Evaluating the impact of clinical librarians on clinical questions during inpatient rounds

Clinical Inquiry and Problem Identification

This is the second article in a new series designed to provide readers with insight into educating nurses about evidence-based decision-making. It builds on AJN's award-winning previous series-Evidence-Based Practice, Step by Step and EBP 2.0: Implementing and Sustaining Change (to access both series, go to http://links.lww.com/AJN/A133). This follow-up series will address how to teach and facilitate learning about the evidence-based practice (EBP) and quality improvement (QI) processes and how they impact health care quality. This series is relevant for all nurses interested in EBP and QI, especially DNP faculty and students. The brief case scenario included in each article describes one DNP student's journey.

Essential Services of Clinical Librarians in Academic and Health Care Settings: A Cross-Sectional Study

This article provides a comprehensive summary of clinical librarian service models in the US, Canada, and the UK from a cross-sectional study. An online survey received 182 responses from clinical librarians in hospital (62%), academic (26%), and other (10%) libraries. These clinical librarians shared the services they provide, patrons they work with, and their perceptions of the value they add to clinical environments. Overall, this study quantifies the services offered most frequently by clinical librarians, the services felt to be most valuable, and the variety of health care clientele whom clinical librarians serve. These findings have implications for current clinical librarians, libraries and health care institutions, and for those who may become clinical librarians in the future.

Evaluation of literature searching and article selection skills of an evidence-based practice team

Background

An evidence-based practice (EBP) team at an academic medical center supports the development of evidence-based hospital policies and protocols via "Evidence Briefs." An early career librarian was added to the EBP team to meet increased requests for Evidence Briefs, which provided an opportunity to initiate a quality improvement (QI) analysis, improve work flow, and cross-train staff on literature searching and article selection skills.

Case Presentation

This QI project evaluated literature searching and article selection skills of an early career librarian (less than 2 years' experience), a mid-career librarian (more than 10 years' experience), and a critical appraisal expert. This project examined 10 Evidence Brief requests completed within a 6-month period. Analysis of each individual's performance of literature searching and article selection was completed for each Evidence Brief. Across all Evidence Brief requests, the mid-career librarian performed the most comprehensive literature searches and captured the highest number of articles that ultimately ended up being included in Evidence Briefs (75%). The critical appraisal expert performed best on the article selection portion of the project and identified the highest number of relevant articles that were included in Evidence Briefs (74%).

Conclusions

This project provided a formalized method of assessing the literature searching and article selection skills of each member of the EBP team. This project illustrated the skill level of each individual and led to improvements in the Evidence Brief request work flow.

Exploring interprofessional collaboration and attitudes of health sciences librarians

Objective:

This study assessed health sciences librarians' attitudes toward interprofessional collaboration using the Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale (IEPS) and gathered information on their involvement with interprofessional activities.

Methods:

The authors sent a survey to librarians in the Medical Library Association's (MLA's) Interprofessional Education Special Interest Group and Research Section consisting of the IEPS and questions about their prior and current experiences with interprofessional practice and education (IPE). We compared mean IEPS scores between each MLA group and several other demographic factors to assess differences in attitudes. We also compared librarians' IEPS scores with those of previously published health professional students' IEPS scores and thematically analyzed two open-ended questions.

Results:

Health sciences librarians' scores on the IEPS indicated positive attitudes toward IPE. There were no statistically significant differences between any group. Health sciences librarians' mean IEPS score was similar to the mean score of health professions students from a prior study. The most commonly reported interprofessional activity was teaching or facilitating learning activities for health professions students; fewer served on committees or engaged in non-curricular activities such as grand rounds and book clubs.

Conclusion:

Health sciences librarians in this study reported positive attitudes toward IPE, in line with the majority of other previously studied health professionals. Years of experience, previous health professional careers, and experience supporting IPE as a librarian had little bearing on the responses to the survey. This suggests that health sciences librarians have positive attitudes toward IPE, regardless of whether they directly support IPE programs or participate in interprofessional activities.

The Research Role of the Librarian at a Community Health Hackathon - A Technical Report

A hackathon is a social event that is focused on building small and innovative technology projects. The 2018 Hackathon hosted by the Washington State University (WSU) Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine aimed to solve rural health problems in Washington state. One major modification to the regular format of a healthcare hackathon was the inclusion of research librarians. Librarians with health sciences and business expertise provided research and library services at a designated Research Station, which included literature, patent, and internet searches. Participant and hackathon librarian observations, verbal feedback, and librarian survey results demonstrate the positive value/outcome of library services to the health hackathon winners. The winning hackathon teams used the services by the Research Station extensively. Areas of strength for this event included collaboration between librarians, promotion of library services, and efficient information retrieval. Areas for improvement included making regular contact with hackathon teams during the event and clearer signage and marketing.

Health science librarianship: An opportunity for nurses

Health science librarianship may interest nurses inclined toward research, technology, and education. This article discusses the role of health science librarians as part of the clinical team.

Report from the Medical Library Association's InSight Initiative Summit 2: Meeting the Evolving Information Needs of Library Stakeholders

At the Medical Library Association’s InSight Initiative Summit 2, held September 27–28, 2018, academic and hospital librarians joined with publishing industry partners to develop a deeper shared understanding of technology- and social interaction–driven changes in how health sciences researchers and clinicians discover and consume information in their fields. Through a mixture of keynote talks, a panel discussion with health care professionals, and small-group problem-solving exercises, the summit program invited participants to collaboratively develop strategies for helping users recognize the value of curated or peer-reviewed content obtained through institutional access channels. Themes of the summit included the existence of different user modes of information discovery and access, user reliance on professional societies and Twitter as information sources, the extent to which smartphones are used to find medical information, the importance of inducing disorienting dilemmas in library users that cause them to recognize librarians as true partners in information seeking and research, the dangers of depending on non-curated information, and the need for publishers and librarians to work together to ease barriers to access and enrich the user experience.