The difference that KLS staff can make #2
Post from a HEE supported student on the UCL Health Module.
Reflections from students on the UCL Health Module (2023) – part 1
In the early part of this year HEE Knowledge and Library team members and colleagues from services across England once again had the privilege of supporting the delivery of a Health Librarianship module for Library and Information Studies students at University College London (UCL).
Ten weekly sessions were delivered, on a variety of topics, with the aim of giving the students a broad look at the structure of NHS Knowledge and Library Services.
As part of their assignment, we asked the students to write reflective pieces looking at a topic they had enjoyed from the course. Here is a second piece for you to read. I hope you enjoy their reflections as much as I did.
The Impact of Library and Knowledge Services
An area of learning from the first few weeks of teaching that has been of great interest is that surrounding the impact that Library and Knowledge Services has on the NHS.
Evidence based practice is of great importance for providing a good level of care, and research into this proves the need for quality information that can shape care in a positive way and provide a sustainable healthcare system (Hopkins et al., 2021). For example, an independent report found that the freeing up of clinician’s time through research literature searches provided by libraries could have potentially saved the NHS £70million a year (EconomicsByDesign, 2020).
In order to provide evidence of the impact that the literature searches conducted by an information professional has provided, the use of impact reports has become a valued way of documenting and displaying how and where the research uncovered has been used to influence decision making. Through the implementation of Health Education England and CILIP’s A Million Decisions Campaign, it is of great importance to measure how information professionals are utilised to positively influence the decisions made in the NHS every day (CILIP, 2023).
To give an example of the impact created, Oxford Health Libraries (2022) published their annual report of the use of their services between 2020 and 2021. The report found that through the 246 searches completed that year, they were able to save an estimated 262 days of time for their full-time workers and stakeholders (Oxford Health Libraries, 2022).
Impact can be easily demonstrated when it is quantifiable as it gives a visual aid to explain changes that have been made. Health Education England share case studies in which staff and stakeholders explain how the information service has helped them, along with evidence of immediate and expected impact (Health Education England, 2021). An example from Somerset NHS Foundation Trust found that after an enquiry to the Library regarding cost improvement programmes across Somerset was presented to the directors, £20million was able to be saved and redistributed into the service to improve provisions (Health Education England, 2022).
However, with time being a much-needed resource that is short in supply, it can be difficult to gain evidence for impact reports from those that have utilized the library service due to a lack of time and availability of members of staff to fill these forms out. For instance, staff in the NHS are known to experience survey fatigue due to the need for regular feedback in the services that they provide (NHS England, 2022).
Research through NHS England into the Annual NHS Staff Survey found that staff members are likely to provide feedback to forms when they can see evidence and results for themselves (NHS England, 2022). Therefore, promotion of impact case studies is likely to influence staff to contact their Library with more search enquiries and encourage them to write their own case studies afterwards.
Overall, the demonstration of how the Library and Knowledge Services can help the NHS to provide their services is inspirational as it shows how the work that is carried out can change so many areas for the better.
Naoise Standing