Partners in Research Literacy: Librarians and Educators

Poster presented at 17th Annual Conference of the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE) in St. Andrews, Scotland on June 9th, 2013PURPOSE Research literacy requires health sciences students to effectively locate, evaluate, use, and manage evidence-based information. Students in these programs are required to participate in assignments resulting in papers, posters, or publications. Library faculty created a medical school elective in 2006 using the scholarly communication cycle as a framework to teach information/research literacy. After successfully teaching the course for seven years, the librarian instructors adapted the course to provide a continuing education workshop for faculty. The intent of these offerings is to frame the research or information process as broadly as possible in order to delve into the world of information creation and dissemination. METHODS A School of Medicine course elective (“Information Survival Skills”) was developed and taught by two academic health sciences librarians. The elective, consisting of five session totaling 7.5 contact hours, involves interactive instructional methods to teach specific research literacy skills to 2nd and 3rd year medical students. Course content includes question formulation, database searching, evaluation of resources, and managing information using personal file management software. Evaluation methods comprised a pre/post self-assessment questionnaire to gauge students’ knowledge and attitudes about information resources and skill set. In addition, anonymous post-course evaluations were collected by the Office of Undergraduate Medical Education. As a result of faculty feedback from presentations at medical education conferences, the elective was redesigned in 2012 as a faculty development workshop. This continuing education offering was abbreviated (3.5 hours) but contains similar content. RESULTS Since 2006, eighty-four 2nd and 3rd year medical students have completed the elective. In 2012, eighteen health sciences faculty attended 2 workshops. Both the elective and the workshop have consistently received high marks. Based upon qualitative evaluation data, learners in both groups reported high satisfaction with the hands-on format, introduction to and practice with unfamiliar resources, and information management. Final evaluations illustrate students realize the value of the elective in relation to their coursework, clinical and research experiences. Faculty workshop feedback echoed the benefit to themselves as clinicians/researchers and in their role as educators. CONCLUSIONS There is a broad misconception that students are facile in information retrieval and capable of critically evaluating that information. Faculty development opportunities allow educators to become more proficient in their ability to guide students to evidence-based information. Working in partnership with librarians, medical educators can avail themselves of knowledgeable practitioners and teaching partners to incorporate research literacy skills in courses throughout the curricula