Introduction to Health Reference: Ethics and Best Practices
Learn how to conduct a health reference interview using ethical and effective communication strategies in this 4 credit/4 module asynchronous online class. Through interactive self-paced tutorials and a synthesis exercise, students will learn:
- What is a health reference interview
- How the library can protect patrons’ health privacy and confidentiality using ethical guidelines from library associations
- Effective communication strategies to identify the health information needs of patrons
- Simple methods for evaluating online health information that can be easily explained to patrons
This course provides basic knowledge and skills for librarians interested in providing consumer health information to patrons. Attending this course will improve your ability to conduct a health reference interview confidently and ethically at your library. The primary goal of this course is to improve your knowledge and skills in providing effective and ethical consumer health reference services to patrons.
By working through 3 interactive, self-paced tutorials, questionnaires, forums, and a synthesis exercise, learners will be able to:
1. Apply ethical and effective communication strategies to identify the health information needs of patrons
2. Explain the ways librarians can protect patrons’ health privacy and confidentiality
3. Describe the ways librarians can practice ethical health information provision throughout the reference interview.
4. Evaluate online health information
5. Explain why it is important to teach evaluation skills to library patrons.
4 Hours of MLA CE credit
Past Classes
There are no archived recordings of this class