UpToDate LIVE - free training for NGH staff

Whether you are an experienced consultant, a new junior doctor, a nurse or midwife, a pharmacist or AHP, UpToDate is a valuable resource enabling you to access high quality evidenced-based information when you need it. 

UpToDate LIVE is a free one hour Teams training session available to all NGH staff covering how to get the best from the system.

The sessions are aimed at all clinical staff and will be running from August until December. Each session will be delivered by a member of the Wolters Kluwer team.

Join one of our free 60-minute LIVE sessions to learn more about UpToDate, including:

• Creating an account
• Earning and submitting CPD including Federation of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the UK
• Conducting a normal/advanced search
• Customising your UpToDate homepage
• Help reduce medication errors with our Drug Interactions tool
• COVID-19 common questions and answers
• What's New & Practice Changing Updates
• Patient engagement/safety

To book on a session simply pick the date that suits you, click the link, and register online:

• Wednesday 10th August 2pm 
• Wednesday 24th August 2pm
• Monday 12th September 6 pm
• Wednesday 5th October 2 pm
• Wednesday 19th October 3 pm
• Wednesday 16th November 2 pm
• Wednesday 30th November 2 pm
• Wednesday 14th December 2 pm

If you have any questions, please contact the Richmond Library.

Health Information Week - Media Literacy

Health Information Week is a national, multi-sector campaign promoting high-quality information for
patients and the public.

The theme for today's Health Information Week post is all about media literacy. 

How do we know what health news we can trust and do we know if it is accurate? This is a key health issue with the rise of social media and these media literacy resources aim to give patients the skills to make these judgements.

Checking the news yourself

• FactCheck: How to spot fake news (video) www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkwWcHekMdo
• Full Fact: Fact checking toolkit https://fullfact.org/toolkit/

Health news already checked

• Full Fact: Health https://fullfact.org/health/all/
• Health Feedback: https://healthfeedback.org/
• BBC Reality Check (not just health news): www.bbc.co.uk/news/reality_check

Sharing news and social media

• UK Government: Share Checklist https://sharechecklist.gov.uk/
• Poynter Institute: 10 tips for verifying viral social media videos www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2018/10-tips-for-verifying-viral-social-media-videos/ 

We have also updated our guide to good quality sources of information for patients which you can find on our web site here.

You can find a complete list of resources around media literacy with more links and including games and activities for children on the Health Information Week web site here.

Library training programme 2019- now with new venues!

Need to find information to support your clinical practice? Need to make a decision but can't find the supporting evidence? Starting a course but can't find the study material? Found the evidence but unsure what it means? Going through nursing re-validation? We can help.

All of our training programme dates for 2019 are now available on the Library's web page.

Our courses are free to access for staff and attached students from Northamptonshire Healthcare and Northampton General Hospital.

They are aimed at both clinicians and managers who want to be able to find, evaluate and use the best possible evidence to support their decision making.

We also added two new venues for 2019, so as well as Berrywood and Northampton General Hospitals, you will also be able to access our training at Danetre Hospital in Daventry and St Mary's Hospital in Kettering.

So what do we offer?

Tailored sessions

• If you can't make one of our workshops we can arrange a one-to-one session with you, either at one of the libraries or in your place of work if it is suitable.
• We can created a tailored session for your team or department and deliver it in any suitable location. From a 10 minute update on the library service to a full three hour training session, just let us know what you need.

Our scheduled workshops

• The PreCourse Course
  If you are returning to study, or starting a formal academic programme for the first time, our PreCourse Course may be just what you need. This three hour workshop is designed to give you the information skills you need to make you studies that bit easier. The session cover things like finding the material on your reading lists, using databases and how to identify good quality information. It also covers searching for evidence and guidelines and how to access electronic journals. Everything you should need to get you started.

• Literature Searching
  If you need to access primary research, our literature searching course may be the answer.  This will enable you to effectively search a number of databases such as Medline, HMIC (healthcare management) or the British Nursing Index through the NHS's HDAS interface. We'll show you how to search, save your results and even access full text journal articles, straight from the databases.

• Critical Appraisal Skills
  Once you have found the evidence, you need to know what it means and if you can rely on it, and that is where our critical appraisal skills sessions come in.Our Introduction to Critical Appraisal workshop will take you through the statistics, terminology and process, while our highly interactive Critical Appraisal in Action session gives you the opportunity to appraise a research article in a group facilitated by one of our librarians.

