Clinical Librarian blog- on the cusp

Today feels like a day on the cusp. On the cusp of the election, on the cusp of Christmas, on the cusp of the year. I’m on the cusp of sending through my first chartership portfolio draft, and it’s been a  long time coming. I think I’ve procrastinated far too much with it, but in my defence, even though some lovely colleagues shared theirs with me, I hadn’t really grasped what I needed to do, or what form it needed to be in. I’m not a natural reflective writer either, so that’s been a steep learning curve- a useful one though, as it’s a tool that has helped me to make sense of my CPD activities, as well as helping me to focus on what’s important. So- almost- yay me! Almost… I’m on the cusp!

So, what news to share with you all? We have a fine set of Dickensian mice sharing our library for the festive season, the tree is up, the weather is vile… but I guess most of that’s true where you are too. Well, maybe not the mice, there can’t be 2 sets of Dickensian library mice. I’ve been on some fabulous training (when haven’t I?), this time braving a trip to London to train to be a Schwartz Round facilitator. If you don’t know about Schwartz Rounds, then go to the Point of Care Foundation web site, and you’ll find out all about them. They’re a fantastic forum to exploring the emotional side of working in healthcare, and help promote staff resilience. All round good stuff, and I enjoyed the training immensely, although my journey home was hellish.

I also attended a Navigating the Deep Web Course at UHDB, led by Karen Blakeman. What an eye opener that was- lots to think about, lots to put into my daily practice, lots of biscuits to eat. Always great when you come home with tips and tricks to tell the kids about searching. Not that they were particularly interested, but the fact that I felt moved to tell them is enough!

We’re onto another reading group book- this time it’s The Maker of Swans by Padraic O’Donnell. I’m only a few pages in so far, and I haven’t really been grabbed by it, but there’s time! It’s a fab cover- they say never judge a book by its cover, but I do pick up a lot of books because the cover’s caught my eye.

 

Wishing you a very happy Christmas and a splendid new year. 2020- how on earth did that happen?