scholarly journals Study of Limited Value in Exploring Irish Hospital Clinicians’ Information Behaviour and Attitudes Towards the Clinical Informationist

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 149
Author(s):  
Maria C. Melssen
Keyword(s):  
Patient Care ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Paper Copy ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Snowball Sampling ◽  
Information Behaviour ◽  
Clinical Questions ◽  
At Home

Objective – To determine the self-perceived information needs, information-seeking strategies, and skill levels of hospital clinicians, in addition to their opinions on the inclusion of a clinical informationist (CI) in their clinical teams. Design – Questionnaire survey. Setting – Two public, medium-sized teaching hospitals (200-250 beds) in Ireland. Subjects – Hospital clinicians. Methods – A 33-item questionnaire (pilot tested on nurses) was deployed using SurveyMonkey. Participants were recruited using snowball sampling and were emailed the link to the questionnaire in June, July, and August of 2008. Hard copies of the questionnaire were also distributed at one of the hospitals; the librarian at this hospital manually entered the responses into SurveyMonkey. Survey results were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Main Results – Of 230 eligible hospital clinicians (HCs), 22 participated in the survey. Of the HCs surveyed, 90% spend “over 21 hours per week engaged in patient care” (p. 26). During this time the HCs generate an average of 1-5 clinical questions each. The HCs surveyed frequently required information on the latest research on a specific topic, treatment, or patient problem. Information on diagnosis, drugs, prognosis, new therapies and products, or the latest information on a disease area, was required less frequently, but still by at least one-third of participants. Not having the time to conduct searches was the greatest barrier to information seeking for HCs. HCs spend from 1-10 hours per week on investigating answers to clinical questions. Most of this information seeking occurs outside of working hours, either at home or during breaks at work. To answer their clinical questions, 90% of the HCs use published, medical literature. The resources used by HCs include textbooks (30%), journals (30%), the Internet (19%), colleagues (17%), and databases (4%). The most important factors that influence resource choices are access to electronic or Internet resources: 60% prefer electronic resources rather than print resources. Additional influential factors included whether the resource was evidence-based, if it provided concise summaries of the information provided, and if the information could be found in a paper copy. HCs in this study also consult colleagues regularly, and their proximity to a colleague for consultation was a factor. The HCs rated their search skills very high: over half (55%) rated their ability to find information as good, 15% believed they were very good, 25% felt they were average, and 5% rated themselves as poor. The HCs were also confident in finding information to meet their needs: 70% claim that they find the information they require more than half of the time. Of those HCs, 25% claim they are successful more than three quarters of the time. 65% of the HCs experience difficulties in keeping current with evidence based medicine. Evidence-based resources such as the Cochrane Collaboration are used less frequently (25%) than resources such as Medline (65%) and Google (75%). When HCs were provided with a definition of clinical informationists (CI), 68% were not familiar with the role of CIs and only 32% of clinicians were familiar with the term “clinical informationist.” The HCs were then asked their feelings regarding the idea of involving a CI in their hospital: 18 of the 19 responses were positive. Various suggestions for how CIs could be used and the benefits of CIs were provided by the participants. Only three disadvantages of CIs were noted. Of 18 responses, 72% perceived that the inclusion of CIs would have a positive impact on patient care while 27.7% were neutral. Conclusion – Overall, the HCs surveyed in this study ask fewer questions, have different information needs, and are more confident in their search skills than clinicians found in previous studies; however, the authors state that previous studies had been done with clinicians in office settings rather than clinicians in hospital settings. HCs in this study identified lack of time as their main barrier to researching clinical questions and when they do find the time to search for clinical questions, it is either during breaks in their day or after work at home. Their preferred resources are those found electronically. Though they value evidence-based resources, HCs rarely use them. These factors point to a need for information professionals to provide either remote access to electronic medical information resources from home, or provide a service that would allow hospital clinicians to quickly and easily find information during the work day. This is an area in which a CI might play a role. Though many HCs were not familiar with CIs, they were receptive to having a CI on their clinical team. The HCs provided various suggestions for where a CI could be involved as well as desired skills and qualifications of CIs. The only possible disadvantages that the clinicians could foresee was cost, the deskilling of clinicians’ own information-seeking skills, and medico-legal issues. The authors identified several limitations of this study which include the small sample size, the snowball sampling method and the possibility of bias in subject recruitment, and not including other health care professionals in this study. Further research regarding the information behaviour, seeking and skills of other health professionals is needed, as well as research on training and accreditation of CIs.

