'Collaboration to show impact of information skills training ' - Stepen Ayres, of the George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust, spoke to the CDG National Conference in Birmingham on 18 July 2012 about how NHS Library trainers in the Midlands overcame the problem of small sample sizes in research projects by combining their research activities and aggregating results

1. Collaboration to show impact of
information skills training
Stephen Ayre, Clinical Librarian, George Eliot Hospital
NHS Trust.

2. Background: The NHS in England
• Variety of organisations
– Acute Hospital Trusts
– Community Services
– Mental Health Trusts
– Commissioners
– General Practice
• Variety of professional groups

3. Background: Libraries in the NHS 1
• 2008 Hill Report* identified four key
functions of NHS Libraries:
– clinical decision making
– commissioning decisions and policy
making
– life-long learning by all NHS staff
– research.
*Peter Hill. Report of a National Review of NHS Health Library Services
in England: From knowledge to health in the 21st Century.
http://www.libraryservices.nhs.uk/document_uploads/NHS_Evidence/national_library_

4. Background: Libraries in the NHS 2
• Small services
– George Eliot Hospital
• 4 staff
• 1422 registered users
• 138 users received training in 2011-2
– Derby Hospitals
• 15 staff
• 2384 registered users
• 441 users received training in 2011-2

5. The Problem
• Need to demonstrate impact…
• …small sample sizes.

6. The Solution
• Collaborate with other Library Services!

7. NHS Midlands Regional Trainers’
Forum
• Informal support network of librarians in
training roles in the NHS.
• West Midlands Group set up in 2009.
• West and East Midlands groups joined
together in 2012.
• Annual conference
• Project groups
• http://wish.westmidlands.nhs.uk/groups/regiona

8. Training Impact Project
• Aimed to devise a survey tool that
could be used across several library
services
• Data to be collated
• Questions combined from existing
surveys in use by NHS libraries in
Birmingham, Solihull and the Black
Country and Sheffield Teaching
Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

9. Impact of Education:
Kirkpatrick Hierarchy (modified)
Source: Working in Partnership Programme http://www.wipp.nhs.uk/tools_gpn/unit6_education.php
[11.7.2012] Crown copyright.

10. Methodology
• Survey Monkey questionnaire link
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/29K9XFL
sent a few weeks after training (Kindly
provided by NHS South Central)
• Adopted as part of the impact toolkit of
NHS Library Services England
http://www.libraryservices.nhs.uk/forlibrarystaff/i
• Used LIS-MEDICAL Jiscmail list to
recruit libraries outside West Midlands
base.

11. Results
• As of 6th July 2012, 392 responses from
people trained by 42 NHS Library
services across England
• SurveyMonkey allows:
– Aggregation of results
– Individual organisation reports

19. Applications
• Working together we have obtained
more representative and robust data
than if we had worked on our own.
• Plan to continue to collect data and
write up for publication.

20. Group membership
• Stephen Ayre, George Eliot Hospital NHS
Trust
• Colin Engel, Dudley Group NHS Foundation
Trust
• Trish Lacey, Dudley Primary Care Trust
• Anita Phul, Birmingham and Solihull Mental
Health NHS Foundation Trust
• John Barbrook, Mid Staffordshire NHS
Foundation Trust
• Suzanne Toft, Derby Hospitals NHS
Foundation Trust
• Paul Stevenson, Airedale NHS Foundation
Trust

21. Any questions or comments?