Hello everyone, I’m Stephanie Burns and I’ve recently joined the Library and Knowledge team at Southport and Ormskirk Hospitals NHS Trust as a Librarian. My library background has been predominantly in the HE and FE sector. I’ve worked in a number of places… from the Shetland Isles, where I’m originally from, to the North West of England via Aberdeen and Dubai! However, my very first professional library role was in the NHS many years ago when I worked for the-then Grampian Health Board in Aberdeen. So, when I saw this job advertised, I decided to make the leap back into the NHS and I’m so delighted I did!…

Read this article

My name is Karen Storms and I’m a new starter, having just joined as Assistant Librarian at the Royal Oldham Hospital for the Northern Care Alliance. My library experience is mostly in educational settings and small specialty libraries so I am brand-new to healthcare. Most recently, I worked as a consultant librarian, offering my services to institutions that needed a professional librarian but couldn’t afford a full-time post or simply needed my expertise for a short-term big project. All of this work has been done in Hertfordshire so as well as starting a new job, I’m also moving house soon. NCA has welcomed me and got me off to an exciting start! I look forward to being part of the Northern Health Libraries community, and I am certain I will be asking a lot of questions.…

Read this article

Hello, my name is Sarah Bowman-Worrall and I have recently joined the Manchester Foundation Trust team as an Assistant Librarian. Whilst I have a Master’s in Library and Information Management, all of my previous library experience related to academic libraries, so it was a big step for me to dive into the world of clinical librarianship. However, I had nothing to fear as everyone in the trust has been so welcoming, helpful, and patient that it has been easy for me to adjust to this new role. I find myself learning something new every day whether that be in relation to outreach, book buying, or literature searching, so I know that this is a role that will never bore me. I am looking forward to contributing to all of the amazing services that the trust has to offer and getting to know more about the world of NHS libraries.…

Read this article

My name is Amy Tyrrell and I have recently started the role of Assistant Librarian for Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. My first library job after completing my MA in Library and Information Management was as a library assistant within a college library system. After building my core library skills in an academic environment, I am very excited to now be in a position where I can help medical staff gain access to the resources they need. As my role is based at North Manchester General Hospital, I’m particularly looking forward to promoting our library service by helping people learn how to search healthcare databases and building and refreshing our collection of core and fiction books.…

Read this article

I have been interested in peer review of literature searches for quite some time. At the International Clinical Librarian Conference in 2017 I was intrigued by a conference poster which described risk of bias in published systematic reviews due to avoidable failures in searching. At the same event I attended an excellent workshop on assessing search strategies, where more fascinating, amusing and frankly shocking details of published search strategies were aired. Kate Misso and Janine Ross from Kleijnen took us through using the ROBIS tool to judge risk of bias from common inadequacies found in reported search strategies in systematic reviews. Then we used the PRESS Evidence Based Checklist to evaluate a search strategy. Using what I’d learnt I facilitated a peer review programme at Doncaster & Bassetlaw where once a quarter we each did the same search and then looked our approaches to spot differences, similarities and discuss what worked and what didn’t etc. It was useful, if more than a little artificial, but often it was too hard to justify spending the time on a “fake” search when there were plenty of the real thing coming in thick and fast!…

Read this article

I have joined the CNTW Library and Knowledge Service team in a new role as a Knowledge Manager. A key part of my remit will be identifying the knowledge and evidence needs of CNTW staff, and looking at effective ways to identify, capture and share valuable knowledge. Prior to this role, I was a Knowledge and Evidence Specialist at the UKHSA (formerly Public Health England), supporting local authority public health teams in the North East with evidence to support Covid-19 response and recovery. I’ve previously worked for the NHS in an acute trust, as well as university libraries in Open Access, Research Data Management, subscriptions and customer service. I’m really looking forward to building this new role and continuing to make connections with you all across the NHS library workforce.…

Read this article

Last month I told a personal story at BDCFT's monthly Schwartz Round on the topic of 'Removing the Barriers'. For those unfamiliar with Schwartz Rounds (SR) – their main purpose is to find and/or elicit the personal in the professional and to connect us as a (Schwartz) community within our organisation. SR are for clinical and non-clinical staff throughout the organisation, thus challenging ideas about hierarchy and professional status. The experience is fully-supported by mental health professionals and all those attending are completely non-judgemental.…

Read this article

Hello everyone, my name is Tracey Garbarino. I have many years’ experience of working in school libraries from Carlisle, the Great Border City to Ho Chi Minh City. I am passionate about continuous learning, have a thirst for knowledge and am a firm believer in collaboration being the key to success.…

Read this article

This is a reflection on the process of getting from research idea to published paper. I should say from the start that this isn’t a journey taken by an experienced research professional. There were a few potholes on the way, and I hit them all. The motivation for this enterprise? Of course, a thirst for knowledge, but primarily the Quality Improvement Outcome Framework Outcome Five. If you don’t know this is the one that requires our services to be evidence based and encourages research. As this reflection is focused on process, not content, I will explain the research idea here and then move on. The idea was to record audio feedback on research results and post a link to the audio in an eMail. The aim to make our communication with end users, who almost always contacted us via eMail, more informative and engaging. The project was rather unimaginatively called the Audio Feedback Project. So, in the tradition of the blog genre, here are 10 things I learned.…

Read this article

In June 2021, the Leeds Community Healthcare (LCH) Library, in conjunction with the Leeds Primary Care Workforce and Training Hub, submitted a joint expression of interest to Health Education England (HEE) to become a pilot site to have funding for a Knowledge Specialist in Primary Care. The bid was successful, and Ingrid Francis came into the post (funded for two years) in November 2021. Whilst other pilot sites across the country have system (ICS) wide coverage, our pilot is place based – we have a Training Hub for Leeds, and the Knowledge Specialist role is for Leeds.…

Read this article