Information seeking behaviour of beggars in Accra

2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (4/5) ◽  
pp. 205-220
Author(s):  
Charlotte Owusu ◽  
Philip Kwaku Kankam
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Single Individual ◽  
Snowball Sampling ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Information Behaviour ◽  
Information Seeking Behaviour

Purpose It is evident that human existence is highly dependent on information. Information is considered to be an essential right of every single individual to sustain life and enjoy it as well. The benefits of looking into the information behaviour of people can, therefore, not be overemphasised. However, there is a yawning gap in research conducted into the information behaviour of marginalised groups such as beggars. This study aims to investigate the information seeking behaviour of beggars in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach Through a case study design, the study used a qualitative approach and interpretivist paradigm to look into this phenomenon. In total, ten beggars were sampled from the beggar population in Accra through the use of convenient and snowball sampling techniques. A semi-structured interview schedule was used as data collection tool to solicit responses from the participants. Findings The study revealed that beggars in Accra lacked understanding of their information needs, although they were heavily dependent on information for their tasks and survival. Again, the findings of the study showed that beggars were faced with information seeking barriers such as illiteracy, lack of information literacy skills and financial resources. The study recommends the need for stakeholders to look into the social welfare and literacy needs of beggars. Originality/value The authors consider the study original both in conceptualisation and design. The main question being interrogated stems from identified gaps in the literature and the study intends to fill these knowledge gaps. The study’s originality also stems from the fact that there is a paucity of information on the subject of study in the context of Ghana.

scholarly journals Rehabilitation Therapists’ Clinical Questions in the Context of Evidence-Based Patient Care: An Exploratory Study

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorie Kloda ◽  
Joan Bartlett
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Patient Care ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Occupational Therapists ◽  
Stroke Care ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Speech Language Pathologists ◽  
Accident Vasculaire Cérébral ◽  
Clinical Questions ◽  
Etude Qualitative

In this qualitative study, rehabilitation therapists (occupational therapists, physiotherapists, and speech-language pathologists) working in stroke care will be asked about their clinical questions. The goals of the study are: to identify common characteristics of questions, to develop a typology of questions, and to uncover reasons why certain questions are pursued.Pour cette étude qualitative, des thérapeutes en réadaptation (ergothérapeutes, physiothérapeutes et orthophonistes) œuvrant auprès de patients ayant subi un accident vasculaire cérébral sont interrogés à propos de leurs questions cliniques. Cette étude vise à déterminer les caractéristiques communes des questions, à dresser une typologie des questions et à découvrir les raisons pour lesquelles certaines questions adressées. 

scholarly journals Answering Clinical Questions with Knowledge-Based and Statistical Techniques

2007 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dina Demner-Fushman ◽  
Jimmy Lin
Keyword(s):  
Evidence Based Medicine ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Semantic Processing ◽  
Question Answering ◽  
Clinical Medicine ◽  
Statistical Techniques ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Clinical Questions ◽  
Based Medicine

The combination of recent developments in question-answering research and the availability of unparalleled resources developed specifically for automatic semantic processing of text in the medical domain provides a unique opportunity to explore complex question answering in the domain of clinical medicine. This article presents a system designed to satisfy the information needs of physicians practicing evidence-based medicine. We have developed a series of knowledge extractors, which employ a combination of knowledge-based and statistical techniques, for automatically identifying clinically relevant aspects of MEDLINE abstracts. These extracted elements serve as the input to an algorithm that scores the relevance of citations with respect to structured representations of information needs, in accordance with the principles of evidence-based medicine. Starting with an initial list of citations retrieved by PubMed, our system can bring relevant abstracts into higher ranking positions, and from these abstracts generate responses that directly answer physicians' questions. We describe three separate evaluations: one focused on the accuracy of the knowledge extractors, one conceptualized as a document reranking task, and finally, an evaluation of answers by two physicians. Experiments on a collection of real-world clinical questions show that our approach significantly outperforms the already competitive PubMed baseline.

scholarly journals Australian motor sport enthusiasts’ leisure information behaviour

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (6) ◽  
pp. 1078-1113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline Joseph
Keyword(s):  
Information Management ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Motor Sport ◽  
Information Behaviour

