Lifelong learning for nurses-building a strong future.

Lifelong learning is a key issue for the nursing profession. The literature reports effective collaboration between nurses and health sciences librarians to develop evidence-based programs for hospital staff nurses. In this collaboration the nurse provides the real-time practice issues and the health sciences librarian provides the expertise to retrieve the information from the literature. This column presents a current overview of the participation of health sciences librarians, particularly hospital librarians, in the development of programs and resources for nurses' lifelong learning.

Physicians' use of the personal digital assistant (PDA) in clinical decision making.

PURPOSE: This study examined how frequently attending physicians and physicians in training used personal digital assistants (PDAs) for patient care and explored physicians' perceptions of the impact of PDA use on several areas of clinical decision making. SETTING/SUBJECTS: The 108 participants included 59 attending physicians and 49 physicians in training from teaching hospitals in Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. METHODOLOGY: Respondents completed a questionnaire designed to explore PDA use in a clinical setting. RESULTS: Eighty-seven percent of the respondents reported PDA use for patient encounters. Fifty-five percent of respondents reported frequent use, and 32% reported occasional use of a PDA for patient care. Of the frequent PDA users, 85% said PDA use had influenced their overall clinical decision making and 73% mentioned treatment alterations specifically. Approximately 60% of the participants reporting occasional PDA use indicated that the PDA had influenced their overall clinical decision making, while 54% specifically mentioned a change to their patient's treatment plan. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: Attending physicians and physicians in training who used a PDA during patient encounters perceived that even occasional PDA use had an impact on their clinical decision making and treatment choices. Health sciences librarians are perfectly positioned to provide PDA training and assistance not only to physicians who are frequent PDA users, but also to those who are occasional users.

Digital chat reference in health science libraries: challenges in initiating a new service.

Digital reference service adds a valuable new dimension to health science reference services, but the road to implementation can present questions that require carefully considered decisions. This article incorporates suggestions from the published literature, provides tips from interviews with practicing academic health science librarians, and reports on data from students' exploration of academic health science library Web sites' digital reference services. The goal of this study is to provide guidelines to plan new services, assess user needs, and select software, and to showcase potential benefits of collaboration and proactive and user-friendly marketing. In addition, tips for successful operation and evaluation of services are discussed.

Digital reference service: trends in academic health science libraries.

Two years after the initial 2002 study, a greater number of academic health science libraries are offering digital reference chat services, and this number appears poised to grow in the coming years. This 2004 follow-up study found that 36 (27%) of the academic health science libraries examined provide digital chat reference services; this was an approximately 6% increase over the 25 libraries (21%) located in 2002. Trends in digital reference services in academic health science libraries were derived from the exploration of academic health science library Web sites and from digital correspondence with academic health science library personnel using e-mail and chat. This article presents an overview of the current state of digital reference service in academic health science libraries.

Chat reference service in medical libraries: part 1--An introduction.

Chat reference services offer the opportunity to provide immediate access to quality information to meet the medical information needs of students, faculty, staff, physicians, nurses, and allied health care professionals. Part 1 of this two-part article on chat reference service in medical libraries is an introduction to the management of chat reference services and to features available for chat reference. The management of chat reference services raises issues of planning, staffing, selecting, and marketing. Planning issues focus on the identification of the users, the users' medical information needs, and the users' information-seeking behavior. Staffing issues relate to the selection of chat hours, the location of the chat service, and participation in collaborative agreements. Selecting chat software weighs the sophistication of the chat features against the related cost. Marketing uses techniques similar to traditional reference services and often begins slowly as chat expertise develops. Part 2 of the article discusses trends in chat reference services in medical libraries.

Chat reference service in medical libraries: part 2--Trends in medical school libraries.

An increasing number of medical school libraries offer chat service to provide immediate, high quality information at the time and point of need to students, faculty, staff, and health care professionals. Part 2 of Chat Reference Service in Medical Libraries presents a snapshot of the current trends in chat reference service in medical school libraries. In late 2002, 25 (21%) medical school libraries provided chat reference. Trends in chat reference services in medical school libraries were compiled from an exploration of medical school library Web sites and informal correspondence from medical school library personnel. Many medical libraries are actively investigating and planning new chat reference services, while others have decided not to pursue chat reference at this time. Anecdotal comments from medical school library staff provide insights into chat reference service.