*School of Health Sciences*

Nucleus Medical Media (2009). Female Torso with Skeleton and Muscles: Posterior View. Smart Imagebase.

Welcome to the Anatomy & Physiology guide!

If you have questions or comments about this guide, please contact Emily Gilbert, Librarian for the School of Health Sciences, or Anna Phan, Learning Services Coordinator for the School of Health Sciences.

Need help preparing for A&P quizzes and tests?? 

Visit our Studying, Test-taking, & Writing Help page for help with reading comprehension, test prep, and more!

Below is a sampling of the Anatomy & Physiology books available in the eBook from EBSCO database.  Use eBooks to search for more resources like these.  Consider searching for materials on specific body systems, such as the skeletal system.

You can get more information on each module of Visible Body using these links:

• Anatomy & Physiology
• Human Anatomy Atlas
• Anatomy & Function
• Muscle Premium
• Skeleton Premium
• Heart & Circulatory Premium
• Physiology Animations

​

Flashcards are a fabulous way to test your knowledge and identify where you may need additional practice.  For tips on how to create and effectively use flashcards, watch the quick 10-minute video below.  For resources to create your own flashcards, click here or check out the links below the video.

Tutor Match allows you to schedule tutoring appointments with Rasmussen College student tutors. You can request your appointment to be online or on campus (if available). 

Click here to connect to Tutor Match within the Tutoring Platform (Brainfuse).

Request a Tutoring Session

• Access the Tutoring Platform from within the Resources tab in any of your courses. 
• Look for Tutor Match
• Select a Topic (in this case, you'd select  and select Health Sciences), and then a Subject (either Human Anatomy & Physiology I or II)

• Click on Schedule

• Select your Preferred Modality
  • ​Online (with audio/phone)
  • On Campus
• Ensure your Time Zone is correct. If it is not correct, click on the time zone link. A separate box will appear where you can change your time zone and continue scheduling your appointment. 
• Select a specific tutor from Available Tutors to narrow your search to the tutor of your choice. Otherwise, to see ALL available tutors, leave as "Select a tutor". 

• Select the date for your appointment from the calendar. You will need to schedule appointments at least two hours in advance of the session start time.
• Find a time slot that works for you and click on Select.
• Tip: If you prefer to view the calendar for the entire month, select month in the upper right-hand corner.

• Almost done! Complete the online form with your phone number, SMS reminder preference, and notes about the assistance you are seeking, then click Confirm.

Session Confirmation 

You will see a pending confirmation page letting you know that the tutor has been notified of your request

• When the tutor confirms your request, you will receive a confirmation email to your Smail account
• The modality, time, and date of the appointment will be included.

How to Attend

• On-Campus sessions: Simply show up on the correct campus at the day and time of your appointment.
• Online sessions: Simply come back to the Tutoring Platform shortly before your session starts, hover over your name (top right on the page), and click on My Calendar and then on Enter to access the session.

How to Cancel a Tutoring Session

• Log into Online Tutoring
• Click on your Username in the top right corner under the "Logout" button
• Select My Calendar 
• Click Cancel next to the appointment that you wish to cancel

For Live Help, please select Health Sciences as a Topic, and Anatomy and Physiology as a Subject:

• Library databases are collections of resources, including full-text articles, books, and encyclopedias, that are searchable.
• Searching library databases is different than searching Google. Best results are achieved when using Keywords linked with Boolean Operators. 
• Applying Limiters such as full-text, publication date, resource type, language, geographic location, and subject help to refine search results.
• Utilizing Phrases or Fields, in addition to an awareness of Stop Words, can focus your search and retrieve more useful results.
• Have questions? Connect with a Librarian through the Library Live Chat for assistance.

Boolean Operators connect keywords or concepts logically to retrieve relevant articles, books, and other resources.  There are three Boolean Operators:

• AND
• OR
• NOT

Using AND 

• Narrows search results
• Connects two or more keywords/concepts
• All keywords/concepts connected with "and" must be in an article or resource to appear in the search results list

Example: The result list will include resources that include both keywords -- "distracted driving" and "texting" -- in the same article or resource, represented in the shaded area where the circles intersect (area shaded in purple).

