New Map of Medicine Persistent Pain Pathway

Worcestershire Health Libraries are pleased to announce that a new pathway for ‘Persistent Pain Management’ has been published.

The pathway, aimed at the GP community, has been developed by the Pain Working Group to highlight local policies and practice, to emphasise referral routes, to promote self management and to ingrain best evidence into practice. This will result in better pain management in Primary Care.

The pathway can be accessed via the Map of Medicine. The Map of Medicine is a website that integrates local information (guidelines, contact details, websites, patient information) and policy with national guidelines in a visual flowchart. It is easy to map the entire patient journey from presentation to conclusion and all the appropriate steps in-between.  

The Map of Medicine can be accessed with your Smartcard or via an Athens username and password. A Desktop Icon is also available for quick access. See our presentations on the Worcestershire Health Libraries Website for more details on the Map of Medicine. The presentations are down the left hand side. If you require further information on the Map of Medicine or would like to discuss ideas for new pathways please contact

Nick Smith Nicholas.smith@worcsacute.nhs.uk
Or

Richard Brook Richard.brook@worcsacute.nhs.uk

New Athens resources for social care staff with "gov.uk" email addresses

The SCIE Athens social care service has been developed to provide social care and social work staff with access to a range of evidence-based resources to support their practice and professional development and match the services offered to health care staff by NHS Athens.

A successful pilot project was run by SCIE from 2008-10. Following the conclusion of the pilot, SCIE decided to extend its service to all local authority social care staff across England and manage access centrally through a system based on recognition of a valid local authority "gov.uk" email account.

There is access to 14 e-journal titles specially selected for their relevance to social care workers, and an e-book loans service, as well as the national NHS collection of databases, e-journals and e-books. To register for your SCIE Athens account, and for more information about this, please go to www.scie-socialcareonline.org.uk/help/athens.asp

Please note that you are welcome to retain your NHS Athens account as well if you already have one, however this is only likely to be useful to you if you require access to locally-purchased NHS e-resources.

Electronic access to selected core journals

Electronic access now available to selected core journals

From January 2011 Worcestershire Health Libraries have secured electronic access to 33 journal titles previously held in print in our libraries or only available through inter-library loan from a partner library.

Moving to electronic access gives immediate access to the latest research from these highly-respected journals saving staff valuable time and facilitating quality, evidence-based care.

Core journals such as the New England of Medicine and Nursing Times are included as well as specialty titles such as Circulation, Critical Care Medicine and the American Journal of Occupational Therapy. In all cases the journals include the most current content and archive collections of past issues. The complete list can be viewed here.

A Worcestershire-based Athens account is required but this ensures access from any PC at work, home or from a mobile device. Sign up for an Athens account here.

Accessing the journals
To access any of these new electronic journals (and to see what other journal subscriptions are available to you as a member of NHS staff in Worcestershire) go to our A-Z Journal Listing:

· Search for the journal title. You will see different access links underlined in blue for your particular journal

· Select the Journals@Ovid (Athens Authentication) link

· Login with your Athens account if prompted

· You will be taken directly to the journal content within the Ovid database.

Please be aware that it is only possible to provide access to these journals by subscribing to a very cost-effective model. This allows only one concurrent user per journal at any one time. If another member of staff is already logged in to your journal you will receive the message: “Cannot get full text: The limit for concurrent users of [journal name] has been reached. Please try again later”. We will be monitoring usage of the journals in the first few months to ensure this situation doesn’t happen too often.

We always welcome feedback on the library services we provide. Please contact lucy.vaux-harvey@worcsacute.nhs.uk if you have any queries or comments on the above.

Finding, using and managing information

The drive for evidence-based practice within health care, and the recent trend towards eHealth, is dependent on staff being able to handle information effectively, by maintaining standards in their own practice, and by supporting the informed patient.

In Principles of Nursing Practice, published last year, the RCN highlighted that: ‘Nurses and nursing staff [must] have up to date knowledge and skills, and use these with intelligence, insight and understanding in line with the needs of each individual in their care.’

The RCN’s Integrated core career and competence framework for registered nurses framework brings together dimensions of the Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF) which are the most relevant to nursing and midwifery. The RCN have recently published 'Finding, using and managing information' which aims to support and develop health service workers  information skills. To access the guideline click on the image to the left.

Worcestershire Health Libraries specialise in the finding, managing and using of information to support practice so get in touch with your nearest Health Library today to see how we can help you reach the below headline competencies.

The headline information literacy competences are:
1. identifying why information is needed
2. identifying what information is needed
3. carrying out a search to find information
4. evaluating how the information meets the identified need
5. using information and knowledge inclusively, legally and ethically
6. managing information
7. creating new information or knowledge.