Using research evidence in mental health: user-rating and focus group study of clinicians’ preferences for a new clinical question-answering service

'Personalised evidence' for personalised healthcare: integration of a clinical librarian into mental health services - a feasibility study

Aims and method To evaluate the feasibility of integrating a clinical librarian (CL) within four mental health teams. A CL was attached to three clinical teams and the Trustwide Psychology Research and Clinical Governance Structure for 12 months. Requests for evidence syntheses were recorded. The perceived impact of individual evidence summaries on staff activities was evaluated using a brief online questionnaire.

Results Overall, 82 requests for evidence summaries were received: 50% related to evidence for individual patient care, 23% to generic clinical issues and 27% were on management/corporate topics. In the questionnaires 105 participants indicated that the most common impact on their practice was advice given to colleagues (51 respondents), closely followed by the evidence summaries stimulating new ideas for patient care or treatment (50 respondents).

Clinical implications The integration of a CL into clinical and corporate teams is feasible and perceived as having an impact on staff activities. A CL may be able to collate ‘personalised evidence’ which may enhance individualised healthcare. In some cases the usual concept of a hierarchy of evidence may not easily apply, with case reports providing guidance which may be more applicable than population-based studies.

Clinician knowledge and utilization of empirically-supported treatments for maltreated children

Efforts to disseminate empirically-supported treatments (ESTs) for maltreated children are confronted with numerous challenges, and the success of these efforts is unclear. The current study reports on the results of a nationwide survey of 262 clinicians serving maltreated children in the United States. From a provided list, clinicians were asked to identify interventions they believed possessed adequate empirical support, as well as the interventions they commonly used, were trained to use, or would like to receive training to use. Results showed that clinicians generally are unable to identify ESTs, and many of the interventions clinicians reported most commonly using and being trained to use are not typically considered to be empirically-supported (with the exception of Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy). Greater ability to accurately identify ESTs was predicted by favorable attitudes toward evidence-based practice; however, beliefs that non-ESTs were empirically-supported were best predicted by training background (e.g., professional discipline, education level, and theoretical orientation). Finally, regression analyses found that the interventions clinicians identified as empirically-supported predicted the interventions in which clinicians received training, which in turn predicted the interventions commonly used. Implications of these findings for dissemination and policy are discussed.

Meeting the challenges of clinical information provision

This virtual issue of the Health Information and Libraries Journal (HILJ) has been compiled to mark the 5th International Clinical Librarian Conference 2011. In considering the challenges of clinical information provision, the content selected for the virtual issue offers an international flavour of clinical information provision and covers a variety of different facets of clinical librarianship. The issue broadly covers the areas of information needs and preferences, clinical librarian roles and services, and education and training, and reflects the way in which a normal issue of the HILJ would be presented. This includes a review article, a collection of original articles, and the three regular features which comprise International Perspectives and Initiatives, Learning and Teaching in Action, and Using Evidence in Practice. All papers included in this virtual issue are available free online.