Author: Jason Curtis

Accessing full-text is even easier in KnowledgeShare evidence updates

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There has been a change in the way full-text links in KnowledgeShare Evidence Updates are provided that should make it easier for you to access the full-text of articles you are alerted to.

Where a resource (usually a journal article) has a link that says ‘Check for full-text availability’ you'll be taken to the LibKey system. The first time you use it, you'll need to specify which organisation you work for. Once you've done that, you'll be provided with links to the full-text (if we have access) or a link to our request form (if we don’t) which will automatically populate with the resource details to make it really easy to order a copy.

You'll need an NHS OpenAthens account to view full-text articles or to order items from us.

You may also see a link to 'View article in context' and this will allow you browse the contents of the journal issue where the article is.

If you haven't already signed up, our KnowledgeShare Evidence Update service is a personalised current awareness service allowing you to receive new evidence on topics  tailored to your requirements. It covers policy documents, guidance, reports, and a range of summarised evidence, so you won’t be inundated with primary research articles, and emails are sent each fortnight.

 

Get easier access to journal articles with LibKey Nomad

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LibKey Nomad is a browser extension available for Edge, Chrome and Firefox that makes accessing the full-text of journal articles much easier. Once installed it indicates if an article is available in full-text through your library. Simply install the extension and select the organisation you work for. It works for all NHS organisations, so is available to staff of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust and Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust.

As well as checking library subscriptions, LibKey Nomad also checks to see if the article is available via open access.

LibKey Nomad works on many publisher websites, along with PubMed and Wikipedia, and adds links to access the full-text or PDF (where available) making it easier to login and access the full-text quickly.

Visit our website for more browser extensions and mobile apps to make finding the evidence easier.

Mobilising Knowledge with Peer Assists

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A peer assist is a knowledge management tool where peers (perhaps four or five people) from another team are invited to share insights, experience and knowledge at a facilitated meeting.

This might be to support a team that are looking to embark on a project or service change, or that have a specific problem or challenge, and want to know what worked (or what didn't) from another team that has similar experience. A peer assist can bring knowledge and experience to the point of need.

Peer assists allow people to learn from other people's experiences and knowledge, establish an open culture of learning, support networking, and stimulate new perspectives. They are part of the process of 'learning before doing' and are about gathering knowledge before embarking on an activity or project, or when facing a difficulty in the course of related events.

The home team asking for the peer assist needs to have clear objectives of what they want to gain from the meeting. Peers can come from within the organisation, or outside it, but are people with experience of the issue.

How do they work?

  • A facilitator is appointed, and lots of notice given. Background information is circulated to the home team and the visiting peers
  • Allow some time for socialising before the meeting, to build some rapport between the home team and the visitors
  • At the meeting, the home team presents the context and any plans, issues and opportunities, and say what they'd like to get out of the meeting
  • The visiting peers ask questions, and provide feedback on what worked (or what didn't) for them, and provide recommendations, options or guidance
  • The home team reflects on what's been said, and examines options
  • The visitors provide feedback, answer questions, and suggests some actions for the home team

Meeting can be face-to-face or virtual, and the time can be anything from 1.5 hours to half a day (or even longer if necessary!). Flipcharts are ideal for face-to-face meetings, but someone on the home team should take detailed notes as well.

It's important to remember that as well learning from experience, the evidence base needs to be taken into consideration as well when making decisions. Library staff are able to conduct evidence searches to support decision-making, or find case studies or what worked elsewhere.

Peer assists are not peer reviews - the visiting team are not coming to critique the home team, but to transfer knowledge.

Further reading

 

 

Learn more about using UpToDate to provide care with confidence

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The UpToDate clinical decision support tool provides evidence-based advice on over 11,000 topics to support the diagnoses, treatment and management of common and rare conditions. It can be accessing onsite via the Intranet, or off-site using an NHS OpenAthens account or a personal account created onsite. Mobile apps are also available, and for more information on the various ways to access UpToDate, visit our UpToDate page.

UpToDate are offering a free 30-minute live training session to help you make the best use of UpToDate and explore some of the ways it can help you. Topics covered include:

  • Creating an account
  • Earning and submitting CME/CPD
  • Conducting a normal or advanced search
  • Help reduce medication errors with Drugs & Drug Interactions
  • COVID-19 common questions and answers
  • What's New & Practice Changing Updates
  • Patient engagement and safety

The training is on Tuesday, May 18th at 2.30pm and is being carried on Microsoft Teams. To join, simply follow this link at the time - there is no need to book.

