%0 Journal Article
%T Study of Limited Value in Exploring Irish Hospital Clinicians＊ Information Behaviour and Attitudes Towards the Clinical Informationist. A Review of: Flynn, M. G., & McGuinness, C. (2011). Hospital clinicians＊ information behaviour and attitudes towards the ＆Clinical Informationist＊: An Irish survey. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 28(1), 23-32. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-1842.2010.00917.x
%A Maria C. Melssen
%J Evidence Based Library and Information Practice
%D 2011
%I University of Alberta
%X Objective 每 To determine the self-perceived information needs, information-seeking strategies, and skill levels of hospital clinicians, in addition to their opinions on the inclusion of a clinical informationist (CI) in their clinical teams. Design 每 Questionnaire survey. Setting 每 Two public, medium-sized teaching hospitals (200-250 beds) in Ireland. Subjects 每 Hospital clinicians. Methods 每 A 33-item questionnaire (pilot tested on nurses) was deployed using SurveyMonkey. Participants were recruited using snowball sampling and were emailed the link to the questionnaire in June, July, and August of 2008. Hard copies of the questionnaire were also distributed at one of the hospitals; the librarian at this hospital manually entered the responses into SurveyMonkey. Survey results were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Main Results 每 Of 230 eligible hospital clinicians (HCs), 22 participated in the survey. Of the HCs surveyed, 90% spend ※over 21 hours per week engaged in patient care§ (p. 26). During this time the HCs generate an average of 1-5 clinical questions each. The HCs surveyed frequently required information on the latest research on a specific topic, treatment, or patient problem. Information on diagnosis, drugs, prognosis, new therapies and products, or the latest information on a disease area, was required less frequently, but still by at least one-third of participants.Not having the time to conduct searches was the greatest barrier to information seeking for HCs. HCs spend from 1-10 hours per week on investigating answers to clinical questions. Most of this information seeking occurs outside of working hours, either at home or during breaks at work.To answer their clinical questions, 90% of the HCs use published, medical literature. The resources used by HCs include textbooks (30%), journals (30%), the Internet (19%), colleagues (17%), and databases (4%). The most important factors that influence resource choices are access to electronic or Internet resources: 60% prefer electronic resources rather than print resources. Additional influential factors included whether the resource was evidence-based, if it provided concise summaries of the information provided, and if the information could be found in a paper copy. HCs in this study also consult colleagues regularly, and their proximity to a colleague for consultation was a factor.The HCs rated their search skills very high: over half (55%) rated their ability to find information as good, 15% believed they were very good, 25% felt they were average, and 5% rated themselves as poor. The HCs
%K hospital clinicians
%K clinical informationist
%K information seeking skills and strategies
%U http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/EBLIP/article/view/10978/9390