• Evidence into Practice
  If you are a nurse undergoing revalidation, try our Evidence into Practice course. It offers the opportunity to refresh (or learn) your skills in searching for the latest evidence, while finding information that is relevant to your day to day work.Come to the course with a question related to your scope of practice and go away not only with updated skills, but also with evidence to feed back in to your department. You will log 2 hours and 30 minutes of CPD time and at the end of the session will complete one of the 5 reflective accounts required by the NMC for revalidation, based on what you have learned.

If you have any questions or want to book a place on one of our workshops, you can find all the available dates and venues online or you can contact us for more information.

Library training programme 2018

"If only I knew how to find the right evidence..."

Need to find information to support your clinical practice? Need to make a decision but can't find the
supporting evidence? Starting a course but can't find the study material? Found the evidence but unsure what it means? Going through nursing re-validation? We can help.

All of our training programme dates for 2018 are now available on the Library's web site.

Our courses are free to access for staff and attached students from Northamptonshire Healthcare and Northampton General Hospital.

They are aimed at both clinicians and managers who want to be able to find, evaluate and use the best possible evidence to support their decision making.

So what do we offer?

Tailored sessions

• If you can't make one of our workshops we can arrange a one-to-one session with you, either at one of the libraries or in your place of work if it is suitable.
• We can created a tailored session for your team or department and deliver it in any suitable location. From a 10 minute update on the library service to a full three hour training session, just let us know what you need.

Our scheduled workshops

• The PreCourse Course
  If you are returning to study, or starting a formal academic programme for the first time, our PreCourse Course may be just what you need. This three hour workshop is designed to give you the information skills you need to make you studies that bit easier. The session cover things like finding the material on your reading lists, using databases and how to identify good quality information. It also covers searching for evidence and guidelines and how to access electronic journals. Everything you should need to get you started.

• Literature Searching
  If you need to access primary research, our literature searching course may be the answer.  This will enable you to effectively search a number of databases such as Medline, HMIC (healthcare management) or the British Nursing Index through the NHS's HDAS interface. We'll show you how to search, save your results and even access full text journal articles, straight from the databases.

• Critical Appraisal Skills
  Once you have found the evidence, you need to know what it means and if you can rely on it, and that is where our critical appraisal skills sessions come in.Our Introduction to Critical Appraisal workshop will take you through the statistics, terminology and process, while our highly interactive Critical Appraisal in Action session gives you the opportunity to appraise a research article in a group facilitated by one of our librarians.

• Evidence into Practice

  

  "CPD time and a reflective account? Sign me up"

  
  If you are a nurse undergoing revalidation, try our Evidence into Practice course. It offers the opportunity to refresh (or learn) your skills in searching for the latest evidence, while finding information that is relevant to your day to day work.Come to the course with a question related to your scope of practice and go away not only with updated skills, but also with evidence to feed back in to your department. You will log 2 hours and 30 minutes of CPD time and at the end of the session will complete one of the 5 reflective accounts required by the NMC for revalidation, based on what you have learned.

Library information skills training programme 2017

"Just precisely what is a P value"?

Need to find information to support your clinical practice? Need to make a decision but can't find the supporting evidence? Starting a course but can't find the study material? Found the evidence but unsure what it means? Going through nursing re-validation? We can help.

All of our training programme dates for 2017 are now available on the Library's web site.

Our courses are free to access for staff and attached students from Northamptonshire Healthcare and Northampton General Hospital.

They are aimed at both clinicians and managers who want to be able to find and use the best possible evidence to support their decision making.

The courses run at a variety of locations including the Berrywood and Northampton General hospitals, as well as Bevan House in Kettering.

So what do we offer?

• PreCourse Course
  If you are returning to study, or starting a formal academic programme for the first time, our PreCourse Course may be just what you need. This three hour workshop is designed to give you the information skills you need to make you studies that bit easier. The session cover things like finding the material on your reading lists, using databases and how to identify good quality information. It also covers searching for evidence and guidelines and how to access electronic journals. Everything you should need to get you started.

• Literature Searching
  If you need to access primary research, our literature searching course may be the answer.  This will enable you to effectively search a number of databases such as Medline, HMIC (healthcare management) or the British Nursing Index through the NHS's HDAS interface. We'll show you how to search, save your results and even access full text journal articles, straight from the databases.

• Critical Appraisal Skills
  Once you have found the evidence, you need to know what it means and if you can rely on it, and that is where our critical appraisal skills sessions come in.Our Introduction to Critical Appraisal workshop will take you through the statistics, terminology and process, while our highly interactive Critical Appraisal in Action session gives you the opportunity to appraise a research article in a group facilitated by one of our librarians.