Using OR

• Broadens search results ("OR means more!")
• Connects two or more synonyms or related keywords/concepts
• Resources appearing in the results list will include any of the terms connected with the OR connector

Example:  The result list will include resources that include the keyword "texting" OR the keyword "cell phone" (entire area shaded in blue); either is acceptable.

Using NOT

• Excludes keywords or concepts from the search
• Narrows results by removing resources that contain the keyword or term connect with the NOT connector
• Use sparingly

Example: The result list will include all resources that includes the term "car" (green area) but will exclude any resource that includes the term "motorcycle" (purple area) even though the term car may be present in the resource.

A library database searches for keywords throughout the entire resource record including the full-text of the resource, subject headings, tags, bibliographic information, etc.

Keywords:

• Natural language words or short phrases that describe a concept or idea
• Can retrieve too few or irrelevant results due to full-text searching (What words would an author use to write about this topic?)
• Provide flexibility in a search
• Must consider synonyms or related terms to improve search results
• TIP: Build a Keyword List

Example:  The keyword list above was developed to find resources that discuss how texting while driving results in accidents.  Notice that there are synonyms (texting and "text messaging"), related terms ("cell phones" and texting), and spelling variations ("cell phone" and cellphone).  Using keywords when searching full-text requires consideration of various words that express an idea or concept.

Subject Headings

• Predetermined "controlled vocabulary" database editors apply to resources to describe topical coverage of content
• Can retrieve more precise search results because every article assigned that subject heading will be retrieved.
• Provide less flexibility in a search
• Can be combined with a keyword search to focus search results.
• TIP: Consult database subject heading list or subject headings assigned to relevant resources

Example 1: In EBSCO's Academic Search Complete, clicking on the "Subject Terms" tab provides access to the entire subject heading list used in the database.  It also allows a search for specific subject terms.

Example 2:  A subject term can be incorporated into a keyword search by clicking on the down arrow next to "Select a Field" and selecting "Subject Terms" from the dropdown list.  Also, notice how subject headings are listed below the title of the resource providing another strategy for discovering subject headings used in the database.

When a search term is more than one word, enclose the phrase in quotation marks to retrieve more precise and accurate results.  Using quotation marks around a term will search it as a "chunk," searching for those particular words together in that order within the text of a resource. 

Examples:

"cell phone"

"distracted driving"

"car accident"

TIP: In some databases, neglecting to enclose phrases in quotation marks will insert the AND Boolean connector between each word resulting in unintended search results.

Truncation provides an option to search for a root of a keyword in order to retrieve resources that include variations of that word.  This feature can be used to broaden search results, although some results may not be relevant.  To truncate a keyword, type an asterisk (*) following the root of the word.

For example:

Library databases provide a variety of tools to limit and refine search results.  Limiters provide the ability to limit search results to resources having specified characteristics including:

• Full text
• Resource type
• Publication date
• Language
• Geographic location
• Subject

In both the EBSCO and ProQuest databases, the limiting tools are located in the left panel of the results page.

                                                 EBSCO                                                     ProQuest

The short video below provides a demonstration of how to use limiters to refine a list of search results.

Each resource in a library database is stored in a record.  In addition to the full-text of the resources, searchable Fields are attached that typically include:

• Author
• Title
• Journal title
• Date of Publication
• Abstract
• Subject Headings
• Publisher

Incorporating Fields into your search can assist in focusing and refining search results by limiting the results to those resources that include specific information in a particular field.

In both EBSCO and ProQuest databases, selecting the Advanced Search option will allow Fields to be included in a search.

For example, in the Advanced Search option in EBSCO's Academic Search Complete database, clicking on the down arrow next to "Select a Field" provides a list of fields that can be searched within that database.  Select the field and enter the information in the text box to the left to use this feature.

Stop words are short, commonly used words--articles, prepositions, and pronouns-- that are automatically dropped from a search.  Typical stop words include:

• a
• an
• and
• the
• also
• but
• for
• in
• is
• of
• so
• which
• when
• was

In library databases, a stop word will not be searched even if it is included in a phrase enclosed in quotation marks.  In some instances, a word will be substituted for the stop word to allow for the other words in the phrase to be searched in proximity to one another within the text of the resource.

For example, if you searched company of America, your result list will include these variatons:

• company in America
• company of America
• company for America

This short video demonstrates how to create a search string -- keywords connected with Boolean operators -- to use in a library database search to retrieve relevant resources for any research assignment.