Jeez! Has it really been more than a month since I've posted? (I must apologize to Lori who commented on my last post way back in Feb. but the comment got held up for moderation and I never got an email notifying me- I have now changed back to unmoderated commenting). I guess the reason for my lacklustre attendance on my own blog is that I have been very busy running the service, which is a good thing right? Right!
Since my last confession I have had my contract here renewed (mostly officially) for another three years. I am very excited to be able to stop trying to prove the service is worthwhile and begin providing it full time. Well, full seven hours anyway.
I have my time divided on a weekly basis now, between the teaching room and my "office", so that means I've got three point five hours to do everything administrative, and still provide support for anyone who walks in the door which happens more and more these days, and maintain the pamphlet collection which gets used quite a lot judging by the "missing teeth" I find every Thursday afternoon, and maintain the website which got over 1500 visitors since January. I am not in any way complaining! I love feeling needed.
Tuesday afternoons in the teaching room are great. I get to meet whichever resident is working that day (usually somewhere between three and six) and continue to form new working relationships with them. It's very useful for me to be behind the scenes.
Being there means being able to find teachable moments (rather than just provide information) although this is a skill which I will need to improve. On-the-fly teaching is different than presenting prepared subject matter. I also need to get over feeling weird about teaching doctors. It's one thing to show a surgeon how to use EndNote properly, quite another to step in and say to a GP, here's how you could be doing your job better in this particular area.
It also , and I'm sure I've said this before, allows me to get a much better sense of how the team actually works and what patients really need. It is as important for me to identify information needs of patients and make sure they are being met as it is for me to acknowledge those cases where information is not called for. I now have a real appreciation for how difficult it sometimes is for a GP to figure out what the patient is even there for (similar to conducting a reference interview when your patron doesn't know what their own question is). And we all do it don't we? We all find ourselves in bookstores and libraries and doctor's offices not really knowing what to ask or why we're there. By listening in I can sometimes identify certain needs that are not being recognised by either the GP or the patient.
So that's my little update. I will try to post a case soon...
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About Info.Rx
Update:
In the fall of 2008 a Clinical Medical Librarianship component was added to the service. The librarian now acts as a resident supervisor in the teaching rooms at the clinic one half-day per week, providing support for clinical decision-making in addition to continued support for patient education.
The service is based on an innovative InformationRx model first implemented in the UK (see: Early experience of the
contribution of an information specialist within a primary
healthcare team: a partnership venture between
library and healthcare services, doi: 10.1177/0961000604048915].
This model sees the information professional acting as a member of the health care team by providing informational/instructional support for patients/families and health professionals at point of care. Support for the service is provided by the main hospital library and is vital for ensuring long term sustainability.
The information professional is available 7 hrs per week to consult with patients/families that are in need of health information.
Health staff are encouraged to write InformationRx for patients which can then be filled by the information professional. Consultations with patients are treated as clinical encounters and are documented in the charts. The service has a clinic in the Centre's appointment scheduling software.
Patients and family members are welcome to drop in, or to submit questions by phone or email at their convenience. They can schedule appointments by contacting the information professional directly or by calling their team coordinator.
The library provides support by welcoming questions from patients and their families when the coordinator is not available. Herzl patients and families are able to borrow books from the Patient and Family Resource Centre's (PFRC) print collection, and a family medicine section has been created on the PFRC website which provides links to reliable and up-to-date consumer health resources.
In the fall of 2008 a Clinical Medical Librarianship component was added to the service. The librarian now acts as a resident supervisor in the teaching rooms at the clinic one half-day per week, providing support for clinical decision-making in addition to continued support for patient education.
The service is based on an innovative InformationRx model first implemented in the UK (see: Early experience of the
contribution of an information specialist within a primary
healthcare team: a partnership venture between
library and healthcare services, doi: 10.1177/0961000604048915].
This model sees the information professional acting as a member of the health care team by providing informational/instructional support for patients/families and health professionals at point of care. Support for the service is provided by the main hospital library and is vital for ensuring long term sustainability.
The information professional is available 7 hrs per week to consult with patients/families that are in need of health information.
Health staff are encouraged to write InformationRx for patients which can then be filled by the information professional. Consultations with patients are treated as clinical encounters and are documented in the charts. The service has a clinic in the Centre's appointment scheduling software.
Patients and family members are welcome to drop in, or to submit questions by phone or email at their convenience. They can schedule appointments by contacting the information professional directly or by calling their team coordinator.
