpful for those seeking basic health-related information. A nice feature of this resource is that it contains some specific content geared towards patients, not medical providers. These specific entries are written in more plain terms and is easy to read and understand.

Access UpToDate through Databases A to Z on the Falvey Memorial Library homepage. Be sure to register with your valid Villanova email account.

Once you have an account set, you can search for specific information, like in the example below, information on flu treatment.

Click the Patient tab to retrieve content written for patients. While this is no replacement for a telemedicine visit to your doctor, it can be helpful to see the recommended guidelines written by healthcare providers.

Stay safe and healthy this winter!

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 Sarah Hughes is Nursing & Life Sciences Librarian at Falvey Memorial Library.

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With the world currently battling a new global pandemic of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, many news sources are looking back at the 1918-1919 worldwide influenza pandemic commonly known as the Spanish flu. An estimated 500 million people, or one-third of the world’s population, became infected with the virus and the number of deaths is estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 deaths occurring in the United States.

While researching one of our newest Digital Library collections from partner organization The Museum of Nursing History, I came across a featured article in Columbia University’s School of Nursing Alumnae newsletter highlighting Ada Mutch and her experience in 1918.

Philadelphia in particular had “the highest, most rapidly accumulating death toll” in the country. With many doctors, nurses, and medical staff serving overseas in World War I, it was left to nursing students and lay people to step in and help tend to the sick. In Bryn Mawr, the local hospital was overwhelmed with patients and an emergency hospital was opened in the old, vacant Lancaster Inn. At thirteen years old, future World War II army nurse Ada Mutch and her sister volunteered as kitchen help preparing food and serving meals to the doctors, nurses, and staff. They helped to prepare visitors by dressing them in protective gowns and masks and escorting them to see their ill family members. Amazingly, none of the Mutch family became ill.

Towards the end of October 1918 the Board of Health for the state of Pennsylvania began to gradually lift quarantines and reopen public places. In our Digital Library, an article in the November 2^nd issue of the Ardmore Chronicle reports, “after four weeks the influenza ban which has kept the lid upon virtually every form of activity in the community outside of those connected with the most stringent needs of the people and Government, will be lifted tomorrow in Lower Merion, when the churches will be permitted to resume services. Monday the schools will again hold daily sessions, and Tuesday saloons, theatres, poolrooms, dance halls and other public places will be allowed to open.” Still, the Acting Commissioner of Health, Dr. Benjamin Franklin Royer warned, “great care should be practiced at the time of removing restrictions.”

While we are currently practicing “social distancing” here in Pennsylvania in 2020, Falvey’s Digital Library is always open and awaiting your discovery!

Last week we shared some highlights from a recently digitized collection (See: New Digital Partnership: Museum of Nursing History), and we’ve just added some additional items – the scrapbook and papers of World War II Army Nurse Jessie Margaret Ada Mutch (1905-2012).

 

Ada Mutch was born February 2, 1905 in Scotland and emigrated to the U.S. in 1912 with her parents and siblings. Reverend Andrew Mutch, her father, was Pastor of the Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church. Ms. Mutch was educated at The Baldwin School and then earned her Nursing Degree at the Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital School in New York. In World War II she enlisted in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps earning the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. She served from 1942-1946 and distinguished herself in the European Theater of Operations. She then returned to Columbia-Presbyterian to pursue her career in nursing, along with a master’s degree in 1948. She held a dual position as Assistant Director of Nursing and Assistant Professor of Nursing at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. In 1955 she became the Director of Nursing at Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania until her retirement in 1970. She was active for many years as a volunteer for ElderNet, and died on January 27, 2012, one week before her 107th birthday.

Items in this collection include a large scrapbook compiled during her time serving in the U.S. Army Nurse Corp, as well as various materials relating to her career in the army and as a nurse. The disbound scrapbook is on brittle paper and very fragile in nature. Digitization serves as a preservation strategy by creating a surrogate version of the item that allows for immediate access. We are proud to partner with the Museum of Nursing History to digitize the history of this important profession.

 

Most of the scrapbook appears to be from her time in France and contains many French theater programs and souvenirs, photographs, maps, correspondence, newspaper and newsletter clippings and full articles, and several United States government publications from the War Department. Ada Mutch served overseas for three years and two months during World War II. Initially she was a 1^st Lieutenant and Assistant Chief Nurse in England; and subsequently became director of the Nursing Section, Northern Ireland Base Section. She later acted in this capacity in France, in the Brittany Base Section, and then in the Burgundy Bay Section, concluding her service in Europe as Director of the Nursing Service in the 807^th Hospital Center.

We were able to scan only a portion of this collection before the temporary closure of campus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are eager to return to campus and share the remainder of this exceptional scrapbook and additional items from Ms. Mutch’s collection – as soon as it is safe!

Earlier this year, Falvey Memorial Library began a new Digital Library partnership with the Museum of Nursing History, currently located in the former Germantown Dispensary and Hospital on the campus of La Salle University in Philadelphia, PA. This fascinating museum is committed to the preservation and exhibition of historical nursing memorabilia and to the education about nursing’s past. We are excited to assist in the realization of this mission through digitizing and sharing some of their collections online. We were able to scan a portion of this collection before the temporary closure of campus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are happy to be able to share the materials scanned so far.

 

First up is the collection of Elizabeth (Betty) Lattell-Beardmore-McQuale (1926-2017), a graduate of the United States Cadet Nurse Corps training program at Episcopal Hospital in Philadelphia. Items in this collection relate to Betty’s long career as a nurse, and many of the items highlight her time in the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps program.

Betty began her nursing career in 1943 by joining the Cadet Nurse Corps. Created by Congress in response to a shortage of nurses during World War II, the program recruited women ages 17 to 35 who had graduated high school, for admission to nursing schools by offering to cover their tuition and living costs in exchange for an oath of service during the war. The bill that was passed by Congress included an amendment that prohibited discrimination based on race or ethnicity.

 

 

Of particular note are Betty’s classmates from nurse training – Jean Y. Oda, Emmy E. Ogami, and Marion H. Tanamachi – three Japanese American women from California. When Betty’s family donated the collection, her daughter especially noted these friends of her mother’s whom she had met later in life, and how they shared that they had enrolled in the Cadet Nurse Corps program in order to be released from Japanese internment camps, where their families were forced to relocate during World War II. Over 350 Japanese American women joined this program and became nurses. View photos of Betty and her friends in the two photograph albums and Betty’s 1946 yearbook, The Episcopalian, which contains many signatures and hand-written notes of well wishes.

 

We are proud to provide access to materials about the history of nursing through the Museum’s collections, especially during this public health crisis. We are all more grateful than ever to the nurses and other healthcare heroes! We will be sharing more items from this collection next week, so stay tuned.