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Nursing: Measurements and Tools Resources

Guide to nursing library resources

Locating Measures, Scales, Surveys, Questionnaires

  • Locating measures for nursing research can be tough.
  • There is not one publication or website that has every instrument.
  • Often you can find an article all about an instrument, but the instrument itself is not included in the article.
  • It is always worth it to try and email the creator/author of the article to request use of the instrument.
  • Mention that you are a doctoral student and that you will use the instrument for research & not commercial gain.

Finding Tools and Measurements in the Library's Databases

In January 2024, USD's Library will subscribe to Journal of Nursing Measurement

Nursing Databases for Measurements, Tests, Scales, Tools, Questionnaires

  • Health and Psychosocial Instruments (HaPI) - Instruments of use in assessing health and behavior. Includes questionnaires, interview schedules, checklists, coding schemes, rating scales and tests
  • Use the HaPI website to guide you on searching the HaPI database above
  • Mental Measurements Yearbook - provides users with a comprehensive guide to over 2,000 contemporary testing instruments within such diverse areas as psychology, education, business, and leadership.
  • APA PsycTests -  research database that provides access to psychological tests, measures, scales, surveys, and other assessments as well as descriptive information about the tests.
  • In CINAHL use the Instrumentation field in Advanced Search

Searching PubMed for measurements:

MeSH terms - "Surveys and Questionnaires," "Psychological Tests" "Psychometrics" "Evaluation Studies As Topic" "Reproducibility of Results"

MeSH subheading - "Instrumentation"  (ex. Nursing/instrumentation, Pain management/instrumentation, psychiatry/instrumentation) 

Other terms - scale, survey, measurement, questionnaire, tool, assessment, test

It is always worth a try to email a librarian at the National Library of Medicine to ask for suggestions on accessing a tool or measurement.

Websites with Measurements