Library Tools at the Nurses\u27 Station: Exploring Information-Seeking Behaviors and Needs of Nurses in a War Veterans Nursing Home

Objectives: Analyze the information-seeking practices and identify the information and education needs of nurses in a war veterans nursing home. Develop an online toolkit for use at the nurses’ stations to meet nurses’ health information needs. Methods: Investigators employed mixed methods to determine the health information needs of the participating nurses at the skilled nursing facility using an online questionnaire and in-person observations. Resulting data was compared to determine how nurses’ self-reported data corresponded with investigator observations. Results: Twenty-seven out of a total of thirty-five nurses responded to the online questionnaire. The study principal investigator also observed a total of twelve nurses working across all shifts. The online questionnaire asked nurses to identify when they need health information for an acute clinical scenario. Nurses self-reported feeling most confident in assessing falls and pain, followed by medication adherence and skin integrity. Issues most frequently encountered during observation of nurses were falls, interventions surrounding cognitive ability or dementia, and use of antibiotics. Nurses reported and were observed to consult colleagues most frequently, followed by drug handbooks and relying on nursing experience. Conclusion: Nurses in skilled nursing facilities will benefit from ready online access to current drug handbooks as well as information resources surrounding commonly encountered clinical issues and stated needs. An outcome of this project is an online toolkit site using a LibGuide created specifically for this purpose. Researchers purchased laptop computers that were installed at each of the nurses’ stations to provide ready access to the toolkit site

We\u27re Virtually There: Providing Health Sciences Education and Wellness Through Virtual Reality Experiences

This is a presentation by Gail Kouame for the MLA 2022 Annual Meeting. This presentation describes two virtual reality projects undertaken by the Greenblatt Library at Augusta University in Augusta, Georgia. The first project is one that her two co-authors, Jenn Davis and Lachelle Smith, initiated. Jenn is the Data and Scholarship Librarian and Lachelle is the Allied Health Sciences Librarian. They wanted to figure out a way to introduce concepts surrounding data literacy and data management in a more engaging way. The primary objective of this project is to instruct graduate students in the health sciences disciplines on how to ethically manage data. The second project is a collaboration between the Greenblatt Library and the Medical College of Georgia, as well as the Augusta University School of Computer and Cyber Sciences and the Computer and Game Design and Development program at Kennesaw State University. Faculty members from the Medical College approached Mrs. Kouame to inquire about the possibility of designating a space in the library as a virtual reality room. They had been developing some virtual reality experiences to integrate into the curriculum for undergraduate medical students. These experiences are geared primarily to build empathy surrounding patients with vision impairments such as macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, or physical limitations resulting from Parkinson’s Disease or a stroke

Leveraging a Digital Platform to Address Health Literacy and Equity Needs of a Vulnerable Population: The Justice-Involved

This is a presentation given by Gail Koumae addressing the health disparities of incarcerated populations at the Wisconsin Health Literacy Summit in Madison Wisconsin

Rapid Response: Librarian Integration Into An Expedited Pandemic Medicine Elective

Objective: Describe how two librarians contributed to a new graduate medical school elective course developed dynamically in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Shortly after the COVID-19 outbreak, the Assistant Director for Research & Education Services attended a clerkship curriculum committee meeting for the medical college where a four-week Pandemic Medicine elective was proposed. Clerkship rotations were canceled due to the pandemic, so the elective would provide opportunities for graduate medical students to participate in service learning and contribute to pandemic response efforts. The leaders and faculty members who proposed the elective suggested five areas of focus: information services; mental health and wellness; PPE taskforce; supporting medical education; and telemedicine. Immediately after the meeting the librarian contacted those organizing the elective and offered to contribute, particularly to the information services component. Results: Both the Assistant Director for Research & Education Services and the Clinical Information Librarian were invited to serve as faculty advisors for the students leading the information services aspects of the elective. Much of the elective was student-driven, including daily COVID-19 and news updates, which were followed by lectures by faculty subject experts. The librarians attended weekly planning meetings with the information services group leaders, compiled lists of trustworthy resources for the students to consult, and performed literature searches. Within the information services area, the students chose to create relevant infographics in multiple languages, produce “mythbusters” information about COVID-19, develop a knowledge base from the literature using Zotero, and post a portal website. The website houses all the student-created content, along with local and national statistics about COVID-19. The website received recognition in the local press and university communication channels. Conclusions: Librarians were successfully integrated into a medical school elective course developed in response to the COVID-19 outbreak

