ALIA West

January-February 2003

Evidence-based clinical practice workshops for library staff

ALIA Health Libraries Australia called for nominations from health librarians to attend a multi-disciplinary workshop in Adelaide conducted by the Australian Centre for Evidence-Based Clinical Practice.

Eight successful applicants were selected including three from Western Australia: Kerry Davies (King Edward Memorial Hospital Library), Catherine Clark (UWA Medical and Dental Library) and Terena Solomons (Hollywood Private Hospital Library).

The Evidence-Based Clinical Practice (EBCP) workshop was attended by 48 clinicians from wide ranging disciplines including GP's, radiologists, physiotherapists, social workers and nurses. Ruth Sladek, librarian from Repatriation General Hospital, Daw Park, SA conducted a plenary session on "Finding the Evidence". The visiting librarians assisted colleagues from Flinders University who conducted the hands-on session for locating the evidence.

This was an intensive and exhilarating three days. We all gained skills and understanding that we are looking forward to sharing. For us, the main benefits were gaining a model to integrate the many facets of evidence-based practice, and reinforcing of the distinction of searching for clinical queries as opposed to general literature searching.

ALIA funded us to attend the three day workshop and in return for ALIA's support we have agreed to provide resources and leadership to practicing library professionals in our locality and conduct local workshops on evidence-based clinical practice for library staff.

The first workshop is designed for health library staff and will be conducted on...
Date: Wednesday 19th February 2003
Time: 9:00-11:30am
Place: UWA Medical and Dental Library, Cnr Hospital and Monash Avenues, Nedlands
Price: $25 for ALIA members and $33 for non-ALIA members

This workshop will include:

• A brief introduction to evidence-based clinical practice
  
• Framing answerable clinical questions using the PICO model
  
• Identifying and searching sources of evidence using the 4S model
  
• A hands-on practice session using the information you have learnt

A second workshop, designed for library staff in Public, TAFE, school and other special libraries will be held during April 2003. This will look at the subject from a consumer health perspective and focus on free databases available on the internet. Watch this space for details.

To register your interest and for more information contact:

Kerry Davies kerry.davies@health.wa.gov.au, ph: 93401497

Catherine Clark cclark@library.uwa.edu.au, ph: 93467296

Terena Solomons terena@ramsayhealth.com.au, ph: 93466184

The attached photo is of the librarians from around Australia who attended the EBCP workshop:

L-R Catherine Clark (WA), Ann Ritchie (NT), Bronia Renison (QLD), Ruth Sladek (SA), Elizabeth Bell (QLD), Jane Shelling (ACT), Kerry Davies (WA), Terena Solomons (WA), John Stanton (NSW), Ruth Foxlee (QLD) absent.