June saw two Clinical Librarians, and one Librarian visiting Leicester to present at the International Clinical Librarians Conference. Take two hot summer days, a large roomful of medical librarians, a wealth of information, e-posters, long talks and lightning talks, and what you have is an invaluable learning experience.
‘It’s a monthly selfcare ritual‘
Day 1 saw Lisa and I presenting an e-poster about the SWFT and GEH Wellbeing Reading Groups.
The poster was based on a survey we had carried out among our Reading Group members, and incorporated some statistics about the benefits of reading from the Reading Agency.
This was my first experience of presenting to fellow librarians, and while short, it was well received, leading to lots of follow up questions from colleagues at the time, and also later on in the conference.
Together yet apart
On Day 2, Rayanne and Lisa’s long paper presentation on working in the same role at different sites was very popular. Some people at the ICLC were also solo working clinical librarians, and said how interesting they found the way they worked together.
As our Trust works across the two sites (George Eliot and South Warwickshire) I think the long paper shed some valuable light into the differences as well as the similarities of the roles, as well as the needs of the hospitals.
Completing the circle
After lunch on day 2, Lisa gave her lightning talk on how a scoping search on VR in medical education, VR in midwifery, and then in midwifery education resulted in our KLS Lead aiding a pregnant mannequin to give birth.
Perhaps not unsurprisingly, this talk (and the accompanying pictures) may have got the most reaction in the room!
We quite liked the Randomised Coffee Trial between the UK and USA which had started as part of a journal club. While the original concept was that colleagues in similar roles in the two separate countries would discuss the similarities and differences in their roles and work life balance, people were free to discuss whatever they wanted. This made us all think about the possibilities of having something similar between GEH and SWFT in the future, where people from different sectors could be paired and go and have a virtual (or real) coffee and chat.
I found the talk on Cultivating Health Literacy Awareness very interesting, partly as I used to live in the area they discussed, and partly because it is a topic I find interesting. The library concerned had organised an hour’s accredited training on the subject – while there wasn’t as high attendance from doctors as they’d hoped, they did have midwives, health visitors, nurses, and administrative staff come along. Their plans that that this could be incorporated as a lunch and learn session, and also hearing that they plan to introduce ‘jargon cards’ for doctors was good, and something that we could potentially adopt at SWFT and GEH in the future.
Other sessions such as the one on engaging learners in online training sessions* made us realise that no matter what Trust you work at, we all face the same issues. Getting people to attend sessions and keeping their attention when they already have so many calls on it, was something that everybody acknowledged was a problem. It was interesting hearing how they were dealing with it, and what suggestions they had.
*(On this note, if you do want any training – whether literature searching, or critical appraisal, you know where to come!)
All in all, it was a great experience and a very valuable one, which I would recommend!