By David Midyette, Outreach and Communications Coordinator, NN/LM, SE/A Region

Back in January 2010, hospital librarians from the region, SE/A staff, and experts from around the U.S. converged on Baltimore for a Hospital Librarian Summit. The goal was to look at the future of hospital libraries and librarians, with an eye towards how the SE/A could best support them as they face unprecedented challenges. There were many wonderful discussions about multiple aspects of hospital librarianship, and a good deal was accomplished in a very brief time.

One of the major outcomes of the summit was a desire to create an updated, dynamic, and useful Hospital Librarian Toolkit. After a long brainstorming session, the various ideas were consolidated into main topics. Participants voted for the topics they felt were most important, and a ranked list was produced. From that list and utilizing SE/A expertise, a plan was devised, which has now come to fruition:

Resources for Hospital Librarians

In this LibGuide, we have pulled together resources that address the summit topics as well as other areas that have become increasingly important over the past two years. This guide is intended to be both dynamic and collaborative. The world of hospital librarianship is changing rapidly, so this guide will be updated regularly as issues arise. Collaboration is key and input from the region is vital. If you have questions, concerns, additions, deletions, suggestions, or any other ideas on keeping this guide current and vital, please let us know.

We thank everyone who has contributed to this guide and look forward to supporting hospital libraries and librarians in this ever-changing world.

Please contact David Midyette (dmidyette@hshsl.umaryland.edu) P.J. Grier (pgrier@hshsl.umaryland.edu) or Sheila Snow-Croft (ssnowcro@hshsl.umaryland.edu) with your suggestions and comments.

Instructors: Elaine Alligood, Mark Graber, Barb Jones, Linda Williams and Lorri Zipperer

Date:  Thursday, November 15, 2012

Registration and pre-session coffee: 8:30 am; Session time: 9:00 am-4:00 pm

Diagnostic error, a major factor in patient harm also increases medical costs (http://psnet.ahrq.gov/primer.aspx?primerID=12). A free, interactive workshop for medical decision makers and information professionals is being held on November 15th focusing on how multidisciplinary teams can contribute to the reduction of diagnostic error.   This innovative session will highlight evidence-based processes and the collaborative roles of clinicians and their librarians/ informationists as they work together to reduce factors contributing to diagnostic error. This class is set for November 15, 2012 in Room LL05 at the Health Sciences and Human Services Library, University of Maryland Baltimore. Class time is from 9-4, with a break for lunch on your own.

Session content will cover:

• Team-oriented approaches to understanding the role of information and evidence in the diagnostic process.

• Case analysis and discussion of bias.

• Partnering of librarians/informationists with clinical staff to strategize improvements

• Application of failure analysis techniques to explore system and process improvement.

• Design of evidence sharing innovations to reduce diagnostic error.

• Strategies for implementation of proposed projects.

Multidisciplinary teams from organizations are encouraged to attend.  MLA CE credits will be provided.

Register for this class at http://nnlm.gov/ntcc/classes/class_details.html?class_id=505

By Terri Ottosen, Consumer Health Coordinator, NN/LM, SE/A Region

One of the most exciting areas of consumer health is emerging as a lay specialization in health care. This area covers patient education and navigation through the health care system and patient advocacy. There are many types of patient advocates and many routes to becoming an advocate. The education, skills and experience required are very similar to health sciences librarians. Right now, there is no formal certification recognized for patient advocates, but there are educational programs including certificate programs and continuing education. An individual patient advocate usually acts as a liaison between a patient and their health care provider. This role is frequently assumed by nurses and social workers, but increasingly, advocates are people that have had a health care experience that now leads them to the career of patient advocate. Some have become advocates for family members or even themselves after experiencing a life-threatening or serious illness. Their frustration and difficulties encountered with the field of medicine lead to their interest in helping others overcome barriers in obtaining health care.

Two individuals come to mind who have attained national recognition for their work in patient advocacy: E-Patient Dave and Regina Holliday. Both spoke at the MLA E-Patient Symposium in Washington, DC in 2010. E-Patient Dave, also known as Dave deBronkart, was diagnosed in 2007 with Stage IV renal cell carcinoma and his median survival time at diagnosis was just 24 weeks. Prior to his illness, he was already a speaker and writer, but after he beat his disease, he actively began to advocate for patients to be engaged in their health care, empowering patients to be an active member of their health care team. Today he is an accomplished speaker and activist. You can learn more about him and find links to his blog entries for e-patients.net at his website: http://epatientdave.com.

Regina Holliday regularly and passionately advocates the importance of open data access for patients and access to medical records. She came to her role after her husband’s illness and death, in which it was a struggle to get appropriate care during “11 weeks of continuous hospitalization at 5 facilities.” (http://reginaholliday.blogspot.com/) She is an artist, speaker and author and speaks powerfully about her experience trying to obtain access to her husband’s medical records. As her blog mentions, “her work is a visual reminder of the patient in the center of any policy debate and technical application.” You can find much more information about her and see her artwork at her blog.

