Job summary
Do you want to help shape clinical and managerial decision-making at an innovative integrated care organisation?
This will be the first clinical librarian role at Torbay & South Devon NHS Foundation Trust and is a real opportunity for the postholder to set up a new service to grow and influence evidence-based practice throughout the Trust. This is an exciting opportunity that will suit a proactive, self-motivated and dynamic individual with a passion for improving patient care.
The postholder will be based in the library as part of a small, friendly team, but a large proportion of time will involve active outreach work and collaboration with other departments across the organisation. The postholder will be involved in evidence searching, information skills training, current awareness provision, and promotion and marketing. This will be an agile role, enabling the postholder to work onsite and remotely, and will offer a great deal of autonomy.
The ideal candidate will be an independent self-starter, able to communicate with a range of people across the organisation, take responsibility for shaping the new service and create opportunities to be involved in the work of other departments. The post is located at Torbay Hospital, in the beautiful county of Devon, with its plentiful supply of sandy beaches and stunning moorland.
Main duties of the job
The core purpose of the Clinical Librarian will be:
- To develop and manage a specialist Clinical Librarian service
- To facilitate the effective utilisation of the health and social care knowledge base in support of the delivery of evidence-based patient care, clinical and managerial decision making, clinical governance, staff education, CPD, lifelong learning and research at point of need
- To deliver training on specialist knowledge resources
- To ensure awareness of clinical librarian services through effective marketing and promotion
About us
The Library and Information Services team leads in NHS information service delivery across Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust. The LIS service helps to improve patient care by enabling and transforming the way professionals use evidence-based information.
Our services include:
- Teaching information skills via group sessions, one-to-ones and WebEx
- Expertise from trained, knowledgeable staff
- Library resources guides (contact us for alternative formats, e.g. large print)
- A regularly updated website available from work and home
- Quiet study spaces and informal group study areas
- Access to clinical journals, about 4,500 print texts and 1,200 ebooks
- IT facilities with Internet access and Microsoft Office
- Printing and scanning facilities
- Outreach Library
Why work with us
The Government has formally announced that it intends to introduce regulations that will require most healthcare workers to be fully vaccinated (1st and 2nd dose) against COVID-19 by 1st April 2022. To achieve this the successful applicant must have had their 1stCOVID-19 vaccination by 3rd February 2022. Therefore, full COVID-19 vaccination will be a condition of employment unless an individual is medically exempt. We will ask for proof of vaccination or exemption during the recruitment process.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Service Provision:
- Develop and manage a clinical librarian service. This will build upon the work already undertaken by the core library service, with specific reference to exploiting opportunities throughout the Integrated Care Organisation (ICO) to develop this offering. This may include attending ward rounds, clinical meetings, audit meetings, journal clubs and other multi-disciplinary meetings which address patient care, research, clinical effectiveness and other quality issues.
- Pick up on the needs of clinical team members and proactively offer literature searches and alerting services where appropriate.
- Answer enquiries at the point of need using online databases such as Medline, Embase, Cochrane, PsycInfo, BNI, CINAHL, Emcare, SocIndex, Health Business Elite, and other appropriate resources.
- Disseminate information and knowledge within clinical/managerial teams and monitor how this information is acted upon, modifying delivery mechanisms to ensure the most effective dissemination.
- Manage the delivery of tailored current awareness services to individuals and teams in order to alert them to new information and evidence in their areas of practice.
- Use critical appraisal skills to select and evaluate the literature and prepare summaries or digests if required.
- Promote the development of critical appraisal skills in the Trust.
- Design, deliver and evaluate information skills training programmes which offer one-to-one and group training sessions across the ICO. These may be online or in person. They should cover:
-
- information search skills across all NHS provided databases,
- critical appraisal skills
- the use of referencing software
- Initiate journal clubs, if they do not exist, or attend those that do, providing a forum for presentation, discussion and evaluation of research evidence.
Planning and Organisation:
- Promote evidence-based practice in the trust.
- Design, deliver and evaluate information skills training programmes.
- In conjunction with clinicians and senior decision makers and the Library Manager proactively develop the clinical librarian role.
- Evaluate the service, prepare and deliver progress reports and make recommendations on the future direction of the service.
- Manage time in order to meet tight deadlines.
- Organise attendance at relevant meetings and training sessions, prioritising to resolve timetable clashes.
Responsibility for Patient/Client Care, Treatment & Therapy:
- Actively participate in multidisciplinary team meetings to provide information and evidence to support clinical decision-making
- Provide information and evidence in support of projects and research that leads to changes in practice for better patient care.
- Provide evidence-based information for patients, if required.
Communication and Working Relationships:
- Regular reporting to the Library Manager.
