BC3 Library: Medical Assistant: Recommended Resources

Search Box Central

Reference databases are

A great place to start your research
Provide definitions, introductory information, facts, vocabulary/keywords, names
Preferred over Wikipedia by your instructors
Include citations for your bibliography!
Collection of encyclopedias, reference databases, issue topic databases

Salem Press This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text online access to a range of reference works published by Salem Press in the areas of health, history, literature, and science
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Credo Reference provides Topic Pages, which offer background information on a particular topic that can give you an easy starting point and pathways for further research; Access to hundreds of in-depth subject encyclopedias and handbooks covering every major subject from Accounting to Art History and Shakespeare to Einstein; and Mind Maps that visually show relationships between topics and keywords.

Articles are a great source for more specific questions. For example, turn to them for examples of wellness behaviors. At BC3, the primary databases for search wellness or health topics would be EBSCOhost's MasterFile Premier and Health Source databases.

If you need to find scholarly journal articles for your research project, then your best best for wellness topics are the following databases.

PubMed This link opens in a new window
PubMed is the premier index to medical literature. It is a free resource developed and maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the U.S. National Library of Medicine. PubMed provides free access to MEDLINE, links to full-text articles found in PubMed Central or at publisher websites, and other related resources. PubMed also provides Clinical Queries search filters, and Special Queries pages.
OVID Nursing Collection This link opens in a new window
Provides convenient access to over 50 of today's leading journals in nursing and related studies for practice, education, research, and administration. The package includes Nursing Made Incredibly Easy, AJN: The American Journal of Nursing, Clinical Nursing Research, and the Journal of Patient Safety, among many more.
Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
This EBSCOhost multi-disciplinary database provides full text for more than 4,600 journals, including full text for nearly 3,900 peer-reviewed titles. PDF backfiles to 1975 or further are available for well over one hundred journals, and searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,000 titles.

Books are an excellent source for both general and specific topics. They provide a greater depth of information. You might find an entire book helpful or simply use a chapter. Use the BC3 Library Catalog to find both print books and online ebooks. If you only want ebooks, you can search those collections individually.

Search the BC3 Library Catalog

Use it to find books, ebooks, DVDs in the library's collection

or browse our A-Z list of databases.

EBook Central This link opens in a new window
Ebook Central is a collection of academic eBooks from leading publishers. It covers the arts, business, education, health & medicine, history, law, literature & language, religion & philosophy, science & technology and the social sciences.
EBook Collection This link opens in a new window
Collection of academic online books covering a wide range of subjects.
Nursing Made Incredibly Easy Collection This link opens in a new window
Collection of Incredibly Easy series e-texts plus videos, cases, and supplementary materials.

Get the Full Text

PDF link.

If you are viewing an article citation in a database or website, look for a PDF full text icon or link. PDF is the preferred format over Html (web format) because it will look like the print version and it will usually have pagination, which is helpful for citing.

Document Delivery

If the full text is not freely available, you can request articles through the BC3 Library's document delivery service. We will try to get it for you from another library and then email it to you. On average, this will take about a day.

If you are using an EBSCOhost database, when viewing the article record, click on the Request Article link located in the article record.

Request this item.

If you are using a different database or find an article on the web, submit your request using our Document Delivery form.

Credible Web Sources

Fake science and health news can cause potential physical and financial damage - it’s easy to be misled (or even harmed) by unproven or exaggerated claims, not to mention the financial impact of spending money on products and services that may not make any difference in your life.