Clinicalskills.Net trial last few days

There is still time for you to have a look at the Clinicalskills.Net package and give us your feedback. Staff in NHFT can find the details on the Hub and staff at NGH on the Street.

We really would like to know what you think to help us decided on whether we should subscribe. The trial runs until the 31st of March.

The Department of Health website has moved

The DoH is now on .GOV.UK

The Department of Health website has moved to GOV.UK.  The old web site address still works but will refer you to the new site.

However, links to DoH documents and other pages currently do not work (including those from the library catalogue), nor does there seem to be any content on the new site earlier than 2010. We'll update you when we know more about these issues.
  
Health content for the public will remain on NHS Choices.

There are new ways to search on GOV.UK including an advanced publications search that allows you to filter by keyword, publication type, topic, department and date. There is a similarly advanced announcements search that covers speeches, news and statements.

You can also sign up to RSS or email alerts on individual policies, across topics, or for a particular organisation.

So far 8 departments and 14 public bodies are live on GOV.UK. Several hundred arm’s length bodies will move their information to GOV.UK over the next year.

You can find out more about GOV.UK from the Government Digital Service here:

• Inside Government tour and introductory video
• Blog post: What is Inside Government?

New controlled trials search feature on TRIP

www.tripdatabase.com

The TRIP database has a new feature to filter your search results for controlled trials and exclude other types of research.

TRIP also has lots of other really useful features including a search option that allows you to construct your enquiry using the PICO (Patient ,Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) framework and lots of other filters to identify the type of information you are looking for.

The TRIP database is a flexible, easy to use, searching service linking to high quality medical information and we highly recommend it as a more sophisticated alternative to the NHS Evidence search.

Easter Opening

All the Libraries will be unstaffed on Friday the 29th of March and Monday the 1st of April for the Easter holidays.

24 hour access will be available as usual to registered members over the Easter period via our swipe card system at the Berrywood and Richmond Libraries.

We reopen as normal on Tuesday the 2nd at all of our sites.

Clinicalskills Net trial - still time to give your views

 As we previously mentioned in our Web Site of the Month feature, our trial of Clinicalskills.Net runs until the end of March, so there is still time for you to have a look at the package and give us your feedback.

Lots of staff have already told us their views but we are keen to have the widest possible feedback before deciding on if we should purchase it.

To gain access to Clinicalskills.net please see The Street for NGH staff or The Hub for NHFT staff, or contact one of the libraries.

We really would like to know what you think...

New Evidence Updates

NHS Evidence has published two new evidence updates.

Common mental disorders offers a summary of new clinical evidence in relation to NICE Guideline 123 ‘Common mental health disorders: identification and pathways to care’

Hypertension reviews the evidence is relation to clinical guideline 127 ‘Clinical management of primary hypertension in adults’

Evidence Updates do not replace current accredited guidance and do not provide formal recommendations, but they do highlight new evidence that health and social care professionals may wish to consider alongside current guidance.

You can find all of the previous updates on the NHS Evidence site.

New ebook - Drugs in Pregnancy & Lactation now available

Drugs in Pregnancy and Lactation: A Reference Guide to Fetal and Neonatal Risk by Briggs, Freeman & Yaffe is now available online.

We also have Drugs During Pregnancy and Lactation: Treatment Options and Risk Assessment by Schaeffer as an ebook which you can find here.

To access the books you will need an NHS Athens password (NHS staff and attached students can register online).  You can of course find all of our stock on our catalogue.

Fags for swag! No Smoking Day Wednesday 13th of March

No Smoking Day has a new campaign this year - swap fags for swag. The campaign looks at what smokers can gain by giving up. As well as the health benefits, smokers can save a fortune on the ever increasing cost of tobacco.

This year smokers are being encouraged to focus on what they could afford to buy if they were to quit. A 20 a day smoker by giving up for a day  would save £7, a week £49, a month £210 and by quitting for a year, a massive £2,555. 

The WeQuit site has lots of information on it for those who decide to stop smoking, including this handy savings calculator. Just input the number of cigarettes you smoke per day or per week and see how much you could save.

Health professionals can find more information about the campaign, including resources like images, tips on No Smoking Day events, leaflets & posters, and much more on the National No Smoking Day site. 

You can also find local information on the NHFT web site and the NHS Northampton & Milton-Keynes Goodbye Smoke page, including locally available support services and the very contemporary Fags4Swag NHS Harlem Shake video.

Updated study shows the value of medical libraries

A study published in the Journal of the Medical Library Association shows the impact medical libraries can have on patient care. 

"The value of library and information services in patient care"* reported that 3/4s of 16,122 survey respondents (a variety of clinicians) said that as a result of using information from a library they had definitely or probably changed aspects of patient care as a result.

The changes reported included patient advice (48%), diagnosis (25%), choices of drugs or other treatment (33% and 31%). 95% said the information resulted in a better clinical decision.

The survey also showed that the use of libraries allowed clinicians to avoid adverse events including additional tests (19%), misdiagnosis (13%), adverse drug reactions or medication errors (13% and 12%) and patient mortality (6%).

Clinicians also commented on the value of having access to professional librarians who can assist with patient  care, either through the provision of evidence based literature searches, or through training in the most effective use of information resources.

* Marshall, J.G. Sollenberger,  S. Easterby-Gannett, L.K. et al, (2013) The Value of Library and Information Services in Patient Care: Results from a Multisite Study, Journal of the Medical Library Association 101(1) 38-46.  Available from www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3543128/

Web site of the month: trial of Clinicalskills.Net - your views needed

For the whole of March we are having a trial of Clinicalskills.Net and would really value your feedback.

Clinicalskills.Net is an on-line service that holds sets of illustrated clinical skills guidelines. It is designed to  help you understand the principles of a particular skill.

The information about best practice for over 160 procedures is delivered in a highly accessible format using clear graphics supported by text and references. Because clinicalskills.net is highly illustrated, it is very user friendly. It can also help to facilitate study for those whose first language is not English and those returning to work after a break.

All procedures featured are evidence-based with numerous click-through links to valuable national guidance and other published papers.

Clincalskills.Net could be of value for nurses, HCAs, AHPs, medical students, junior doctors, educators and more.

You can find the log in details for the site at any of our libraries. Alternatively, if you have access to the Northamptonshire Healthcare or Northampton General Hospital  Intranet sites (the Hub and the Street), you can find the details on our pages there.