Finding public health knowledge and information: a guide for the North West

This leaflet has been produced by the North West Primary Care Librarians Group.
It contains a list of ‘key’ public health knowledge and information resources.

The leaflet is available to download from the Integrated Library Service web pages.

2008 edition of Medical Masterclass available in print and online

The 2nd edition of Medical Masterclass is now available in print in the McArdle Library.
We also have for loan a CD-ROM set of interactive case studies. These case studies can also be accessed on computers in the McArdle Library IT Suite.

Access to the Medical Masterclass website is also available for a 12 month period. This provides mock MRCP Part 1 and 2 papers, timed and scored mock examinations and over 2200 questions. Log in details are available from the library, please contact us.

What is Medical Masterclass?
Medical masterclass is a resource that aims to help doctors prepare for their MRCP(UK) examination (all parts). It will also be of interest to many others with an interest in clinical medicine.

Topics covered include Scientific Background to Medicine, Clinical Skills, Acute Medicine, Infectious Diseases and Dermatology, Haematology and Oncology, Cardiology and Respiratory Medicine, Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Neurology, Ophthalmology and Psychiatry, Endocrinology, Nephrology, Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology.

Primary Care Medicines Information Resource Pack

The aim of this resource pack is to help you find useful information about medicines using the internet and give suggestions on how to approach various types of questions, such as where to find useful information on adverse drug reactions, drug interactions, the safety of medicines in pregnancy and lots more.

This pack was prepared for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians working in primary care. However, other staff such as community pharmacists and hospital pharmacy staff may also find it useful.

Read more

"Clinical librarian programs may lead to information behaviour change."

Study on the benefits of a clinical librarian service in North Wales.

The full text of this paper is available, together with an evidence summary. The objective of the paper was to assess whether the North Wales Clinical Librarian service changed the information behaviour of team clinicians. Researchers worked with doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and clinical librarians based in North Wales to identify:

which services were used
effects of training on search behaviour
the benefits for clinical governance
whether confidence levels increased

Although not conclusive, the study did find that working with a clinical librarian did improve searching behaviour of clinicians.

Read more

Source: National Library for Health Document of the Week

Introduction to SPSS

Course title: Introduction to SPSS
Date: 21st August 2008
Time: 09:00-16:30
Venue: Learning Resource Centre, Ormskirk Hospital
Tutor: Elizabeth Wiredu
Cost: £80 (Medics), £20 (Non-Medics)

Target Audience
Doctors, dentists, nurses, allied health professionals, researchers, academics, service staff, who have collected survey data and are about to summarise and analyse them or those who want to know how to use SPSS.

Pre-requisites
No previous knowledge of SPSS is required. Knowledge of Windows environment is however, essential. You are encouraged to bring a questionnaire you wish to code into SPSS.

Aim
This introductory course will help you to acquire the skills necessary to transfer survey data from completed questionnaire forms into SPSS, ready for descriptive statistics and graphical summaries.

For a booking form, please contact us.

NEW! Library Helpsheet No. 3: Quick guide to searching health related databases

Library Helpsheet No 3: Quick guide to searching health related databases

Health related databases (e.g. Medline, CINAHL) are available to all NHS Wirral staff and students via the National Library for Health (NLH). This updated Library Helpsheet provides a quick reference guide to searching the databases for article references.

PLEASE NOTE: If you are doing a more complex literature search or need more guidance and are interested in our training session, Searching Health Related Databases, please link here.

NLH Document of the Week: Interventions for enhancing research use by nurses

The purpose of this study was to understand the factors that influence the implementation of research by nurses in the acute sector. Nurses were chosen as study participants because they tend to be the largest group of professionals employed in healthcare organisations. The authors found that nurses with higher workloads had the lowest research utilisation scores and where there was more organisational support, the levels of research utilisation were increased.

View full text

Citation: Patterns of research utilization on patient care units
CA Estabrooks, S Scott, JE Squires, B Stevens, L O'Brien-Pallas, J Watt-Watson, J Profetto-McGrath, K McGilton, K Golden-Biddle, J Lander, G Donner, G Boschma, CK Humphrey, J Williams
Implementation Science, 2008, 3:31