Health Information Week

This week is Health Information Week where we highlight championing the promotion and provision of high quality health information to patients and public. Take a look at our patient information guide on the intranet:

 http://uhnm/a-z/health-libraries/health-information-week-2021/

Use your library - we're here to help 😀 !

 Last week was NHS library and knowledge services awareness week. The week drew attention to the invaluable work undertaken by NHS knowledge and library specialists who work with healthcare staff across a broad range of specialisms.  Taking evidence to the board and the bedside, the service is there for every member of the NHS.

Taking the ‘heavy lifting’ out of bringing reliable, up to date evidence to healthcare, library teams free up the time of their colleagues. Knowledge specialists and librarians deliver the right information enabling multidisciplinary teams to make informed decisions at the right time, at the point of need. 
In practice, this means that knowledge services give frontline teams the gift of time to focus on patients and ultimately improve patient care and outcomes. Backed by evidence, all NHS staff can be more confident they are making the right decisions.

Locally, NHS knowledge and library services generally offer library learning space on site as well as delivering remote services ensuring knowledge and evidence is at the fingertips of staff and learn. 

Apps for finding the evidence

 Did you know an OpenAthens password is your key to many online resources as an NHS employee?

These essential healthcare resources are also available via your mobile devices. Go mobile, get the apps!

(Please note that if you are receiving this post as an email you may need to click to download the pictures to see all the information).

Confused by NHS jargon and medical terminology?

If you need help in understanding the many acronyms used in the NHS or are new to medical terminology the following resources might be of interest:

NHS acronym buster

The NHS Acronym Buster gives you the definition over 500 commonly used acronyms in the NHS. Find an A-Z of acronyms on their webpage or download the app. Aimed primarily at anyone working with or in NHS management the app has been developed from the acronym buster in The NHS Handbook published by the NHS Confederation.

If you have an OpenAthens password you can access:

Dorland's Dictionary of Medical Acronyms and Abbreviations, 7th ed. Elsevier, 2016 as an ebook via our subscription to Clinical Key

 

Abbreviations and acronyms should be used with care and caution as this list shows:

List of error prone abbreviations

Finally this tutorial may be helpful in understanding the Greek and Roman origins and formation of medical terminology:

Understanding medical words tutorial (US)

Clinical Decision Support Tools available to support your practice

Due to low usage we have now ended our subscription to Dynamed. However some great alternative resources are still available to you. 

BMJ Best Practice

This is a clinical decision support tool very similar to Dynamed. BMJ Best Practice uses the latest evidence-based research, guidelines and expert opinion to offer step-by-step guidance on diagnosis, prognosis, treatment and prevention.

Watch the video about BMJ Best Practice here 

How to Access

1. Go to https://bestpractice.bmj.com/
2. Enter your OpenAthens username and password and click ‘Sign in’
3. If you are a new user, you will need to now register for a BMJ Best Practice personal account. If prompted for an institution enter "NHS in England". Use your personal account to download the app for access anywhere, anytime, even offline.

We also have a subscription to Clinical Key:

 Clinical Key

Clinical search engine with access to many full-text journal articles, topic summaries and ebooks. It has information on conditions, procedures, drugs, guidelines, patient information and more.  Take a look at our guides to Clinical Key here so you can get the best out of this resource: https://www.keele.ac.uk/healthlibrary/training/onlineguidesandsupport/clinicalkey/

Clinical Knowledge Summaries can be found on the NICE website:

Clinical Knowledge Summaries

Clinical Knowledge Summaries aim to provide primary care practitioners with a readily accessible summary of the current evidence base and practical guidance on best practice 

Over 370 topic summaries are arranged both alphabetically by health topic with focus on the most common and significant presentations in primary care, and by specialty.

People who are active on the day of hip surgery, or the day after, are twice as likely to be home within a month

 

This latest alert from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) summarises evidence relating to the recovery of patients who have had hip surgery:

 People over 60 who need surgery after breaking a hip are discharged from hospital sooner if they get moving quickly.  The largest study of its kind found that those who get out of bed on the day of hip surgery, or the day after, were twice as likely to leave hospital within 30 days. 

The benefit of early mobilisation is so striking that targets should be introduced to support hospital staff in getting more hip fracture patients out of bed soon after surgery, the study authors suggest.
At present, about one in five patients are still in bed two or more days after their surgery. As well as prolonging their stay in hospital, such delays in mobilisation might increase the risk of pneumonia, and loss of muscle strength. These complications may in turn reduce survival.  

Read the full article on the NIHR alerts webpage here.

Published 11 May 2021