UK survey demonstrates a wide range of impacts attributable to clinical librarian services

OBJECTIVE

To understand the impact of the UK Clinical Librarian (CL) workforce and benchmark the results against a study undertaken in the North West region of the English National Health Service (NHS).

METHODS

An online survey was distributed by CLs to their service users regarding literature searches that had been carried out on their behalf in the 6 months from April to October 2017. Interviews were later carried out in person with selected respondents to the questionnaires.

RESULTS

CLs across the UK contribute to a wide range of outcomes, with 41% of search requests contributing to the choice of intervention, and 41% also to the advice offered by the clinician requester to a patient or their carer. These results are in line with the previous work undertaken in the North West.

DISCUSSION

CLs provide diverse services to clinical teams. They support the continuing professional development and personal research needs of team members, service development needs of organisations, and the information provided contributes to improved quality and safety of patient care.

CONCLUSION

The survey confirms the findings of the earlier NW study. It demonstrates the impact of services based around literature searching on patient care.

Developing a generic tool to routinely measure the impact of health libraries

BACKGROUND

Health libraries contribute to many activities of a health care organisation. Impact assessment needs to capture that range of contributions.

OBJECTIVES

To develop and pilot a generic impact questionnaire that: (1) could be used routinely across all English NHS libraries; (2) built on previous impact surveys; and (3) was reliable and robust.

METHODS

This collaborative project involved: (1) literature search; (2) analysis of current best practice and baseline survey of use of current tools and requirements; (3) drafting and piloting the questionnaire; and (4) analysis of the results, revision and plans for roll out.

FINDINGS

The framework selected was the International Standard Methods And Procedures For Assessing The Impact Of Libraries (ISO 16439). The baseline survey (n = 136 library managers) showed that existing tools were not used, and impact assessment was variable. The generic questionnaire developed used a Critical Incident Technique. Analysis of the findings (n = 214 health staff and students), plus comparisons with previous impact studies indicated that the questionnaire should capture the impact for all types of health libraries.

CONCLUSIONS

The collaborative project successfully piloted a generic impact questionnaire that, subject to further validation, should apply to many types of health library and information services.

NExT: creating an interdisciplinary alliance to diminish informational barriers for public health nursing

BACKGROUND

Public health nurses (PHNs) are challenged in obtaining opportunities to learn evidence-based practice (EBP). An interdisciplinary alliance was created between health sciences librarians and nurse educators to create a continuing education (CE) opportunity.

OBJECTIVE

To measure the effectiveness of CE training for PHNs on the knowledge gained about the EBP process and information resources.

METHODS

Ten in-person CE workshops were offered to 69 attendees in rural and urban areas. A pre-test/post-test survey was administered immediately before and after the training that asked participants to rate their perceived knowledge and comfort levels with EBP concepts and resources.

RESULTS

Ninety-seven per cent of participants reported the training was a good use of their time. Based on a 5-point Likert scale self-assessment, participants developed new skills (m = 4.06, SD = 0.968) and were able to find evidence-based literature (m = 4.16, SD = 0.980). Participants reported increasing their understanding of EBP concepts and familiarity of information resources. All data were statistically significant at P < 0.001 (95% CI).

DISCUSSION

With the interdisciplinary collaboration capitalising on the instructors' disciplinary skill sets, the team was able to create a new effective EBP education intervention for PHNs.

CONCLUSION

Public health nurses were able to increase knowledge of EBP concepts and information resources to utilise in practice or grant development.

Peer review at the Health Information and Libraries Journal

At its best, peer review can mean receiving constructive feedback to help you make the most of your writing. At the Health Information and Libraries Journal, we strive to make the peer review a positive process for both authors and referees. We adopt a process of double-blind peer review. To receive two reviews in a timely manner, three referees are initially invited for each article submitted. The referees are asked to submit their review noting errors, areas of ambiguity or clarification required before the editor and editorial team consider the manuscript ready for publication. As with most journals, it's unlikely that your writing will be accepted in its original form; a typical outcome will be for a recommendation for major or minor revisions. This is good! It means the editorial team has seen something of likely interest to their readership and wants to help you develop it to a publishable standard. There can be a surprising amount of development and change in a manuscript from original submission through to publication. While you may be experienced in your field, you may not have much experience of writing for publication. As a referee, you get an intriguing insight into the shape of manuscripts in their original form.