"3 hours of CPD & a reflective
 account you say?"

• Evidence into Practice
  If you are a nurse undergoing revalidation, try our Evidence into Practice course. It offers the opportunity to refresh (or learn) your skills in searching for the latest evidence, while finding information that is relevant to your day to day work.Come to the course with a question related to your scope of practice and go away not only with updated skills, but also with evidence to feed back in to your department. You will log 2 hours and 30 minutes of CPD time and at the end of the session will complete one of the 5 reflective accounts required by the NMC for revalidation, based on what you have learned.

As well as our published workshops, we can also create tailored sessions for you team or department, and we can always do a one to one session if you can't make any of our published dates, and we can even come to you.

Finally, if face to face training is not your thing, or you just want a little help, we have a selection of videos on our YouTube channel that can help you with getting to grips with some of these skills.

Library information skills programme for 2016

Need to find information to support your clinical practice? Need to make a decision but can't find the supporting evidence? Starting a course but can't find the study material? Found the evidence but unsure what it means? We can help.

All of our training programme dates for 2016 are now available on the Library's web site.

"The Pre-course Course made studying so much easier"

Our courses are free to access for staff and attached students from Northamptonshire Healthcare and Northampton General Hospital.

They are aimed at both clinicians and managers who want to be able to find and use the best possible evidence to support their decision making.

The courses run at a variety of locations including the Berrywood and Northampton General hospitals, as well as Bevan House in Kettering.

So what do we offer?

If you are about to return to studying a formal programme, our Pre-course Course may be just the thing. The course is designed to equip you with the information skills you need to make the path through you programme that bit easier. The 3 hour sessions cover things like finding the material on your reading lists, using databases and how to identify good quality information. It also covers searching for evidence and guidelines and how to access electronic journals. Everything you should need to get you started.

If you need to find research, then our Literature Searching course may be the answer. This will enable you to effectively search a number of databases such as Medline, HMIC (healthcare management) or the British Nursing Index through the NHS's HDAS interface. We'll show you how to search, save your results and even access full text journal articles, straight from the databases.

Once you have found the evidence, you need to know if it is any good and what it means, and again, we can help with that via our Critical Appraisal Skills programme.

So what is the NNT in this RCT then?

Our Introduction to Critical Appraisal workshop will take you through the statistics, terminology and process, while our highly interactive Critical Appraisal in Action session gives you the opportunity to appraise a research article in a group facilitated by one of our librarians.

As well as our published workshops, we can also create tailored sessions for you team or department, and  we can always do a one to one session if you can't make any of our published dates, and we can even come to you.

Finally, if face to face training is not your thing, or you just want a little help, we have a selection of videos on our YouTube channel that can help you with getting to grips with some of these skills.

Library information skills programme for 2015

And this is how you get the full text article...

Need to find some information to inform your practice? Need to make a decision but can't find the evidence? Found the evidence but not sure of it's validity? We can help.

All of our training programme dates for 2015 are now available on the Library's web site.

Our courses are free to access for staff and attached students from Northamptonshire Healthcare and Northampton General Hospital.

Our courses are aimed at both clinicians and managers who want to be able to find and use the best possible evidence to support their decision making.

The courses run at a variety of locations including the Berrywood and Northampton General hospitals, as well as Bevan House in Kettering.

If you are about to begin a programme of study, our Pre-course Course may be just the thing. The course is designed to set you up with the information skills you need to tackle academic work. The 3 hour sessions cover finding books from your reading lists, using databases, identifying good quality information, searching for evidence and guidelines and accessing full text electronic journals.

If you need to find the research our Literature Searching course can help. This will enable you to effectively search healthcare databases such as Medline, the British Nursing Index and HMIC (healthcare management) to find the information you need and even retrieve full text electronic journal articles.

Mmm, where is the P value?

Of course, once you have found the information you need to know how to assess it and our Critical Appraisal skills workshops can help.

Our Introduction to Critical Appraisal will give you a basic understanding of the terminology and process, whilst our highly interactive Critical Appraisal in Action session gives you the opportunity to appraise a piece of research in a group facilitated by a librarian. 

It doesn't end with our published programme though. We can also create a tailored session for your department and can also do one to one sessions if you can't make any of our dates, and we can even come to you. Please contact us if you would like to arrange a session.

