Q. Hello, I am doing a literature review on the history of oral examinations as an educational assessment strategy in nursing education. I seem to be un

You can try terms like:

• oral assessment
• verbal exams (examinations)
• oral evaluation
• oral comprehensive exams

Also try a couple of different databases (I don't know which ones you are using now so you may have tried these already):

• CINAHL
• ProQuest Nursing
• ERIC
• Education Research Complete
• PsycArticles
• Google Scholar

You'll need to be careful in the nursing related databases because of the word "Oral." You might get a few articles about the mouth.

Also, it may be that no one has assessed this and written an article on the topic (nursing exams specifically).  You might have to find articles that discuss oral exams in general.

Have you found any articles or books on the subject?  If so, be sure to scour the bibliographies for more resources.

Try some of these out and if you still can't find anything call the library at 415-485-3251 and ask for a librarian to help you out.