Barriers to using current research evidence…

A while back (well, last November!), I had a lovely day out in Newcastle for NE CILIP Mini Umbrella which was wonderful fun, a really lively and interesting event.  I didn’t then find time to do anything about it afterwards (which I'm feeling guilty about). So I’m going to do the odd blog on specific things mentioned at it that really chimed with me and where the thoughts led me.

Clinical Librarianship

First one relates to the presentation by  Rachel Steele on the Pilot NHS Clinical Librarian Project for Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust.

Rachel was talking generally about the development of clinical librarian roles and the benefits of this for staff in enabling them to improve patient care and the Pilot project within her Trust.  There  were benefits around integrating health library services into actual clinical settings, it improved evidence-based practice by enabling users to be better educated in resources available to them and how best to utilise them and critically appraise the results. It also enabled the librarians to get a better understanding of the patient care context.

She quoted Hill in defining a clinical librarian as someone who seeks “to provide quality assured information to health professionals at the point of need to support clinical decision making.”

 and Evidence Based Practice

Rachel had a slide discussing clinical librarianship and evidence based practice.  In it it was pointed out that ”the main barriers to using current research evidence in clinical practice are time and skill”, she also had a quote which said “research that should change clinical practice is often ignored for years”.

It seems to me that these issues reverberate far beyond the health field, even if ‘evidence-based practice’ is often largely associated with health as a context / phrase.

The Rate of Change and Professional Practice

The rate of change in all fields, LIS included, is fast and constant, we seek to just keep up with what we’re already doing for our users much of the time. Because we provide a service based around the needs of others sometimes we forget that ensuring we also retain time and skill (our own) to fulfil our development needs is equally valid - because it helps the service we provide to be better.

Wider Views Give More Scope Than Narrower Ones

It’s important to find the time to maintain a wide view. Things superficially outside our own sectors are often the most refreshing and actually throw up the most ideas (why go to endless things 85% based around what you already know? -  it’s maybe what you think is expected or will be agreed to a lot easier, but is it actually the most useful for you? If not, then why not at least argue the need for something different).

Is there a practical application and how to ensure it happens?

It’s important to then actually try to do something with insignts and knowledge gained, in order to demonstrate there is an actual gain if that is possible (back to evidence-based practice again!), not just file it away back under the total sway of the InBox and whatever falls into it next. How many things do we go to or read and then actually do something different in direct result of? Or does it just slip the mind and down the To Do list as unspecified unscheduled activity? Which will never happen left like that...

I often think events etc need action learning sets to encourage what seemed a good idea on the day to survive being back in normal life long enough to get implemented. And it will only happen if it is also really and truly something that we want to do and believe in in addition.