- Proactively identify and liaise with key clinical and managerial decision makers, including Learning and Development, Clinical Governance, Medical and Nurse Education Leads, Innovation Leads, Quality Improvement Leads, and Excellence Leads.
- Work as part of the Library team, fostering relationships with the South West region library network and national clinical librarian forums.
- The post holder will need to:
- Work in partnership with clinical and non-clinical colleagues on special information-seeking projects
- Determine the best means of supporting the information and training needs of staff
- Use regular interaction with key staff to foster an evidence-seeking culture throughout the ICO
- Deliver presentations and reports to relevant bodies
Policy, Service, Research & Development Responsibility:
- Work with the Library & Knowledge Services Manager in the development of library policies.
- Contribute to south west libraries regional policies through membership of the SWIMS Network Trainers Group.
- Provide information and evidence to support the development of trust-wide clinical guidelines and ward-based policies.
- Disseminate new local and national guidelines to the clinical team via current awareness alerts.
- Work directly with individuals or teams that are engaged in research to provide evidence-based information.
- Provide training in searching skills or critical appraisal skills to staff undertaking research or project work.
- Coordinate examples of value and impact, submitting case studies to the national repository
- Assist in budget management relating to procurement of appropriate resources in order to support and develop the clinical librarian services, and wider LKS functions
Information Resources & Administrative Duties:
- Maintain an expert knowledge of all regional and national library e-systems, especially health and social care databases and KnowledgeShare.
- Maintain an expert knowledge of all library printed resources in order to recommend appropriate material to customers and assist purchasing decisions.
- Be fully conversant with all information technology used within the library setting and liaise with IT technicians should problems arise.
- Contribute to the development and maintenance of the library service website.
- Carry out general library tasks as needed, e.g. work on the enquiry desk when required, handle enquiries and other tasks commensurate with the banding.
- Support cataloguing and resource purchasing and management in conjunction with the Library Manager
- Collate information for the National Annual Statistical Return and the Quality and Improvement Outcomes Framework
- Work as part of the LKS team, suggesting improvements to the service where appropriate, taking notes at team meetings when required
- Keep up to date on all library day-to-day procedures in order to cover for lower grade staff during staffing emergencies.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Service Provision:
- Develop and manage a clinical librarian service. This will build upon the work already undertaken by the core library service, with specific reference to exploiting opportunities throughout the Integrated Care Organisation (ICO) to develop this offering. This may include attending ward rounds, clinical meetings, audit meetings, journal clubs and other multi-disciplinary meetings which address patient care, research, clinical effectiveness and other quality issues.
- Pick up on the needs of clinical team members and proactively offer literature searches and alerting services where appropriate.
- Answer enquiries at the point of need using online databases such as Medline, Embase, Cochrane, PsycInfo, BNI, CINAHL, Emcare, SocIndex, Health Business Elite, and other appropriate resources.
- Disseminate information and knowledge within clinical/managerial teams and monitor how this information is acted upon, modifying delivery mechanisms to ensure the most effective dissemination.
- Manage the delivery of tailored current awareness services to individuals and teams in order to alert them to new information and evidence in their areas of practice.
- Use critical appraisal skills to select and evaluate the literature and prepare summaries or digests if required.
- Promote the development of critical appraisal skills in the Trust.
- Design, deliver and evaluate information skills training programmes which offer one-to-one and group training sessions across the ICO. These may be online or in person. They should cover:
-
- information search skills across all NHS provided databases,
- critical appraisal skills
- the use of referencing software
- Initiate journal clubs, if they do not exist, or attend those that do, providing a forum for presentation, discussion and evaluation of research evidence.
Planning and Organisation:
- Promote evidence-based practice in the trust.
- Design, deliver and evaluate information skills training programmes.
- In conjunction with clinicians and senior decision makers and the Library Manager proactively develop the clinical librarian role.
- Evaluate the service, prepare and deliver progress reports and make recommendations on the future direction of the service.
- Manage time in order to meet tight deadlines.
- Organise attendance at relevant meetings and training sessions, prioritising to resolve timetable clashes.
Responsibility for Patient/Client Care, Treatment & Therapy:
- Actively participate in multidisciplinary team meetings to provide information and evidence to support clinical decision-making
- Provide information and evidence in support of projects and research that leads to changes in practice for better patient care.
- Provide evidence-based information for patients, if required.
Communication and Working Relationships:
- Regular reporting to the Library Manager.
- Proactively identify and liaise with key clinical and managerial decision makers, including Learning and Development, Clinical Governance, Medical and Nurse Education Leads, Innovation Leads, Quality Improvement Leads, and Excellence Leads.
