Continuing education and health sciences libraries: Opportunities for collaboration

Abstract

Health care continuing education (CE) professionals and health sciences librarians have many common goals including ( I ) identibing information seeking behaviors of health professionals, ( 2 ) providing the information that hasDirectly or indirectly, health sciences librarians and continuing education (CE) professionals have long been working toward the same goal: ensuring that health professionals have the information and knowledge they need to deliver quality health care. Historically, CE and libraries could be passive providers of information, assembling collections of books and journals and offering standard CE courses on a regular schedule. Several factors have made it necessary, however, to become significantly more proactive in the educational process; these changes include the increase in the sheer amount of medical knowledge available, increased medical specialization, and new information technologies that have transformed the health care workplace and information management capabilities. Educational activities must now provide access to up-to-date information, synthesized for practical application in the workplace. Facilitating lifelong learning opportunities has been a common pursuit of both professions, and many opportunities are provided for collaboration in studying information needs and delivering information for improved health care practice. Common Goals Identifying Information Seeking BehaviorsBased on a workshop presented at the 20th Annual Meeting of the Alliance for Continuing Medical Education, Phoenix, Arizona, January 13, 1995.How do health professionals look for information to support patient care? Physician information needs and use of information sources are topics of 235

Health Sciences Librarians’ Instructional Engagement in Continuing Education: A Scoping Review

“…In terms of session type, most included sources reported on librarians delivering a structured class or workshop session (n=90, 86%), but several unique examples described librarians developing and leading games [ 38 ], writing and presenting theatrical plays [ 39 ], and holding instructional exhibits [ 40 , 41 ]. The setting and formats of librarian teaching was fluid, as some sources described librarians visiting clinical teaching units to reach their audience [ 11 , 42 – 49 ], Some sources reported multiple session types and were coded as such.…”

“…Finally, authors of 59 included sources (56%) provided recommendations for future planning and teaching. Some suggested adding motivation to participate through formal accreditation: “CME credit also helped establish the relevance of information management to clinical practice” [ 37 ]; the value in leveraging partnerships: “Establishing a collaborative relationship with nurses and other health professionals will boost the visibility of librarians and the stature and professional impact in EB processes” [ 43 ]; and realizing the continuing education potential of existing resources: “Many health sciences libraries already have educational programs in place on various topics...CE professionals can tap into this existing pool of courses and request that they be tailored to fit specific audiences at CE conferences or exhibits” [ 40 ]. For the full list of captured suggestions, see Online Supplement Appendix 3 Table 5 .…”

GaIN Study on Health Professionals' Search Requests and Continuing Education Needs

“…4 This increasing emphasis on proactivity was echoed in McGowan's call for librarians to take a more active role in lifelong learning, 5 while collaboration was again discussed by Arnold and Humphries, who challenged librarians and CE educators to carry out ''research studies on information needs of health professionals to target specific areas for CE.'' 6 In 1977, Wender and colleagues at the University of Oklahoma conducted a major study to determine in part if there was a relationship between search request topics and areas of need for continuing medical education. 7,8 They concluded that, ''One may also consider the information requests the physician has made to his medical librarians to aid in determining his CME interests.''…”