Hospital Librarians' Perceptions Related to Evidence-Based Health Care

Abstract

According to the 2006 needs assessment conducted by the Hospital Libraries Section (HLS) of the Medical Library Association (MLA), 30.4% of the members responding to the assessment considered evidence-based medicine (EBM) the most important issue they would face in their workplace over the next three years [1]. The responsibilities and support systems of hospital librarians desiring to foster clinicians' practice of evidence-based health care (EBHC) might vary significantly from those of academic librarians. Scherrer et al. reported, “The academic librarian who supports active evidence-based practice curricula in health professions colleges will need teaching approaches that are appropriate for instruction of students in a classroom, while the hospital librarian may be looking for point-of-need instructional techniques that would be effective with residents and clinicians” [2]. While the EBHC support–related needs of individual librarians in either the academic or hospital settings will likely include other approaches as well, the specific needs and attitudes of hospital librarians toward EBHC have not been well explored. This paper reports data collected via a larger survey of hospital librarians regarding hospital librarians' perceptions of the skills required to support EBHC. Results of the survey may be used to inform exploration of the extent to which EBHC has penetrated beyond the academic medical library sphere into the domain of the hospital library and indicate areas for further training for librarians.