Librarians That Walk out of Library: a Novel Model of Clinical Education Incorporating Clinical Librarian

Evidence-based practice is among the five core competencies needed for healthcare professionals proposed by the Institute of Medicine. The axiom of evidence-based medicine (EBM) is using the best evidence as the base of clinical decision. However, healthcare professionals usually do not have adequate time or ability in literature search for the best evidence. Therefore, lots of Western hospitals provide clinical librarians (CLs) that join ward rounds and provide literature search service to acquire the best evidence for resolving clinical questions. However, CLs do not directly involve teaching activities. The objective of this project is to introduce CLs into clinical teaching and evaluate the resultant effectiveness of teaching. In the first year of this project, we will recruit five experts and use the modified Delphi method to develop students’ and teachers’ versions of the assessment scale of effectiveness of CL teaching. We will further conduct test-retest reliability and examine the intra-rater reliability by using the intraclass correlation coefficient. After the validation of the assessment scale, we will first introduce CL in bedside teaching. The attending physician will discuss and define a clinical question with the student. The student will conduct a literature search and then discuss with the attending physician on whether the search results can answer the clinical question. The CL will then intervene and instruct on the definition of PICO, MeSH terms and free text. They will conduct a second literature search using selected evidence-based medicine databases. The student and attending physician will discuss if the literature search assisted by CL can help resolving the clinical question, and compare the two search results. The student and teacher will fill in their respective version of the assessment scale of effectiveness of CL teaching. In the second year, we will introduce CL into teaching clinic where a rapid resolution of clinical questions is needed. In the third year, we will introduce CL in clinical teaching of two healthcare professionals, pharmacists and respiratory therapists. We will assess the effectiveness of CL teaching. We expect by conducting this research project, we will broaden the role of CL from information specialist to clinical educator, and will develop a CL teaching model that suits the busy clinical scenario in Taiwan.

Project ID:PF10601-0874
External Project ID:MOST105-2511-S182-004-MY2