As someone passionate about consumer health and interested in patient empowerment, I have been attending classes online in the patient advocacy certificate program through the University of Miami. I am learning a lot and am struck by the similarities and parallels between patient advocate work and our work as health information professionals. We are all patient advocates in some ways. We work with consumers, librarians, and health professionals in an effort to connect people with the information they need, whether it is for direct patient care or to help empower people to be active, engaged participants in their own health care.

As I head into the home stretch of the program, I am looking for ways to incorporate what I have learned into future classes and presentations. I am also eager to see what new and exciting ways consumer health and the patient advocacy movement will continue to evolve as we enter the most patient-centric time in health care in history. To read more about the movement, here are several organizations and links:

Patient Advocate Foundation: http://www.patientadvocate.org

National Patient Advocate Foundation: http://npaf.org

AdvoConnection Blog: http://advoconnectionblog.com

For more information, please contact Terri Ottosen at tottosen@hshsl.umaryland.edu.

Here is the first of our Share Your Success! http://nnlm.gov/sea/newsletter/2012/10/share-your-success-2012-and-enter-for-a-chance-to-win-a-1000scholarship-to-mla/  submissions for Medical Library Month.  In this article, Lisa Travis writes of her experience stepping outside of the traditional roles of a medical librarian.

I have been the Medical Librarian for Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, TN, since 2007. From 2007-2009, I served the new osteopathic medical school and the schools of nursing and allied health. I currently serve as the sole librarian for the physician assistant and osteopathic medicine programs within the DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine. Since my office is in the medical school, I have been able to develop strong relationships with the faculty and students. A couple of nontraditional roles have become the norm with my job, and I love them. Here is a sampling of some of the ways that I serve my users.

I am invited to faculty candidate presentations and attend them to introduce myself and see if the candidates have any questions about the library. I drop by meetings and events of student clubs to socialize and make sure the club officers and members are aware of resources that are useful for the specialty of interest. When faculty members are hired, they are required to meet with me for one-on-one training in their offices for as long as they like; my record for one of these sessions is over 2 ½ hours (more on this later).

Since I like to edit, faculty provide grant proposals and other documents for me to review; I see it as a way to learn about their projects while doing something I enjoy. My love of editing has also resulted in my chipping in to review medical students’ personal statements and CVs for their residency applications. For my inaugural class of 2011, I edited approximately 25 of each; that number doubled with the class of 2012. So far I have edited nearly as many documents for the class of 2013 as I did for the class of 2012, and there will be many more to come since we are in the midst of applications season.

My biggest project that expands the realm of traditional librarian roles is one that I have worked on for over ten years. During my time at two different jobs over the years, I have compiled an annotated collection of links to games, simulations, tutorials, quizzes, and other interactive websites for anatomy, ECGs, surgery, and other topics. I began collecting the links so that I could learn about medical terminology and such while finding useful tools that could be used for teaching and self-study. Presenting the links during my job interview helped me land my current position. Over the years, students and faculty have recommended additional links to add to the collection and have asked me to find interactive websites for particular topics.

The collection of annotated links is found in the Program Resources section of the medical library website at http://library.lmunet.edu/medlib. One example of a helpful resource in the collection, a game to learn ECGs, is http://www.skillstat.com/tools/ecg-simulator. Websites in the collection have been included in assignments to students and have also used during lectures. Students get a kick out of one professor’s tendency to purposely provide the wrong type of blood in one of the online games, which of course triggers a traumatic reaction in the patient.

The faculty training session that stretched to over two-and-a-half hours did so because he wanted to check some of the linked websites for accuracy while I watched. After doing so, he provided a note to add to one website’s annotation to more fully explain a tricky concept. I will never forget the enthusiastic students in my inaugural class of medical students who stopped me after my library lecture during medical school orientation to thank me for the collection of links, one noting that he’d never seen another library do something like it; that meant a lot to me since I was nervous about serving a medical school for the first time – and a new medical school to boot! Since there are so many links in the collection, users asked that the best ones be designated as such; each of these is labeled as a “Top Pick.” I plan to eventually develop a course on the links and submit it for MLA CE credit.

October is National Medical Librarian Month, and NN/LM SE/A wants to celebrate your success. Last year’s “Share Your Success” event was terrific, featuring a series of awe-inspiring stories about library advocacy. Geetha Sridaran and Kaye Robertson won the drawing for two $1000 travel scholarships for the 2012 MLA meeting in Seattle.

We are repeating the program this year, but with a difference: for 2012, we are looking for two kinds of stories to share on SEA Currents:

a)      Have you proven your worth to an administrator or told someone how important libraries are, changing his or her behavior?

b)      Have you explored new or non-traditional roles, expanding the realm of what a librarian does?

To enter the contest, tell us about your experience. Or share someone else’s story. Medical libraries around the region face ever-larger challenges, and we all need to work together by sharing our successful strategies to ensure a future for our profession and our institutions. Articles will be published on the NN/LM SE/A SEA Currents blog throughout the month of October.

Authors and subjects of articles will be entered into a competition for a$1000 travel scholarship to MLA 2013 in Boston, MA. One scholarship will be awarded and will cover travel: flight, hotel, and per diems up to $1000.

We will accept entries until October 15, 2012. The winner will be announced on October 31, 2012. Please submit articles to David Midyette at dmidyette@hshsl.umaryland.edu

Good luck!