Global health resources

We have a lot of databases here that enable you to search for health material, but you might have noticed that many of the results you get are from North America and Europe.  What do you do if you need research from other countries?

Well, there are several resources available to you, and I'm starting to put them together in one place on the Health Subject Guide.  The links at the moment are to indexes, full-text databases, and open access journal collections.  In the New Year, I'll be adding links to good sources of global health statistics.

Let me know what you think, and in the meantime have a great Christmas and New Year.  See you in 2012!

Public health reform updates published

Today the Department of Health has published a series of factsheets outlining the new public health system.  The factsheets include a general summary, and also outline key roles and commissioning bodies.

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency

Another quick link to a website you may find useful - the MHRA, or Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.  This website contains lists of approved medicines and also recalls, safety warnings and alerts about drugs.  They also have specialist sections which deal with particular areas, e.g. anaesthesiology, critical care, obs and gynae and physiotherapy which are well worth a look.  Their guidance coverage includes drugs and medical devices including things like syringe drivers, infusion pumps and even bed rails so is broad ranging and comprehensive.

Department of Health Outcomes Framework 2012/13

Today the Department of Health has published the Outcomes Framework for 2012/13.  This builds on and updates on the progress indicators within five domains as set out in the White Paper: Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS:

Domain 1: Preventing people from dying prematurely;
Domain 2: Enhancing quality of life for people with long-term conditions;
Domain 3: Helping people to recover from episodes of ill health or following injury;
Domain 4: Ensuring that people have a positive experience of care; and
Domain 5: Treating and caring for people in a safe environment; and protecting them from avoidable harm.

The Framework also identifies next steps towards meeting the targets set out in the White Paper.

Research on the go

Just a little update to alert you to some very handy apps which will allow you to carry out research on your smartphone.

If you use EBSCOhost databases such as CINAHL Plus with Full Text, PsycARTICLES or SOCIndex, why not try the new apps for iPhone and iPod Touch and Android phones?

If you registered to use the British National Formulary there are now some snazzy apps to go with it (unfortunately not free though - expect to pay up to £29.99).

And finally BMJ has a number of apps including the free student BMJ for iPhone and iPad.

Drop in with the librarian!

I regularly drop in around different campuses and hospital libraries so feel free to come and see me if you need help searching for information, referencing, or finding research! Here are the forthcoming drop in dates - put them in your diary now! Friday 25th November 2011 – Butterfield LRC – 9:30-16:00 Monday 28th November 2011 – Bevan Library, Bedford Hospital – 9:30-16:00 Friday 2nd December 2011 – COMET Library, L&D Hospital – 9:30-16:00 Monday 5th December 2011 – Oxford House LRC – 9:30-16:00 Friday 9th December 2011 – Polhill LRC – 9:30-16:00 Look forward to seeing you there!

Introducing PsycARTICLES

Welcome back! I hope everyone has had a fab summer. Over the summer we have acquired a brand new, full-text database that I think is going to be really useful, especially if you are focussing on mental health issues.

The database is called PsycARTICLES - it is produced by the American Psychological Association (APA) and contains 78 full-text journals, including all of the APA titles such as Developmental Psychology, Health Psychology, and Psychological Bulletin.

Have a look and tell me what you think. You can access it here.

Nursing Times freebies this weekend!

As part of it's one-year anniversary celebrations, Nursing Times Learning is making all of it's online content free this weekend, 24-27 June. You can access all of the Learning Units and if you complete and pass one unit you will be entered into a prize draw to win a £25 Marks & Spencer Voucher! Good Luck!

Navigating the NHS reforms

If you're confused by all the news about the recent amendments to the Health and Social Care Bill, take a look at this guide by the Nursing Times, who have outlined what the impact of the reforms will be for nurses.

Learning Disabilities Week

This week is Learning Disabilities week so I thought I would flag up a few resources you might find useful. Mencap has a lot of resources on their website, as does the Scottish Consortium for Learning Disability which has some great free podcasts.

You can also access government reports on the Department of Health website, such as Valuing People Now, which focuses on improving quality of life for people with learning disabilities.

Doing a literature review

Lots of you seem to be working on literature reviews at the moment so I thought I'd share some hints and tips. Firstly, if you are not sure what a literature review is, or how to go about doing one, have a look at some of the books in the library. This one by Helen Aveyard is very good and we have a previous edition as an ebook here. If you are doing a literature review you need to search comprehensively - don't forget to search the databases here. You can use search engines like Google (or preferably, Google Scholar) but databases offer much more sophisticated ways of searching so you are more likely to find what you need with the minimum hassle. CINAHL, for example, has a handy tick box to limit your results to primary research articles.

Finally, don't forget that most literature reviews require you to write up where you have searched, what you searched for (keywords) and also any limits you have applied (e.g. dates or language limits), so keep a record as you go. If you haven't got one already, it is worth signing up for an Ebsco account as you can save your search history to refer back to later.

Get career advice from the RCN

The Royal College of Nursing has produced a series of videos giving guidance on careers and employment issues. They are full of useful advice which give you information about your employment rights and how to get the best out of your career as a nurse. Watch them here.

Don't drop out, drop in!

