Hospital Librarians: From Consumer Health to Patient Education and Beyond

Egeland, Mindwell

doi:10.1080/15323269.2015.982944

Cited by 9 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Voices from the profession describe how the professional role of hospital librarians is multi-faceted, including working with clinicians and medical information, with patients to provide them with secure information, as well as collaborating with researchers for publication strategies and finding scientific information (Willis and Gassaway, 2018). Egeland (2015) claims that hospital librarians gradually have become a crucial element in healthcare, contributing to increased patient safety through evidence-based literature searches for health professionals. As mentioned above, modern healthcare is increasingly focused on implementing and developing evidence-based practice and research to provide equal and secure healthcare (e.g.…”

Section: Literature Review: Hospital Libraries and Hospital Librariansmentioning

confidence: 99%

Information work of hospital librarians: Making the invisible visible

Hanell

Ahlryd

2021

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science

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The aim of this paper is to explore and to make visible how the information work of hospital librarians is enacted in key practices where services of the hospital library are employed to support evidence-based practice. The empirical material was produced at three hospital libraries in three different regions in Sweden between January and March 2020. A practice-oriented approach using the theoretical lens information work is employed to analyze nine semi-structured interviews with hospital librarians and hospital library managers, together with field notes from observations of interactions between hospital librarians and healthcare practitioners. The analysis investigates the conditions for information work performed by hospital librarians as they participate in three key practices: clinical practices, information seeking practices, and HTA-practices. The results of the analysis are related to four categories of invisible information work, and the nature of the information work done to counter different types of invisibilities within the key practices is discussed. The findings suggest that a substantial amount of the information work of hospital librarians is invisible to clinicians. At the same time, considerable efforts are made by hospital librarians to counter different types of invisibility, for example through building relationships with healthcare staff and to develop and make specialized competencies visible. In particular, the importance assigned to evidence-based practice in healthcare allows for the librarians to be regarded by clinicians as legitimate partners with clearly defined competencies in specific situations.

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Section: Literature Review: Hospital Libraries and Hospital Librariansmentioning

confidence: 99%

Information work of hospital librarians: Making the invisible visible

Hanell

Ahlryd

2021

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science

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“…Medical librarians’ role is constantly changing in that they are not only providing support for staff, but also providing support for patients who need education [ 36 ]. Librarians can take a more active role in evaluating patient education distributed at their medical centers to determine if it is at the required reading grade level.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Computerized versus hand-scored health literacy tools: a comparison of Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG) and Flesch-Kincaid in printed patient education materials

Grabeel

Russomanno

Oelschlegel

et al. 2018

jmla

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ObjectiveThe research compared and contrasted hand-scoring and computerized methods of evaluating the grade level of patient education materials that are distributed at an academic medical center in east Tennessee and sought to determine if these materials adhered to the American Medical Association’s (AMA’s) recommended reading level of sixth grade.MethodsLibrarians at an academic medical center located in the heart of Appalachian Tennessee initiated the assessment of 150 of the most used printed patient education materials. Based on the Flesch-Kincaid (F-K) scoring rubric, 2 of the 150 documents were excluded from statistical comparisons due to the absence of text (images only). Researchers assessed the remaining 148 documents using the hand-scored Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG) method and the computerized F-K grade level method. For SMOG, 3 independent reviewers hand-scored each of the 150 documents. For F-K, documents were analyzed using Microsoft Word. Reading grade levels scores were entered into a database for statistical analysis. Inter-rater reliability was calculated using intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC). Paired t-tests were used to compare readability means.ResultsAcceptable inter-rater reliability was found for SMOG (ICC=0.95). For the 148 documents assessed, SMOG produced a significantly higher mean reading grade level (M=9.6, SD=1.3) than F-K (M=6.5, SD=1.3; p<0.001). Additionally, when using the SMOG method of assessment, 147 of the 148 documents (99.3%) scored above the AMA’s recommended reading level of sixth grade.ConclusionsComputerized health literacy assessment tools, used by many national patient education material providers, might not be representative of the actual reading grade levels of patient education materials. This is problematic in regions like Appalachia because materials may not be comprehensible to the area’s low-literacy patients. Medical librarians have the potential to advance their role in patient education to better serve their patient populations.

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“…Health and social services institution library closures and consolidations occur all too frequently, along with reduced staffing, space and budgets [42][43][44][45]. Practice that is not based on evidence risks causing harm to patients [46].…”

Section: Background Of the Standards Updatementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The health information professional uses a variety of tools and expertise, both formal and informal, to assess the evidence-based resource needs of medical staff and healthcare personnel [42]. These could include:…”

Section: Expectationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

CHLA Standards for Library and Information Services in Canadian Health & Social Services Institutions 2020

Frati

Oja

Kleinberg

2021

J Can Health Libr Assoc

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The following standards, with supporting evidence, are intended to serve as a guide to structuring minimum library services within health and social services institutions across all Canadian provinces and territories. The Standards are not intended to be aspirational. The aim of the Canada Health Libraries Association (CHLA) Task Force was to ensure that the Standards update would not be so removed from the current realities and landscape that they became unattainable to many libraries. For this reason, some Standards outline requirements that are essential to the minimum function of the library, and other Standards provide recommendations only. The intended use of the Standards is to set a baseline for the provision of essential library services and resources and aid in advocating for adequate resources. It is important to note, however, that the CHLA Task Force does not intend for the Standards to prevent libraries from reaching a more advanced level of service, and we hope that in their current form they will not be a hindrance to excellence or innovation.

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Hospital Librarians: From Consumer Health to Patient Education and Beyond

Cited by 9 publications

References 12 publications

Information work of hospital librarians: Making the invisible visible

Information work of hospital librarians: Making the invisible visible

Computerized versus hand-scored health literacy tools: a comparison of Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG) and Flesch-Kincaid in printed patient education materials

CHLA Standards for Library and Information Services in Canadian Health & Social Services Institutions 2020

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