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the leisure information behaviour of motor sport enthusiasts, examining: their information needs; their information seeking and sharing; what personal information they had; and their satisfaction with their information seeking and personal information management efforts. Design/methodology/approach This exploratory study examined participants’ information behaviour from a postpositivist and inductive research approach. An online survey was completed by 81 motor sport enthusiasts. The quantitative survey data were analysed using descriptive statistics, whilst the qualitative data were analysed using thematic coding. Findings The research findings highlighted that enthusiasts engaged in mixed serious leisure. They required information before, during and after race events, and sought this primarily from online sources, as well as from other individuals. Totally, 90 participants shared information about their interest in motor sport with family, friends and fellow enthusiasts, primarily via e-mails (69 per cent) and Facebook (49 per cent). They also gathered information about motor sport, including photographs and memorabilia. Participants were satisfied with their information management strategies for their personal collections. Research limitations/implications Participants were limited to motor sport enthusiasts in Australia, hence findings cannot be generalised more broadly. Practical implications Understandings of enthusiasts’ information behaviour provide information management professionals with insights to work with this user community. Originality/value This study fills a gap in the literature about leisure information behaviour of motor sport enthusiasts in Australia. It identifies and provides a typology of the 12 categories of information needed by enthusiasts. Provides a preliminary motor sport information behaviour model guided by the conceptual frameworks of the everyday life information seeking model; general models on information behaviour; and the information problem solving behaviour model.

scholarly journals Clinician-selected Electronic Information Resources do not Guarantee Accuracy in Answering Primary Care Physicians' Information Needs

2008 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Martha Ingrid Preddie
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Primary Care Physicians ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
The United States ◽  
Information Resources ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Electronic Information ◽  
Electronic Information Resources ◽  
Clinical Questions

A review of: McKibbon, K. Ann, and Douglas B. Fridsma. “Effectiveness of Clinician-selected Electronic Information Resources for Answering Primary Care Physicians’ Information Needs.” Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association 13.6 (2006): 653-9. Objective – To determine if electronic information resources selected by primary care physicians improve their ability to answer simulated clinical questions. Design – An observational study utilizing hour-long interviews and think-aloud protocols. Setting – The offices and clinics of primary care physicians in Canada and the United States. Subjects – 25 primary care physicians of whom 4 were women, 17 were from Canada, 22 were family physicians, and 24 were board certified. Methods – Participants provided responses to 23 multiple-choice questions. Each physician then chose two questions and looked for the answers utilizing information resources of their own choice. The search processes, chosen resources and search times were noted. These were analyzed along with data on the accuracy of the answers and certainties related to the answer to each clinical question prior to the search. Main results – Twenty-three physicians sought answers to 46 simulated clinical questions. Utilizing only electronic information resources, physicians spent a mean of 13.0 (SD 5.5) minutes searching for answers to the questions, an average of 7.3 (SD 4.0) minutes for the first question and 5.8 (SD 2.2) minutes to answer the second question. On average, 1.8 resources were utilized per question. Resources that summarized information, such as the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, UpToDate and Clinical Evidence, were favored 39.2% of the time, MEDLINE (Ovid and PubMed) 35.7%, and Internet resources including Google 22.6%. Almost 50% of the search and retrieval strategies were keyword-based, while MeSH, subheadings and limiting were used less frequently. On average, before searching physicians answered 10 of 23 (43.5%) questions accurately. For questions that were searched using clinician-selected electronic resources, 18 (39.1%) of the 46 answers were accurate before searching, while 19 (42.1%) were accurate after searching. The difference of one correct answer was due to the answers from 5 (10.9%) questions changing from correct to incorrect, while the answers to 6 questions (13.0%) changed from incorrect to correct. The ability to provide correct answers differed among the various resources. Google and Cochrane provided the correct answers about 50% of the time while PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, UpToDate, Ovid Evidence Based Medicine Reviews and InfoPOEMs were more likely to be associated with incorrect answers. Physicians also seemed unable to determine when they needed to search for information in order to make an accurate decision. Conclusion – Clinician-selected electronic information resources did not guarantee accuracy in the answers provided to simulated clinical questions. At times the use of these resources caused physicians to change self-determined correct answers to incorrect ones. The authors state that this was possibly due to factors such as poor choice of resources, ineffective search strategies, time constraints and automation bias. Library and information practitioners have an important role to play in identifying and advocating for appropriate information resources to be integrated into the electronic medical record systems provided by health care institutions to ensure evidence based health care delivery.

