When a Course Asks for Chicago
Most nursing programs use APA, so Chicago is the exception. You may meet it in a history of nursing or health-care course, a bioethics or philosophy elective, a health humanities seminar, or a course taught by a history or English department. Your syllabus should say which of the two systems to use. If it only says "Chicago", ask.
Check the edition. This guide follows the 17th edition. A newer edition of The Chicago Manual of Style has since been published, and small details can differ. Confirm which edition your instructor expects. All examples here are illustrative: copy details from your own sources and follow your program's requirements.
Notes and Bibliography: How It Works
You place a superscript number in the text. A matching note at the foot of the page (a footnote) or the end of the paper (an endnote) gives the source details. A bibliography at the end lists every source alphabetically.
- First note for a source gives the full citation, with the author's name in normal order and the details in commas and brackets.
- Later notes for the same source use a shortened form: author surname, short title, page.
- Ibid. is permitted in the 17th edition but discouraged; shortened notes are preferred.
- Bibliography entries invert the first author's name and use full stops between elements.
- Titles use headline-style capitalisation in both systems.
A shortened later note looks like this: Nguyen and Okafor, "Bedside Handover," 47.
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Notes-Bibliography Examples
Journal article
Note
1. Tran H. Nguyen and Chidi A. Okafor, "Bedside Handover and Patient Safety: A Scoping Review," Journal of Example Nursing 12, no. 3 (2021): 45, https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx.
Bibliography
Nguyen, Tran H., and Chidi A. Okafor. "Bedside Handover and Patient Safety: A Scoping Review." Journal of Example Nursing 12, no. 3 (2021): 40–52. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx.
Book or book-length report
Note
2. Institute of Medicine, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2011), xx, https://doi.org/10.17226/12956.
Bibliography
Institute of Medicine. The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2011. https://doi.org/10.17226/12956.
Web page
Note
3. "Hand Hygiene Guidance for Care Settings," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, last reviewed March 4, 2024, https://www.cdc.gov/xxxxx.
Bibliography
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Hand Hygiene Guidance for Care Settings." Last reviewed March 4, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/xxxxx.
Chicago asks for an access date only when the page shows no publication or revision date. Add it in the form "accessed March 4, 2025."
Report
Note
4. World Health Organization, Title of the Report in Headline Style, Report no. xx (Geneva: World Health Organization, 2021), xx, https://www.who.int/xxxxx.
Bibliography
World Health Organization. Title of the Report in Headline Style. Report no. xx. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2021. https://www.who.int/xxxxx.
Include a report number only if the report has one. The "xx" values stand for page and report numbers you must copy from your own source.
The Author-Date System
Here the citation sits in brackets in the text: author surname, year, and page if needed, with no comma between name and year. The full entries appear in a list titled References or Reference List, alphabetical by author, with the year placed straight after the author's name.
| Situation | In-text form |
|---|
| One or two authors | (Nguyen and Okafor 2021, 45) |
| Three authors | (Nguyen, Okafor, and Lee 2021) |
| Four or more authors | (Nguyen et al. 2021) |
| Organisation as author | (Institute of Medicine 2011) |
Author-Date Examples
Journal article
Nguyen, Tran H., and Chidi A. Okafor. 2021. "Bedside Handover and Patient Safety: A Scoping Review." Journal of Example Nursing 12 (3): 40–52. https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx.
Book
Institute of Medicine. 2011. The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/12956.
Web page
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2024. "Hand Hygiene Guidance for Care Settings." Last reviewed March 4, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/xxxxx.
Report
World Health Organization. 2021. Title of the Report in Headline Style. Report no. xx. Geneva: World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/xxxxx.
Notice that the year moves up next to the author, and the journal volume and issue are written as 12 (3) rather than "12, no. 3".
Quick Checklist
- Do you know which of the two systems your instructor wants?
- Are footnote numbers in order, placed after punctuation, and matched to a note?
- Did you use shortened notes after the first full citation?
- Is the bibliography or reference list alphabetical, with a hanging indent?
- Did you copy page numbers and DOIs from the source and not guess them?
Whichever system you use, follow your institution's academic-integrity policy. The plagiarism guide explains how to quote and paraphrase safely.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Chicago used in nursing schools?
Not often for core nursing courses, which usually favour APA. It turns up in history, ethics and humanities courses that nursing students take.
Footnotes or endnotes?
Either is acceptable in Chicago, but your instructor may prefer one. Word processors number both automatically, so let the software handle the numbering.
Which system is easier?
Author-date is quicker to write because there are no notes, while notes-bibliography keeps the text uncluttered and suits heavy citation of primary sources. Use whichever your course specifies.
Do I need both notes and a bibliography?
Usually yes. Some instructors accept full notes without a bibliography for short papers, but ask before leaving it out.