 

 

 

 

Keep informed of the latest research with 'Read by QxMD'

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If you're looking for an easy way to see the latest articles in your favourite journals or on keywords of interest, Read by QxMD can help.

It's an app and website that tracks articles in healthcare journals and alerts you to new ones matching your interests. More than that, it can make finding the full-text easy as it links to our journal holdings, or locates open access copies. The app version can store your NHS OpenAthens account details - no more logging into OpenAthens each time you want to access an article!

It's free to create a Read by QxMD account, and you can link your account to the journal holdings of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust, Staffordshire University or Keele University.

You can also add papers to your own virtual collections, recommend papers, and discuss articles.

An alternative to Read by QxMD is our KnowledgeShare service that can now offer tables of contents by email.

Equality and diversity e-book collection

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You now have easy access to 23 additional e-books covering topics in equality and diversity. These can all be accessed with an NHS OpenAthens account from anywhere, and are all on the Kortext platform. For more information about using the Kortext e-books and the Kortext mobile app, visit our guide.

Follow the links below to open the books:

Access more information at any time with our new collection of e-books

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Access to information anywhere, anytime, is even easier with our growing collection of e-books. We now have a new collection of 138 titles via Kortext, and these include a number of titles in the 'at a glance' series as well as many other titles covering medicine, nursing, allied health and midwifery.

All of them can be found via OmniSearch using the 'Books' tab (where you can also search all of our other books and e-books) or you can access the Kortext collection directly (click 'Collections' after logging in to see the whole range of books available). Access is via an NHS OpenAthens account.

Titles include...

...plus another 131 titles!

You can create a personal account to make it easier to login in future (and to enable you to use the mobile app). Visit the Kortext website, select your institution and login as normal with your NHS OpenAthens account. Logout by using the three dots at the top right of the screen and selecting 'Sign Out'. When the login screen appears again, select 'Forgotten Password?'. Use the email address linked to your OpenAthens account to get a password reset link.

Once you've reset your password, you can login to the website and mobile apps with your email and chosen password.

Make Time to Talk – support your own and other people’s mental health

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Thursday, 4th February is #TimeToTalk day to support mental health, and we're supporting it by organising a Randomised Coffee Trial during February.

Sign up to the Randomised Coffee Trial using the form below and we'll randomly* match you up with someone else. You can then arrange a good time to have a chat with them. This could be over the phone, over Microsoft Teams, or perhaps arrange to go for a walk outside. The suggested time is half an hour, but even a small conversation can make a big difference.

It's a good way to promote your own mental wellbeing, talk about how you’re feeling, and feel more connected, but they can also help to give you a better idea of what goes on in other teams and what their challenges are, meet new people, build relationships, share learning and build community. What you talk about is up to you, and it doesn’t even necessarily need to be work-related.

Grab a hot drink and get talking! (biscuits or cake optional, but highly recommended).

You can either use the form, or simply contact Jason Curtis in the Shrewsbury Health Library (01743 492511 or extension 2511) with your details.

* May not be entirely random, as we’ll try to make sure your coffee partner is from a different team

Registration form

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6 ways OmniSearch makes searching easier

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Our OmniSearch facility has undergone a few changes recently, and is now even more powerful. Here are 6 reasons why.

1. You can now search books and e-books at the same time

2. You can even search books, e-books and articles at the same time!

3. Books, e-books and articles are now searched using WorldCat Discovery, offering you new features such as book covers, citation tools, and easy filtering of results

4. The Article search finds articles in Medline, PsycARTICLES, ERIC, PubMed Central and the Cochrane Library so you don't have to search individual databases

5. The Evidence tab allows you to search Trip Database for various types of evidence (such as guidelines, systematic reviews or evidence summaries), the Cochrane Library (for systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials), BMJ Best Practice (for summaries of evidence) or the BNF/BNFc (for prescribing information)

6. Searches are carried from one search tab to the next so you can repeat the search in different resources quickly

For more information, visit our new OmniSearch guide.

Keep up to date with the latest COVID-19 evidence

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We've just published the latest edition of our COVID-19 Evidence Bulletin, detailing the latest evidence, guidance and other resources to support the response to the pandemic.

This issue includes guidance from NICE on 'long COVID', and resources to support vaccinations.

The libraries are remaining open during the lockdown and there is no need to book ahead – you can drop-in, browse the shelves, use the IT and study individually. If you need to access the libraries when we are unstaffed, you may wish to arrange 24/7 access.

We have put measures in place to keep you and our staff safe – please read and observe these during your visit.