The following tips are from Maribeth Slebodnik, University of Arizona.
Here are some ideas for searching CINAHL for nursing theories:
If you are searching PubMed, you can use the same process to find nursing theory articles. The MeSH subject headings in PubMed are Nursing Theory or Nursing Model - combine them with OR plus distinctive words from the theory name for the best results.
If you are using a theory that is not from the nursing literature, you may need to look in other databases for relevant articles. You can look in the database thesaurus for subject headings for the theory, or try the theory name in quotation marks as a keyword search.
For educational theories, try the ERIC database.
For behavioral or educational theories, try the PsycINFO database.