And finally, if you can't make a training course, we do have a lot of related videos on our YouTube channel.

About to start studying? Our course for people about to start a course is back

Our Pre-Course Course is back! Designed for NHS staff about to start (or who may have already started) a programme of study, the Pre-Course Course can help equip you with the skills you need to make finding information for your studies as painless as possible.

Whether it is a module, short course, degree or masters, is freely available to NHFT and NGH staff.

You may already be confident in using the library and finding the information you need, but if you think Athens is a good holiday destination rather than your gateway to online resources this may be the course for you. Whether it is a module, short course, degree or masters the Pre-Course Course can help.

In this 3 hour session we will you set you up to:

• tackle reading lists and find the books you need
• use databases
• identify good quality information
• search for evidence and guidelines
• access full text electronic journal articles
• make best use of the support the Library Service can offer you throughout your studies

There will also be an opportunity to join the library and apply for an Athens account to access online journals and databases if you haven't already.

Find the course dates on our web site here.

Need help with literature searching? We have created some new videos on how to use HDAS more effectively

We have added some new titles to our YouTube channel. The videos show how to get the most out of the NICE Evidence Services Healthcare Databases (HDAS) such as Medline or the British Nursing Index by using subject headings to improve the speed and accuracy of your searching.

There is a play list called Literature searching: using the subject headings so you can watch all 4 videos in sequence to understand the whole process (a total of less than 7 minutes).

Alternatively you can watch the individual videos:

• What are subject headings?
• Major subject headings
• Scope notes
• Subheadings

You can also find other videos that take you through the whole process of conducting a basic literature search from selecting the best database to find what you want, through to selecting and saving you results and even setting up an automated alert to let you know when new material in your area of interest is published.

Our videos are short and detailed enough to take you through the process of literature searching in a methodical, step-by-step manner. Don't forget, you can also book on a training session with the Library Service if you want a more human touch!

New videos available on our YouTube channel

We've recently added two new short videos to our YouTube channel.

Creating alerts to newly published articles shows you how to use the NHS databases (HDAS) to set up an automatic alert that will email you when new articles are added on a topic of your choice. It's a really useful feature that makes it easy to keep up with new publications on almost any health related subject.

De-duplicating search results shows you how to remove duplicate articles from your search results in HDAS when using more than one database.

These new videos are in addition to the titles already available which include:

• Registering for an NHS Athens password
• Logging in and selecting a database
• Doing a simple search
• Saving your search results
• Using the clipboard to bring together results from different databases into a single document

You can even  follow the whole literature searching process from start to finish by using our play list.

Library information skills programme for 2014

"If only I'd done the library training..."

Need to find some information to inform your practice? Need to make a decision but can't find the evidence? Found the evidence but not sure of it's validity? We can help.

All of our training programme dates for 2014 are now available on the Library's web site.

Our courses are free to access for staff and attached students from Northamptonshire Healthcare and Northampton General Hospital.

Our courses are aimed at both clinicians and managers who want to be able to find and use the best possible evidence to support their decision making.

The courses run at a variety of locations including the Berrywood and Northampton General hospitals, as well as Bevan House in Kettering.

Evidence for Health is a great introduction to finding high quality health information on the Internet. The course is totally hands on and takes in sites such as NICE Evidence Services and TRIP, as well as looking at more advanced searching options in Google.

If you need to find journal articles our Literature Searching course can help. This will enable you to effectively search healthcare databases such as Medline, the British Nursing Index and HMIC (healthcare management) to find the information you need and even retrieve full text electronic journal articles.

"The confidence interval you say?"

Of course, once you have found the information you need to know how to assess it and our Critical Appraisal skills workshops can help.

Our Introduction to Critical Appraisal will give you a basic understanding of the terminology and process, whilst our highly interactive Critical Appraisal in Action session gives you the opportunity to appraise a piece of research in a group facilitated by a librarian. 

It doesn't end with our published programme though. We can also create a tailored session for your department and can also do one to one sessions if you can't make any of our dates, and we can even come to you. Please contact us if you would like to arrange a session.

Web site of the month: Our YouTube Channel!

We know it's hard to find the time to come on a workshop (but if you can we run a programme of different information skills training workshops) or you may only need a refresher on how to do something specific.

We have created our own YouTube channel and have developed some very short training videos to help get you through the process of searching the healthcare databases to find information.