scholarly journals Diagnoses, Drugs, and Treatment Are the Main Information Needs of Primary Care Physicians and Nurses, and the Internet Is the Information Source Most Commonly Used to Meet These Needs

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Perryman
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Primary Care Physicians ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Bibliographic Databases ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Information Seeking Behaviour

A Review of: Clarke, M. A., Belden, J. L., Koopman, R. J., Steege, L. M., Moore, J. L., Canfield, S. M., & Kim, M. S. (2013). Information needs and information-seeking behaviour analysis of primary care physicians and nurses: A literature review. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 30(3), 178-190. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hir.12036 Abstract Objective – To improve information support services to health practitioners making clinical decisions by reviewing the literature on the information needs and information seeking behaviours of primary care physicians and nurses. Within this larger objective, specific questions were 1) information sources used; 2) differences between the two groups; and 3) barriers to searching for both groups. Design – Literature review. Setting – SCOPUS, CINAHL, OVID Medline, and PubMed databases. Subjects – Results from structured searches in four bibliographic databases on the information needs of primary care physicians and nurses. Methods – Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) and keyword search strategies tailored to each of four databases were employed to retrieve items pertinent to research objectives. Concepts represented in either controlled or natural language vocabularies included “information seeking behaviour, primary health care, primary care physicians and nurses” (p. 180). An initial yield of 1169 items was filtered by language (English only), pertinence to study objectives, publication dates (2000-2012), and study participant age (>18). After filtering, 47 articles were examined and summarized, and recommendations for further research were made. Main Results – Few topical differences in information needed were identified between primary care physicians and nurses. Across studies retrieved, members of both groups sought information on drugs, diagnoses, and therapy. The Internet (including bibliographic databases and web-based searching) was the source of information most frequently mentioned, followed by textbooks, journals, colleagues, drug compendiums, professional websites, and medical libraries. There is insufficient evidence to support conclusions about the differences between groups. In most research, information needs and behaviours for both groups have been discussed simultaneously, with no real distinction made, suggesting that there may not be significant differences even though a few studies have found that nurses’ emphasis is on policy and procedures. Barriers to access include time, searching skills, and geographic location; for the last, improvements have been made but rural practitioners continue to be adversely affected by limited access to people and resources. Conclusion – Both primary care physicians and nurses seek information on diagnosis and treatment. The Internet is of increasing utility for both groups, but all resources have advantages and disadvantages in identifying evidence based information for use in practice. Further research is required to support access and use of evidence based resources, and to explore how focused, evidence based information can be integrated into electronic health record systems.

Practical Steps for Evidence-Based Practice

2008 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 314-324
Author(s):  
Bradi B. Granger
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Patient Care ◽  
Patient Outcomes ◽  
Systematic Approach ◽  
Evidence Based Practice ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Nursing Research ◽  
Clinical Area ◽  
Clinical Questions

Evidence-based practice is a goal for all institutions and often an accreditation requirement. However, moving forward to “just do it” poses a problem for nurses in most patient care units. In spite of increased focus on evidence-based practice initiatives, creation of a systematic approach that effectively integrates the evidence for our practice into the minute-by-minute activities of patient care is still needed. In this article, the steps for accomplishing evidence-based practice in the clinical area are described, beginning with establishing a system to identify, evaluate, and prioritize clinical questions and existing research. Although conducting new, unit-based nursing research may seem a distant goal, beginning with initiatives to increase the use of existing evidence in practice is a first step to this goal, one that contributes to professional development and improved patient outcomes.

scholarly journals Information needs and information seeking behaviour of dementia patients and their caregivers: a scoping review

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aijia Soong ◽  
Shu Ting Au ◽  
Bhone Myint Kyaw ◽  
Yin Leng Theng ◽  
Lorainne Tudor Car
Keyword(s):  
Patient Care ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Healthcare Service ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Information Seeking Behaviour ◽  
Dementia Patients ◽  
Severity Of Dementia