The library provides support by welcoming questions from patients and their families when the coordinator is not available. Herzl patients and families are able to borrow books from the Patient and Family Resource Centre's (PFRC) print collection, and a family medicine section has been created on the PFRC website which provides links to reliable and up-to-date consumer health resources.
Author"s note
Important: While based on real consultations, the cases posted in this blog have been mashed up, fictionalized, posted out of sequence, and otherwise tinkered with in order to maintain the privacy and comfort of the parties involved.
Also, the views and opinions expressed in this blog are strictly my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employers.
Also, the views and opinions expressed in this blog are strictly my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employers.
About this blog
The Patient health Information Service at Herzl (H-PHIS) opened its doors in early July of this year (2007) and is in the early developmental stages. The challenges faced by myself (the service's coordinator), the staff, and the health care team at the HFPC are many and varied, as is to be expected when implementing a new and innovative service.
Perhaps the most unique aspect of the InfoRx model is the presence and participation of the information professional/librarian at point of care. This new and multidisciplinary approach presents a distinctive challenge. Health and support staff are not always clear on what knowledge and skills a librarian brings to the team. Conversely, I must be able to recognize and adapt to the needs and character of the community and of the setting itself.
This blog was created in response to some very astute and constructive criticism. After presenting to the residents at their weekly rounds, I was approached by one of the partners at the clinic who suggested that rather than introducing myself and the service and then explaining how to use it, it would have been more effective to present some cases illustrating what the service has to offer to the residents and to their patients. I see this as a perfect example of the kind of disconnect that can happen when two very different professions come together. In essence I had presented the way I would have to my own professional colleagues, but this was not the most appropriate approach given my audience.
After giving it some thought it occurred to me that it could be useful, both for myself and the rest of the team, for me to present a weekly case here, and talk about some of the challenges we are faced with and how these might best be resolved. Hopefully this will introduce some transparency to the InfoRx process.
This is meant to serve as a record of, and forum for discussion about, our challenges and successes. It is hopefully also an opportunity for other information professionals to be inspired by one example of what can be accomplished outside of the library setting.
Perhaps the most unique aspect of the InfoRx model is the presence and participation of the information professional/librarian at point of care. This new and multidisciplinary approach presents a distinctive challenge. Health and support staff are not always clear on what knowledge and skills a librarian brings to the team. Conversely, I must be able to recognize and adapt to the needs and character of the community and of the setting itself.
This blog was created in response to some very astute and constructive criticism. After presenting to the residents at their weekly rounds, I was approached by one of the partners at the clinic who suggested that rather than introducing myself and the service and then explaining how to use it, it would have been more effective to present some cases illustrating what the service has to offer to the residents and to their patients. I see this as a perfect example of the kind of disconnect that can happen when two very different professions come together. In essence I had presented the way I would have to my own professional colleagues, but this was not the most appropriate approach given my audience.
After giving it some thought it occurred to me that it could be useful, both for myself and the rest of the team, for me to present a weekly case here, and talk about some of the challenges we are faced with and how these might best be resolved. Hopefully this will introduce some transparency to the InfoRx process.
This is meant to serve as a record of, and forum for discussion about, our challenges and successes. It is hopefully also an opportunity for other information professionals to be inspired by one example of what can be accomplished outside of the library setting.
About Me
- FF
- Francesca Frati has an MLIS from Dalhousie University and is the wearer of many interconnected professional hats. She works at the SMBD Jewish General Hospital Health Sciences Library (HSL) as Patient Information Specialist and Instruction Librarian, at the Herzl Family Practise Centre (HFPC) as Patient Information Coordinator, and in her spare (work) time provides research support for physicians. Francesca is a member of the advisory committee for the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) Conference on Practise Improvement: "Blueprint for the Medical Home".
Blogs I read
- Apophenia
- Bibliothèque du CSSS de Laval
- Clinical Evidence, Searching Tidbits, and Other Minutiae
- David Rothman
- EBM and Clinical Support Librarians@UCHC
- Health LIS 2.0
- I'm Feeling Lucky
- Krafty Librarian
- Learn to Live
- Librarian in Black
- Librarian's Guide to Etiquette
- Librarians' RX
- Library Link of the Day
- omg tuna is kewl
- RSS4Lib
- Search Principle Blog
- Social Librarian
- The Other Librarian
- Unit Structures
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