Our current videos cover:

• Registering for an Athens account
• How to log in to HDAS and select the right database
• Conducting a simple search
• Saving your search results
• Using the clipboard to save search results from multiple databases

Each video if fully illustrated with screen recordings and step-by-step instructions. They are also "bite sized", mainly between 2 and 3 minutes long and are even suitable for use while you are trying to search.

We will be developing more videos over time, and would love to have your feedback on what we have done so far and if there are any other topics you would like to see us cover.

New dates available on our course for staff who are studying

We've added three new dates to our Pre-course Course programme, aimed at NHS Staff who are about to start (or may have already started) new studies.

You may already be confident in using the library and finding the information you need, but if not this course will help you get ahead of the information skills game.

There will also be an opportunity to join the library and apply for an Athens account to access online journals and databases if you haven't already.

The new dates are:

• Tuesday the 15th October, 9.3- 12.30, Northampton General Hospital
• Monday the 11th November, 1.30 - 4.30, Berrywood Hospital
• Monday the 2nd December, 1.30 - 4.30, Northampton General Hospital

For more information see the course page on our web site.

New training course for NHS staff about to undertake further study

We have developed the new Pre-course Course for NHS staff who are about to start (or may have already started) new studies. It may be a short course or module, a full Masters or even a PhD, but we can help.

You may already be confident in using the library and finding the information you need, but if you think Athens is a good holiday destination rather than your gateway to online resources this may be the course for you.

In this 3 hour session we will you set you up to:

• tackle reading lists and find the books you need
• use databases
• identify good quality information
• search for evidence and guidelines
• access full text electronic journal articles
• make best use of the support the Library Service can offer you throughout your studies

There will also be an opportunity to join the library and apply for an Athens account to access online journals and databases if you haven't already.

Date	Time	Venue
23rd July	1.30 - 4.30	Room 2, Northampton General Hospital Learning  and Development Centre
13th August	9.30 - 12.30	Rowan Room, Berrywood Hospital
22nd August	9.30 - 12.30	Room 2, Northampton General Hospital Learning and Development Centre
12th September	1.30 - 4.30	Rowan Room, Berrywood Hospital

Contact us if you would like to book a place.

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/

Information skills training 2013

Laptop in classic library, a photo by vplsHoangSon on Flickr.

All our training dates for 2013 are now available on the Library web site.

Our courses are free to access for NHS staff and attached students and can be booked directly via any of our library sites.

Our courses are aimed at both clinicians and managers who want to be able to use the best possible evidence to support their decision making.

They are run at a variety of locations, including the Berrywood and Northampton General Hospitals and Bevan House in Kettering.

Our Evidence for Health course is a great introduction to finding healthcare related information on the Internet. This course is totally hands on and uses sites like NHS Evidence and TRIP, and even includes the advance searching option in Google.

If you need to find journal articles we have a literature searching course. You'll learn how to effectively search healthcare databases like Medline, the British Nursing Index or HMIC (Health Management) to find the information you need and access full text electronic journal articles.

Of course, once you've found the information, you'll need to know how to assess it, and our Critical Appraisal Skills programme can help. Our Introduction to Critical Appraisal will give you a basic understanding of the terminology and process, whilst our highly interactive Critical Appraisal in Action session gives you the opportunity to appraise a piece of research in a group facilitated by a librarian.

We can also create a tailored session for your department and can also do one to one sessions if you can't make any of our dates, and we can even come to you.

Need help finding health information?

PANIC!, a photo by Krysten_N on Flickr.

Need to find information to inform your practice? Need to make a decision but don't know where to find the best evidence?

Don't panic!

Whether you're a manager, a clinician or a student, we can help.  There are still places left on our training courses for October and November that can help you navigate your way around the large and complex world of health information.

Our Evidence for Health course is a great introduction to finding healthcare related information on the Internet. This course is totally hands on and uses sites like NHS Evidence and TRIP, and even includes the advance searching option in Google.

If you need to find journal articles we have a literature searching course. You'll learn how to effectively search healthcare databases like Medline, the British Nursing Index or HMIC (Health Management) to find the information you need and access full text electronic journal articles.

Of course, once you've found the information, you'll need to know how to assess it, and our Critical Appraisal Skills programme can help. Our Introduction to Critical Appraisal will give you a basic understanding of the terminology and process, whilst our highly interactive Critical Appraisal in Action session gives you the opportunity to appraise a piece of research in a group facilitated by a librarian.

We can also create a tailored session for your department and can also do one to one sessions if you can't make any of our dates, and we can even come to you.

Look out for our 2013 training dates coming soon...