- Work as part of the Library team, fostering relationships with the South West region library network and national clinical librarian forums.
- The post holder will need to:
- Work in partnership with clinical and non-clinical colleagues on special information-seeking projects
- Determine the best means of supporting the information and training needs of staff
- Use regular interaction with key staff to foster an evidence-seeking culture throughout the ICO
- Deliver presentations and reports to relevant bodies
Policy, Service, Research & Development Responsibility:
- Work with the Library & Knowledge Services Manager in the development of library policies.
- Contribute to south west libraries regional policies through membership of the SWIMS Network Trainers Group.
- Provide information and evidence to support the development of trust-wide clinical guidelines and ward-based policies.
- Disseminate new local and national guidelines to the clinical team via current awareness alerts.
- Work directly with individuals or teams that are engaged in research to provide evidence-based information.
- Provide training in searching skills or critical appraisal skills to staff undertaking research or project work.
- Coordinate examples of value and impact, submitting case studies to the national repository
- Assist in budget management relating to procurement of appropriate resources in order to support and develop the clinical librarian services, and wider LKS functions
Information Resources & Administrative Duties:
- Maintain an expert knowledge of all regional and national library e-systems, especially health and social care databases and KnowledgeShare.
- Maintain an expert knowledge of all library printed resources in order to recommend appropriate material to customers and assist purchasing decisions.
- Be fully conversant with all information technology used within the library setting and liaise with IT technicians should problems arise.
- Contribute to the development and maintenance of the library service website.
- Carry out general library tasks as needed, e.g. work on the enquiry desk when required, handle enquiries and other tasks commensurate with the banding.
- Support cataloguing and resource purchasing and management in conjunction with the Library Manager
- Collate information for the National Annual Statistical Return and the Quality and Improvement Outcomes Framework
- Work as part of the LKS team, suggesting improvements to the service where appropriate, taking notes at team meetings when required
- Keep up to date on all library day-to-day procedures in order to cover for lower grade staff during staffing emergencies.
Person Specification
Qualifications and Training
Essential
- Postgraduate library qualification and/or MCLIP
Desirable
- Evidence of continuing professional development
Knowledge and Skills
Essential
- Experience working as part of a successful team, with demonstrable skills as a team player
- Experience of critical appraisal and complex literature searching using databases and web-based technology.
- Experience in the delivery of presentations.
- Experience in the delivery of user education.
- Experience in the provision of enquiry services.
- Highly developed IT skills within a networked and library environment.
- Competent usage of MS Office and web browser software.
- Excellent customer care skills and a service orientation.
- Ability to work on own initiative / unsupervised and to tight schedules.
- Ability to understand and absorb information and find solutions to problems.
- Good organisational skills and a methodical approach to work.
- Ability to 'think on your feet' and troubleshoot
Desirable
- Experience of developing e-learning material
- Good negotiating skills
Special Experience
Essential
- At least 3 years' experience of health library work in a professional post.
- Experience of abstracting and writing summaries
Desirable
- Experience of working with clinical teams
- Experience of creating web pages
Personal Requirements
Essential
- Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written and be able to demonstrate these both on the telephone and in one to one and group situations
- Excellent interpersonal skills
- Self-motivated and able to learn quickly
- The confidence to interact with health care staff at all levels within the organisation
- Professionalism, enthusiasm and commitment to proactive service development
Person Specification
Qualifications and Training
Essential
- Postgraduate library qualification and/or MCLIP
Desirable
- Evidence of continuing professional development
Knowledge and Skills
Essential
- Experience working as part of a successful team, with demonstrable skills as a team player
- Experience of critical appraisal and complex literature searching using databases and web-based technology.
- Experience in the delivery of presentations.
- Experience in the delivery of user education.
- Experience in the provision of enquiry services.
- Highly developed IT skills within a networked and library environment.
- Competent usage of MS Office and web browser software.
- Excellent customer care skills and a service orientation.
- Ability to work on own initiative / unsupervised and to tight schedules.
- Ability to understand and absorb information and find solutions to problems.
- Good organisational skills and a methodical approach to work.
- Ability to 'think on your feet' and troubleshoot
Desirable
- Experience of developing e-learning material
- Good negotiating skills
Special Experience
Essential
- At least 3 years' experience of health library work in a professional post.
- Experience of abstracting and writing summaries
Desirable
- Experience of working with clinical teams
- Experience of creating web pages
Personal Requirements
Essential
- Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written and be able to demonstrate these both on the telephone and in one to one and group situations
- Excellent interpersonal skills
- Self-motivated and able to learn quickly
- The confidence to interact with health care staff at all levels within the organisation
- Professionalism, enthusiasm and commitment to proactive service development
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
Additional information
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
