Thursday 31 May 2012
Journal club - developing professional competence
Did your university qualification equip you to work in a health library? Who shows you the ropes? Do you need evidence for your employer's CPD recording? If so participation in these discussions may well count.
Shine Journal Club 31st May 2012
Health Information and Libraries Journal 28 pp326 - 330. Health librarians: developing professional competence through a "legitimate peripheral participation" model. Sara Clarke, Sara, Thomas, Zoe (2011)
The last paper seemed to catch more people's interest, so this one continues on the theme of our own learning. How did you pick up your skills you now use in your job? If you are a relative new comer to Health Librarianship, do you feel you are provided with the support you need to learn the tricks of this branch of the trade? If you are a solo practitioner, who shows you the way? Did you Charter with CILIP?
Personally, I chartered, but in a school library. I then came into a solo post within Health Promotion, which is a wee bit different from other health/medical libraries. No comments please about my capabilities! I know that Shine has been a great source of support and training for me.
This paper looks at a formalising of a scheme used in the Royal Free Hospital Medical Library. There is a suggestion that they might want to pilot their scheme in other libraries, so here may be an opportunity to get something in place without reinventing the wheel.
Do you agree our skills are so unique, and not taught in our university courses? Have you come in from another sector, and if so, what have been the challenges, or was it a smooth transition? For those practicing for many years, do you agree you have the confidence the paper refers to re medical terminology? Please share this here to encourage those of us not so far on in our journeys.
Please have a read - a short paper - and share your thoughts. Again, this emphasises the role Shine can have in our mutual support and career development.
Another request now. We are well aware we come from a mix of employers, and so I am looking for enlightenment on any schemes in place in e.g. HE or private sector libraries. For NHS staff, participating (i.e. reading and commenting) in the journal club can be used in evidence in your Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF) portfolio. It is likely that the same will apply to whatever CPD scheme you have, so please share how and where you feel this activity can be added in to the collated evidence appropriate to your job.
With apologies to non-NHS colleagues, briefly, re the NHS e-KSF, journal club participation will likely be evidence in Core 1 Communications; Core 2 Personal and people development; IK3 Knowledge and information resources and G1 Learning and development.
For non-NHS colleagues, please share any insights you have to any similar systems you participate in.
2 Comments
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Jennifer Underwood replied on 6 Jun 2012 at 09:27
Definately an interesting paper and very relevant.
I came straight into my health library job from the postgrad course at Strathclyde. Although I am not in a professional post at the moment, I am lucky that my employer is willing to allow me to learn and utlilise these skills. The course at Strathclyde is valuable in providing a theoretical background but I certainly didn't find that it equipped me with all the skills I needed for health librarianship.
I'm learning most of these skills on the job and also as part of my chartership. -
Julia Hurst replied on 12 Aug 2012 at 11:36
I did my Masters course 9 years ago and I agree with the authors, it did not equip me with many specialist skills required for working in a health-related setting. I definitely gained more of a broad set of skills from it which I’ve then build upon over the years mostly through learning on the job and from the expertise of colleagues.
The Information Service I work in focuses on one subject area and is not in a clinical setting but I certainly find medical terminology to be a challenge at times and I think it would be really useful to have some of training in this area.
The ‘legitimate peripheral participation’ model discussed in the paper seems like a good way to build the skills, knowledge and confidence of newly qualified health librarians. Although I do think because of the nature of our profession I will always be learning as I go as and on the job.
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