The Success of a Clinical Librarian Program in an Academic Autopsy Pathology Service

Abstract

Residents in pathology must acquire a broad base of knowledge in all areas of medicine and the basic medical sciences. We report our experience with the first Clinical Medical Librarian (CL) program used to aid resident training in anatomic pathology. This program was developed by the Lister Hill Library of Health Sciences (LHL) of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) to test the value of a CL program in filling the clinical needs of medical students and residents by providing key recent references to the wide variety of diseases seen in a busy autopsy service. Use of a CL was accepted completely by both faculty and residents as a method of increasing their efficiency in evaluating the recent literature on diseases seen in the autopsy service. Our use of this program broadened the scope and extent of specific case-oriented medical literature read by both residents and faculty.

Clinical librarianship: a systematic review of the literature

“…Veenstra 26 found that senior residents were most likely to use the service, junior residents the least. Only three studies discussed the reasons for clinicians accessing the CL service 13,47,48 . The most frequently cited reason was patient related 47,48 .…”

“…The most frequently cited reason was patient related 47,48 . Other reasons included: for presentations, continuing education, publication, research, 47 and to provide general information on a subject 13,48 …”

“…Four studies 13,26,48,50 indicated the success of their respective CL programmes by reporting the number of clinicians who thought the service should be continued, or planned to continue using the service in the future. All respondents to the Tobia et al 48 .…”

“…However, support for CL has remained high 12 . Twenty‐nine US‐based CL programmes were identified in 1993, 13 and more recently extensive programmes have been evaluated at Vanderbilt University 14,15 . Following early attempts in the 1970s at Guy's Hospital, London, 16,17 the concept has also received renewed interest in the UK 18−21 .…”

“…The literature suggests a number of benefits from CL programmes. CLs have been found to be time saving for clinicians, 11,25 to influence patient care and practitioners’ knowledge, 9,26 and to increase efficiency in evaluating recent literature 13 . However CL services have also been purported to be expensive and labour intensive, 1,25 thus increasing an imperative for such programmes to demonstrate a tangible impact 25 …”