title: Utilizing grounded theory to explore the information-seeking behavior of senior nursing students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The ability to find and retrieve information efficiently is an important skill for undergraduate nursing students. Yet a number of studies reveal that nursing students are not confident in their library searching skills and encounter barriers to retrieving relevant information for assignments.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This grounded theory study examined strategies used by students to locate information for class assignments and identified barriers to their success.
  
  
  METHODS
  Purposive sampling was used to recruit eleven students, who were asked to record their searching processes while completing a class assignment, and semi-structured, open-ended, audiotaped interviews took place to discuss the students' journals and solicit additional data. Methods of information seeking, strategies used to find information, and barriers to searching were identified.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Students' main concern was frustration caused by the challenge of choosing appropriate words or phrases to query databases. The central theme that united all categories and explained most of the variation among the data was "discovering vocabulary."
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Teaching strategies to identify possible words and phrases to use when querying information sources should be emphasized more in the information literacy training of undergraduate nursing students.
authors.affiliation: Health Sciences Librarian, Health Sciences Library, University of Saskatchewan, 107 Wiggins Road, Saskatoon, SK S7K 5E5, Canada. Vicky.Duncan@usask.ca
authors.forename: Vicky
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Duncan
authors.forename: Lorraine
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Holtslander
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003197:Computer Literacy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D057226:Information Seeking Behavior; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012525:Saskatchewan; D055815:Young Adult