The educational role of health sciences librarians

Library Trends, Summer, 1993 by Jocelyn A. Rankin, Jean Williams Sayre

Abstract

The educational role of health sciences librarians in both academic centers and in hospitals is expanding due to influences of new educational models and growing use of technology. Innovative health sciences curricula are being applied in undergraduate and continuing education and often incorporate new technologies. The health sciences librarians' educational responsibilities include teaching access to the literature and other information resources, teaching use of technology as a means to access and manage information, and teaching skills in information organization and critical appraisal. Integration of teaching activities into the health sciences curriculum is a promising trend. The many changes in the health sciences environment present numerous teaching opportunities but also require flexibility, adaptation, and creative solutions on the part of practicing librarians.

Introduction

The only man who is educated is the man who has learned how to learn; the man who has learned how to adapt and change; the man who has realized that no knowledge is secure, that only the process of seeking knowledge gives a basis for security. (Rogers, 1983, p. 120)

Today's dynamic health sciences environment is constantly incorporating advances in biomedicine, technology, and educational practices that are related to patient care. This changing environment, particularly in education and technology, is creating expanded educational roles for librarians (see Figure 1). The new roles require health sciences librarians to be knowledgeable about innovative and evolving models for undergraduate health sciences curricula and for continuing education of health sciences practitioners. Librarians also must be current with new applications of technology especially in the emerging discipline of medical informatics. Most important, librarians must understand the implications of these advances in order to teach information management skills in a meaningful way to students and practitioners.

Health sciences librarians are responding to the challenges for new educational roles by providing a wide variety of formal and informal instructional programs. Librarians are teaching information management, microcomputer basics, software packages, telecommunications, database searching, Internet access, research methods, and other related topics. Also, librarians are spending more time one-on-one with library clients who are wanting to use the latest technology to answer their questions. Education is becoming a central function in many libraries, a function that demands new skills and discipline awareness.

Changing Models for Education

in the Health Sciences

"Lifelong learning," "problem-based learning," "independent study," "information literacy," and "medical informatics" have become commonplace terms in health sciences educational institutions. These terms reflect not only changes in educators' thinking but also in the recommendations from special commissions and accrediting bodies. Because the size of the health sciences knowledge base is growing exponentially, the traditional lecture and memorization format is becoming increasingly inadequate to prepare health sciences professionals for their careers. The new educational processes recognize that there is too much information in biomedicine to learn in a short period of time. Since the half-life of much of this information is about five years, learning must continue throughout professional careers. Experts in health sciences fields - including medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, and nursing - have called for educational reform in order to better prepare health professionals for the twenty-first century. Two reforms in particular are greatly affecting the role of the librarian: changes in the curriculum requiring students to learn information retrieval and management skills, and the new emphasis throughout the curriculum encouraging the acquisition of lifelong learning skills.

Undergraduate Health Sciences Education

In response to a perceived need for change in health sciences education, an increasing number of programs, both in the United States and internationally, have introduced problem-based learning (PBL), independent study, and informatics into teaching programs. Many of the recent changes in medical education have their philosophical roots in the 1984 publication of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) entitled Physicians for the Twenty-First Century (Report of the Panel on the General Professional Education of the Physician [GPEP] and College Preparation for Medicine) (Association of American Medical Colleges, 1984). The GPEP report addressed the full spectrum of undergraduate medical education. The report emphasized that information skills are fundamental for effective patient management, both in the collection and analysis of data for patient care and in the critical appraisal and synthesis of information from the published literature. However, as John Cooper, then president of the AAMC, stated in the report's conclusion: "Perhaps the most important concept emanating from this study is that medical students must be prepared to learn throughout their professional lives. This learning must be self-directed, active and independent" (p. 34).