that – and to see it played back so clearly through the ways in which these Services inform decisions – whether on clinical guidelines or treatment options for an individual patient, or service design, is really something. These are decisions that should be based on the very best evi- dence – and library services staff in Trusts can bring that together, taking a wealth of evidence from research and across a range of experience and specific insight - or ‘know- how’ for short – enabling NHS profession- als to use that knowledge effectively.”
The right decisions
Under Sue’s watch, NHS knowledge and library services staff have been able to bring to life the diversity of their work and their real impact. Much of this is thanks to the #AMillionDecisions campaign, a partnership between Health Education England and CILIP Health Libraries Group. Recognising the enormous num- ber of decisions taken across the NHS every single day, this initiative spotlights the significant role that knowledge and library specialists can play in ensuring these are evidence-informed.
“The #AMillionDecisions campaign really helps to shine a light on the importance of knowledge for decision-making and the valuable work of information profession- als in nurturing the NHS as the learning
22 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
organisation that the health service strives to be.
“It has given a platform to recruit won-
derful champions to tell their story of working with librarians and for knowledge and library specialists to articulate the difference they make. #AMillionDecisions gives teams a stage on which to show- case the impact that evidence brings to bear, and how their skills in searching for evidence, and managing knowledge help health professionals improve patient safety, reduce costs, lead effective change management programmes, and redesign the workforce. Yes, the knowledge service helps clinicians keep up to date with key information in their world – but it is so much more than that, supporting roles in research, quality improvement, manage- ment, finance, procurement and more.” Sue adds: “The ambition now is to con- tinue to use our Knowledge for Healthcare framework as a change agent – a tool to drive innovation and improvement, to ensure that the work and expertise of library teams underpins decision-making across the system.”
And, as the first NHS Knowledge and Library Services Awareness Week rolls out, Sue expects that the enhancements that knowledge services are making to assist NHS staff and learners will come into sharper focus. There are five key
themes driving the work. “We’re looking at a new digital infrastructure to streamline access to knowledge and library resources. That’s a huge programme of work that will see us invest in a national resource dis- covery system that will connect in with local library systems and improve our digital offer to the workforce. Currently we have 91 library management systems across the 183 services operating in England. Working in partnership with local teams, we will be consolidating these to less than 10, simplifying access to knowledge resources.
“Mobilising evidence from research is not only about ensuring that it is discoverable but also about disseminat- ing information effectively, and sharing it in formats that can be used easily. Equally, it is about us tapping into staff know-how, and promoting tools and techniques that help staff mobilise knowledge. We are here, in a digital age, and there is a tremendous need to accelerate the spread and adoption of innovation across the NHS. That’s one of the outcomes we’re aiming to achieve through Knowledge for Healthcare.” “Knowledge services are business critical. The national team in Health Education England assures the quality of health library services on behalf of the
June 2021
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
