MAR Award Report: Getting the (Healthy) Word Out: A Train-the Trainer Approach for Nurses
CLIC-on-Health for Nurses Project
In January, 2009 the Rochester Regional Library Council (RRLC) was awarded a one year planning grant from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine. The project, called “Getting the (Healthy) Word Out: A Train-the Trainer Approach for Nurses” used RRLC’s CLIC-on-Health web site (www.cliconhealth.org) to work with nursing educators and RNs in the Rochester area. The intent of the project was to plan a program that would provide training in the use of online health information resources to nurses that do not have access to the extensive proprietary resources that are available through an affiliation with a college, university or hospital in the five county Rochester area.
RRLC partnered with five nursing agencies/school systems that employed more than four hundred RNs and other health care professionals. The project also involved nursing students attending nurse preparation programs at seven area colleges, providing the opportunity to work with the librarians and nurse educators that train the students, educating them about online health information available post-graduation.
An assessment of the information needs of the RNs working was conducted in the form of an online survey. Questions were designed to determine the RNs’ level of awareness of free online health information, the type of information needed and the preferred method of training in learning how to locate and evaluate clinical and consumer health information.
Based on responses from the RNs, a preliminary curriculum, which included both clinical and consumer health related websites, was developed. The content was reviewed by a committee of hospital and academic librarians, and the curriculum will be used to train RNs in the most effective way to search for and evaluate health information and to help them learn how to use/access the collections of Rochester area libraries. Training will begin in 2010.
Contact Barbara Ciambor, RRLC Outreach Librarian, bciambor(at)rrlc.org, for additional information.