Abstract Background Patients with dementia often require full-time caregivers especially in the later stages of their condition. Patients and caregivers’ access to reliable information on dementia is essential as it may have an important impact on patient care and quality of life. This study aims to provide an overview of the information needs and information seeking behaviour of dementia patients and their caregivers.Methods We conducted a scoping review of the literature and searched four electronic databases for eligible studies published up to August 2018. Two reviewers independently screened studies and extracted data. Information needs were classified according to emerging themes in the literature, and information seeking behaviour was categorized using Wilson’s model of information behaviour.Results Twenty studies with a total of 4,140 participants, were included in this review. Reported information needs focused on: (i) disease; (ii) patient care provision; (iii) healthcare services; and (iv) caregiver self-care. The most commonly reported information need was on healthcare service-related information. Characteristics found to influence information needs were the severity of dementia as well as patient and caregiver status. Dementia patients and caregivers mainly displayed active searching information seeking behaviour and preferred using electronic sources to obtain health information.Conclusion Current dementia information sources available in English are extensive in the information they offer, but more emphasis needs to be placed on healthcare service-related information. All studies originated from high income countries and focused on information needs of caregiver only. The only variable found to significantly influence information needs was severity of dementia condition. The information needs identified in this review can be used to inform development and design of future dementia resources for patients and their caregivers.

Competitive intelligence failures

2018 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 367-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tumelo Maungwa ◽  
Ina Fourie
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Competitive Intelligence ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Information Behaviour ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Intelligence Failures

Purpose Competitive intelligence failures have devastating effects in marketplaces. They are attributed to various factors but seldom explicitly to information behaviour. This paper addresses causes of competitive intelligence failures from an information behaviour lens focussing on problems with key intelligence and information needs. The exploratory study was conducted in 2016/2017. Managers (end-users) identify key intelligence needs on which information is needed, and often other staff members seek the information (proxy information seeking). The purpose of this paper is to analyse problems related to key intelligence and information needs, and make recommendations to address the problems. Design/methodology/approach The study is placed in a post-positivism research paradigm, using qualitative and limited quantitative research approaches. In total, 15 participants (competitive intelligence professionals and educators/trainers originating from South Africa and the USA) contributed rich data through in-depth individual interviews. Findings Problems associated with articulation of information needs (key intelligence needs is the competitive intelligence term – with a broader scope) include inadequate communication between the person in need of information and the proxy information searcher; awareness and recognition of information needs; difficulty in articulation, incomplete and partial sharing of details of needs. Research limitations/implications Participant recruitment was difficult, representing mostly from South Africa. The findings from this exploratory study can, however, direct further studies with a very understudied group. Practical implications However, revealed valuable findings that can guide research. Originality/value Little has been published on competitive intelligence from an information behaviour perspective. Frameworks guiding the study (a combination of Leckie et al.’s 1996 and Wilson’s, 1981 models and a competitive intelligence life cycle), however, revealed valuable findings that can guide research.

Barriers to evidence-based decision making among Polish healthcare managers

2003 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 106-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. M. Niedźwiedzka
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare System ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Information Provision ◽  
Target Population ◽  
Postal Survey ◽  
Reference Level ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Research Activity ◽  
Information Behaviour

The 1999 reform of the Polish healthcare system revealed deficiencies in the research base and a lack of organized systems of information provision. Professionals who most need effective information systems are policymakers and healthcare managers. The main aim of the described study was to obtain data describing the needs, preferences and limitations of healthcare managers as information users, and to identify environmental factors influencing their information behaviour. A national postal survey was conducted and supplemented with information collected during focus groups, semi-structured interviews and through analysis of relevant policy documents. The target population included hospital chief executives, medical directors, head nurses and directors of the institutions responsible for health services planning and purchasing. Target institutions were drawn systematically from official lists, stratified by regions of the country and hospital reference level. The interviews were conducted with primary care unit managers and with Ministry of Health officials. National health strategy and directives, cost-effectiveness analyses of interventions and clinical practice guidelines emerged as information of primary importance to respondents. The main barriers to effective information behaviour were found to be: attitudes towards research activity, lack of appropriately processed data, lack of skills enabling information seeking and appraisal, inappropriate format of publications, ineffective dissemination of information and absence of services facilitating access to evidence. The current information environment of healthcare managers, together with their attitude towards information and deficiencies in information skills, appear to serve as a barrier to evidence-based practice in the Polish healthcare system.

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