Outreach librarians: the view from the NHSSarah Lewis, Clinical Outreach LibrarianBuckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust

Integrated Trust – acute and community, split into 5 clinical divisions

2 acute hospitals – Aylesbury (includes A&E) and High Wycombe

5 community hospitals including Thame, Oxon Almost 6000 staff Covers all of Buckinghamshire except Milton Keynes National Spinal Injuries Centre – home of the

paralympics Keogh Review

About Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust

Based in Postgraduate Education Centre at Stoke Mandeville Hospital

7 staff (3 part time) – includes library manager and 3WTE qualified librarians

Outreach librarians assigned to support specific clinical teams

Funded partly by Health Education Thames Valley Wessex and Trust contributions

Many of our online resources are purchased at national or regional level

Many of our library users or potential library users are not based at Stoke Mandeville and/or do not have ready access to PCs

Many staff have not studied for a long time / not confident in their IT skills

We also support GP practices in Bucks

About the library

Who I am and what my job is

Clinical Outreach LibrarianLead on library support for:

• Clinical Divisions of Integrated Medicine and also Integrated Elderly Care

• Issues that relate to nursing staff in the Trust regardless of division

• GP practices and community based staff• Library training programme

Support means:• Literature searches on behalf of staff for patient

care, guidelines, audits, research• Training –literature searching, critical appraisal, study

skills• Outreach – presentations, inductions, pop up libraries,

ward rounds• Support at journal clubs

Where I came from

Graduate Trainee, University

College Suffolk

1996-1997

Included 3 months in nursing library, Ipswich Hospital

MA Library &

Information Studies, Loughborou

gh University

Dissertation on clinical librarianship (librarians on ward rounds)which led to the first successful UK clinical librarian service in Leicester

1997-1998

Junior Subject Librarian:

Theology & Distance Learning,

Westminster College, Oxford –

later OBU

1998-2001

Copyright clearance for distance learning resource packs; liaison with academic departments; literature searches; support for summer schools; basic internet skills training; Chartership

Knowledge Support

Librarian, Southern Health NHS Foundation

Trust

Ward rounds in medium secure unit for mentally ill offenders; library site manager – including 1 move and 1 closure; 2 weeks in Ghana supporting library at Kintampo Rural Health Training School; Regional Athens administrator

Mental health Librarian,

Berkshire Shared Services

Literature searches, current awareness, training, visits to community sites, library site move; literature search protocols for NHS researchers ; website design

2001-2006

2006-2013

A day in the life of a clinical outreach

librarian…

…is a decision between the chair

or the trolley (would like to say

ipad but…)

A day in the life of… Or my to do list

Skills and attributes of an outreach librarian

From To ToResponding to search requests

Generating searches Anticipating searches

Sending lots of results Highly focussed selectionsSending unordered lists Grading results by quality of

evidenceSummarising results

Staying in the library Going out to clinical settings to understand context

Receiving ‘thank you’ emails Evaluating impact of searches7 day deadlines 48 hour turnaround Some sameday

deadlines3 or 4 searches a month Sometimes 20 or more searches a month

Development of searching skills

Development of training skills

From To ToBasic internet searching Literature searching Appraising

quality of evidence / statistics

Face to face training Using technology to deliver training

Training in the library Delivering training in clinical settings

Remote/online training

‘Wing it’ style training Formal session planning and evaluation

Just power point presentations

Facilitating groups / Prezi

Generic content Tailored to individual interests / skill level

Development of marketing skills

From To ToWorking mainly in the library in reactive, supportive role

Marketing yourself by being more visible in the Trust

Gaining the trust of clinical staff for them to see you as a valued colleague

Ready made marketing materials from national source and using generic promotional resources

Design and plan own marketing materials which can be targeted to specific staff groups

From creating library displays and hosting events in the library

Hosting stands at conferences, inductions, pop up libraries

Getting involved Trust-wide events

Leaflets, emails and websites Social media Apps?Focussing on promoting our traditional library services

Promoting our general information skills applicable to other areas

Promoting new books received in the library

Highlighting e-books – QR codes etc

Subject –based alerting services by email

RSS feeds / Netvibes/ Yahoo Pipes Highly personalised, high impact CA using collaborative database

Five year Forward plan - extending integrated working between GPs, social care, acute care

Revalidation for nurses as well as doctors NHS planning becomes more localised 7 day working Staff recruitment & retention Efficiency and value for money Ageing population with comorbidities Personalised care Quality and safety agenda Privatisation Research agenda Telehealthcare Expert patients More care at home rather than hospital

Looking to the future…the NHS Agenda

NHS libraries are going to have to work leaner & smarter, become more digital, more persuasive and diversify to meet these needs and to be seen as an essential service

Ask

Find

AppraiseApply

Evaluate

How will my role develop in the future?

Evidence-based practice cycle

Literature searches• Making increasingly

diffuse sources of information easier to discover – eg mobile apps, clinical information systems

• More support for patient/carer groups – what are their information needs?

• More complex searches relating to patients with co-morbidities

Increasing role in helping staff to overcome barriers in putting evidence into practice – coaching skills

• Develop techniques/software/ use data analytics to summarise findings more easily and for more searches

Greater understanding of research methodology to help staff measure effectiveness of initiatives and also to measure library impact

Participate in Trust projects which encourage innovation – understand the process of launching a new idea and getting it on the commercial market

How will my role develop in the future?

We have an objective but undervalued view of different issues faced by teams across the whole organisation (from IT to clinical audit to research to GP practices) and barriers to the seamless flow of information

Knowledge Management

Knowledge for Healthcare: a development framework, 2014

http://hee.nhs.uk/wp-content/blogs.dir/321/files/2014/12/Knowledge-for-healthcare-framework.pdf

“The healthcare library and knowledge workforce requires enhanced skills, including synthesising information, knowledge management, marketing, website design and usability testing”

The national view

National training programme

How do we develop our skills so we can harness the power of cognitive computing whilst retaining our value as information professionals?

And coming in the not too distant future…

Sarah.lewis@buckshealthcare.nhs.uk01296 315427www.buckshealthcare.nhs.uk/libraryhttp://buckshealthcare.nhs.libguides.com/library

Contact details