2. Librarians & Information Skills
Training
The key role of any library is to ensure that the right
information is provided at the right time to the right
person.
We have a responsibility to ensure that our users are
equipped with the skills and confidence to locate,
retrieve and evaluate the relevant information.
In evidence based practice it is crucial that information
professionals know how to search for good quality
information and are able to appraise the content they
find.
3.
4. ‘It is the responsibility of the LKS to
disseminate information skills to encourage
staff to practice evidence based medicine’-
Journal of Medical Library Association, 2008.
ABMU Mission Statement- ‘To provide access
to high quality and appropriate library
services and resources to support patient
care, education, research and lifelong
learning for staff and students of ABMU HB’.
5. Information skills training we
can offer:
How to to search effectively:
For nurses- Cinahl
For doctors- Medline and Embase
Using evidence based resources- Cochrane Library
Search Google Scholar
Using point of care tools- Clinical Key
Using NHS Wales E-Library & Open Athens
6. Information Skills Training
How to evaluate information:
Critical appraisal
Journal Clubs
How to use reference software:
Endnote
RefMe
Also Need to stay up to date with latest developments in
health care and emerging technologies
7. Approaches To Training
1. Diverse users:
- Different information needs
- Different levels of confidence and ability
- Different learning styles
2. Time limitations:
- Pressure & time constraints
8. Ensure that a wide range of training options are
available:
One to one sessions, pre-booked or on an ad hoc
basis.
Group sessions, which can be interactive to engage
clinicians
E-learning
Screen Sharing
Instructional guides
Screen casting
9. Marketing:
Intranet
Website
Training Leaflets
Word of mouth
Inductions
Evaluation:
Training sessions are evaluated. Feedback forms
provided to participants.
10. Summary
1. Ensure users are confident in using information
resources to support evidence based practice.
2. There is a wide variety of information training that we
can offer and the exciting challenge for us is to stay up
to date with information trends and best practices.
3. To overcome time constraints it is important that we
are flexible with regards to the kinds of training that
we offer.
Before I start I’d like to say a big thank you for inviting me to interview here today my name is Rhys and I’m currently working as a Library Technician at Prince Charles in Merthyr. I’m going to give you my take on health librarians and information skills training. So as regards information skills training for clinical staff. Firstly I’ll say a little bit about why I think health librarians are the best people for the job. I’ll then go on to talk the various kinds of training we can offer before finally going through the various methods we can use.
The key role of any library be it public, academic, legal or health is to ensure that the right information is provided at the right time to the right person.
Coming from a background in public libraries one of things I have always been extremely passionate about and what attracted me to the job in the first place is the role that librarians play in developing information skills and literacy among their users. Particularly now In the information age in which we live. I heard an incredibly statistic the other day when someone told me that every 2 days as a planet we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilisation up to 2003.
With this ever-growing body of information being increasingly made available we have a fundamental responsibility as librarians to ensure that our users are equipped with the skills and confidence to locate, retrieve and evaluate this information.
Information literacy isn’t a term that gets a used a lot in the health sector but the concept is widely recognised as it forms a major component of evidence-based medicine. As we can see here the concepts are almost identical by definition.
In a health context It is crucial that health professionals know how to search for good quality information and they need to be able to appraise the content they find. This is time consuming for clinical staff and is not an easy skill to learn. Added to all this is the fact that medical information is increasing at a phenomenal rate, making it easy for clinicians to feel frustrated or pressurised. It is in this environment that a health librarian can step in and give them the support they need.
With skills in information retrieval- librarians are ideally suited to providing information skills training to clinical staff. There’s the famous Neil Gaiman famous quote: ‘Google can bring you back 100,000 answers but a librarian can bring you back the right one’.
I know health libraries recognise this role they have to play. It is the responsibility of the LKS to disseminate information skills to encourage staff to practice Evidence Based Medicine- Journal of Medical Library Association, 2008. I know from ABMU mission statement ‘To provide access to high quality and appropriate library services and resources to support to support patient care, education, research and lifelong learning for staff and students of ABMU HB’- providing information skills training is a vital part of that.
As a service there is an incredibly wide variety of information skills courses we can offer staff and students of ABMU.
I think as librarians we have a duty to keep up to date with the latest developments in health care and keep an eye out for new training opportunities.
For example with the NMC Revalidation taking effect from April 2016- we could use this as an opportunity to provide training in reflective writing and practice to help nurses through the revalidation process.
We also Keep up to date with evolving needs of clinicians and stay up to date with the latest technologies and apps as they become available. I think that is one of the most exciting things about our profession at the moment. Obviously there’s a big drive towards the development of numerous health apps. Clinical Key, Uptodate and the BNF all offer apps at the moment and I think we will continue to see more and more resources being made available in this way in the future. I think health librarians will certainly have role in the near future providing training in the latest mobile technologies.
When considering the approaches we take toward training I think there are two important factors that we first need to consider.
Diverse customers- that the term clinical staff refers to a broad and diverse workforce all with varying levels of confidence and ability with regards to information skills all with different specialities seeking different kinds of information and with different individual responses to different kinds of training.
Second factor to consider is of course the enormous time constraints which all clinicians face- there will always be more patients to see and more paperwork to be done so clinicians will always be hard pressed to find evidence to support decision making.
I believe the best way for us as health librarians to address these factors is to take a flexible approach to information skills training and the way in which we deliver it. We do this by providing skills training via a wide range of methods. So not just using traditional methods like this within the library.
We need to be proactive and go out into ward and departmental venues.
We need to ensure that clinicians know that there is a wide range of training option available to them. From one-to-one sessions that can be pre-booked or on an ad hoc basis. As a library assistant in Prince Charles I see opportunities arise everyday to offer impromptu training- when users ask for information on a certain book or topic- if its convenient for them I can pull them to one side and show them how to use the catalogue or a particular database.
Of course we offer group sessions- and we can make these interactive to really try to engage clinicians.
E-Learning- I know that AWHILES e-learning subgroup is developing information skills modules online for clinicians.
We can also offer virtual support using screen sharing software- allowing the trainer to access the clinicians desktop so users wouldn’t even need to come in to the library.
We can produce written guides in the more traditional sense with instructions as to how to use certain databases and to search effectively.
I’m a particular fan of using screen casting software which is freely available online to produce visual guides by making video recordings.
The important thing is that we provide clinicians with a wide range of options so they can choose the method that is right for them and that best suits their individual learning style.
Just as important as delivering the actual sessions and developing the relevant learning materials is the way in which we market and then evaluate the sessions.
It is a key role for us as health librarians is to ensure that users are confident in using the information resources that we provide to support evidence based practice. As we dedicate ever increasing amounts of our resources towards databases and electronic resources it is vital that we ensure that our users are confident in using them effectively. As a cataloguer if you can’t find the record for the book it might as well not exist at all. Same principle here If our electronic resources are not being used or are not being used effectively then they might as well not exist at all.
There is an incredibly wide variety of information training that we can provide to support our clinicians and the exciting challenge for us is to keep up to date with trends and best practices.
To overcome the two biggest challenges we face in terms of providing information skills training which is the diversity of our users and the pressures and time constraints placed upon them it is essential that we are as flexible as possible in the styles and methods of training that we offer. Finally, I followed a Twitter chat the other day specifically regarding health librarians and training and someone said that by being as friendly and approachable as possible to our users we can be our own most effective tool as our users will always feel comfortable approaching and coming to us with any issues that they might have and having that strong relationship between ourselves and our users is what we’re really aiming for.