We’re Virtually There: Providing Health Sciences Education and Wellness through Virtual Reality Experiences

Faculty librarians at the Greenblatt Library implemented two innovative approaches for incorporating virtual reality (VR) experiences in health sciences education. The first project involves using VR to develop an escape room that introduces players to research data management principles and best practices. The second project incorporates curriculum-based VR experiences developed for the university’s undergraduate medical students and makes them available through a public space in the health sciences library. The library is centrally located on campus and is open extended hours, allowing for increased access to the VR experiences. Additionally, because burnout and stress are common in the health sciences, relaxation experiences are also available for use

Shaping the Future of Education for the Medical Library Association

Objective: Inform health sciences information professionals about the newly developed structure for educational programming for the Medical Library Association (MLA) based on MLA’s Professional Competencies. Methods: MLA appointed the Education Steering Committee and six Education Curriculum Committees to develop education content based on the Association’s revised Professional Competencies. The Competencies provide the framework that define the skills to be gained as a result of educational offerings. The Education Curriculum Committees are charged with: 1. Designing and planning curriculum and educational offerings and resources; 2. Providing direction, expertise, and knowledge to creators and instructors of educational offerings with respect to content and instructional design; 3. Reviewing and assessing offerings to ensure they are high quality and current, meet learning outcomes, and have a succession plan. The work of the Curriculum Committees is shaped by the curriculum priorities document set forth by the Education Steering Committee, beginning with a “Bootcamp” that incorporates foundational offerings across the Competencies. Results: The Education Curriculum Committees suggest topics and speakers for MLA’s monthly webinars and for Continuing Education courses offered at the Association’s Annual Meetings. In the past year, Education Curriculum Committees have engaged with subject matter experts and with professional instructional designers to create online self-paced courses. A middle management symposium, sponsored by the Leadership & Management Education Curriculum Committee, was offered at the MLA 2019 Annual Meeting. Curriculum Committees are exploring other modes for providing educational content, such as podcasts, journal clubs or discussion groups. Existing courses and webinars are tagged with Professional Competencies in MEDLIB-ED, MLA’s continuing education portal. Conclusions: MLA’s Professional Competencies provide a meaningful framework for planning and organizing educational offerings. Education Curriculum Committees follow the curriculum priorities to plan their work, but also have flexibility to be innovative in suggesting other possible content and methods to support professional development and education for information professionals

Confronting Inequity: Social Justice Dialogue in a Health Science Library

Objective: To demonstrate how a departmental social justice discussion group was successful in achieving its purpose in introducing and discussing health-related social justice narratives and perspectives with personal meaning to each department member. Methods: In the aftermath George Floyd’s death, the Assistant Director of Research and Education Services at a health sciences library proposed devoting a portion of staff meetings to discuss issues in social justice and anti-racism. Each department member would generate a topic and organize readings or links to media in an internal LibGuide. Initially, there was a total of seven discussions, each lasting an average of twenty minutes. Each staff member described their motivation in selecting their topic and accompanying resources and led the subsequent discussion. Results: Discussion topics included white fragility, racial disparities surrounding leg amputations of Black diabetes patients in Mississippi, transracial adoption, local food deserts, white privilege in medical school education, black transgender violence and discrimination, and pipeline institutional racism. The readings and discussions revealed marginalized group perceptions and reality are not necessarily willingly acknowledged or addressed by the privileged group. The topic of food deserts was identified for follow-up action because of the need in the residential area adjacent to the health sciences campus. Conclusions: Participants felt the topics were timely, thought-provoking and useful in understanding current imbalances in social equity in health-related areas. Each department member could identify and share a social justice area of concern. Many of the topics are addressed in critical librarianship scholarship, and lessons from the discussions could be applied to increased understanding of, and service to, marginalized users of their library’s community. Team members agreed to continue the discussions at staff meetings once per month on broader diversity and social justice topics

Consumer Health Information from Both Sides of the Reference Desk

This article addresses issues surrounding the provision of consumer health information in public libraries. Barriers to the use of public libraries by health care consumers are explored. Once a person has decided to try the public library as an avenue for searching for health information, interactions with library staff may still pose some challenges, both for the library user and for the librarian at the reference desk. Perceptions of the library as a place for health information often differ. Awareness of these issues can be helpful for both parties. The National Network of Libraries of Medicine can assist with training, Web resources, and funding for projects involving health information outreach to consumers.published or submitted for publicatio