Are you struggling to access good quality information? Do you rely too much on the internet for assignment references? Are you stressed out by how to reference? Are you confused when your lecturer tells you to do a 'literature search'? If you have answered 'yes' to any of those questions, then drop in with the librarian! Here are some forthcoming dates and locations in May and June...

Friday 27th May - Butterfield library
Friday 27th May - Bevan Library, Bedford Hospital
Friday 3rd June - COMET Library, L&D Hospital
Wednesday 8th June - Oxford House library

If you would like any more information we'd love to hear from you! Also see our web page here http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/guides/subjectguides/health/dropin

Look forward to seeing you soon,

Best wishes
Janine

NHS Evidence is changing

If you haven't already used NHS Evidence, you really should be. It's a fantastic search engine, managed by the NHS. It's super-easy to use and here's why you should be using it: everything in it has been reviewed for quality, reliability and authority. The bonus factor is that NHS Evidence also pulls together documents from all the sources you would otherwise have to search separately, such as NICE, Department of Health, Clinical Knowledge Summaries, and so on.

Take a look at the video here.

Critical appraisal of research

A lot of students are working on assignments which require a critical appraisal or critique of a research article. If you are not sure what critical appraisal is and why it is important, have a read of this article in the Nursing Times and this one from Bandolier. If you have never carried out any critical appraisal before and you are wondering where to begin, there are lots of resources to help you.

Firstly, have a search of the library catalogue for books about nursing research. Many of these have handy checklists to work through when carrying out a critical appraisal.

Secondly, have a look at at some great websites such as the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine. There are a lot of free resources here to help you.

Thirdly, don't forget to check your BREO unit site. Have a look at your assignment brief and examine any guidance your lecture has provided.

Web-based printing

We are trialing a wireless based printing service called EveryonePrint that will allow students and staff to send print jobs direct from their PC, Mac, laptop, or mobile device via a web interface or email attachment to the PCounter printing system.

The url is http://webprint.beds.ac.uk and users will need to login with their usual network username and password.

There is a simple browse function and supported files are Office files, PDF and text files. At present JPG, GIF etc are NOT currently supported so it will be necessary to place them in (for example) a Word document first.

Submission via email allows any file attachments to be submitted automatically to webprint@beds.ac.uk after an initial email registration process. Multiple email addresses can be used.

Once the job is submitted the user is presented with a choice of either mono or colour print queue and the option to print multiple copies or duplex. Options such as multiple pages as with Powerpoint will need to be printed in the conventional way from the software on a normal student / staff PC.

The print job, if successful will be processed and placed into the normal PCounter queue, ready for collection in the normal way.

The trial is operating until the end of March and we would really like to hear what you think of the service, so please send any comments to library.technical@beds.ac.uk

Mental Capacity Act Resource

The Social Care Institute for Excellence has developed an excellent resource with loads of information about the Mental Capacity Act. If you haven't seen it already, take a look here.

New mental health strategy launched

Earlier this week the Government launched 'No health without mental health', a new mental health strategy for the UK. The strategy outlines six objectives to improve outcomes for people with mental health issues. The six objectives are:

1. More people will have good mental health

2. More people with mental health problems will recover

3. More people with mental health problems will have good physical health

4. More people will have a positive experience of care and support

5. Fewer people will suffer avoidable harm

6. Fewer people will experience stigma and discrimination

The strategy outlines assessment criteria and responsibilities of the various stakeholder groups. If you are a mental health nurse, you need to know about this strategy.

Setting up a search alert in Ebsco databases

If you are working on a big project, or you simply need to keep on top of the latest research, a very useful tool can be the search alert feature in Ebsco databases. You can save a search as an alert which will then run 'behind the scenes' and email you the results. So, in theory, you only need to search the database once and from then on it does the rest of the work for you! You need an EbscoHost account in order to use this feature (free to sign up).

Here's a great video which explains the process:

All the books are so old!

Happy New Year to you! I hope you all had a lovely break.

One of the biggest complaints I hear is that all the healthcare books in the library are old and out of date. Keeping a healthcare library up to date is a challenge, both logistically and financially, and I am always happy to hear about particular areas or texts in the library which need updating or which don't meet your needs. If you have any suggestions please feel free to submit them here. Obviously any purchases I make depend on whether there is money in the library budget or not (if there isn't, your request will usually be queued until the next financial year). If your request is very specialised and/or very expensive, I might advise you to get it through our Document Supply service instead. If it is a textbook you might be using a lot, you might consider purchasing it. Second hand copies on Amazon, Abebooks and Ebay can be very reasonably priced.

But I also wanted to take the opportunity to say - don't just rely on browsing the library shelves! New and popular books are almost always out on loan (no matter how many copies we buy), so you need to use the library catalogue to check what we have, and then use the reservations system to get in the queue for books, or to get books from different sites sent to your local campus. A popular textbook is a lot like a commuter train in rush hour - lots of people waiting for it and it's never around when you want it.

Remember also that we try to order electronic copies of popular textbooks and if you only browse the shelves you are missing out on a book that is available a few clicks away, 24/7! Search our ebooks here.

Anyway, if you did want to see what new items we have coming in, both in print and electronic formats, have a look at our new book lists here.