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The Research and Learning Department has participated this year in the work of the School of Medicine's ACE (curriculum revision) committee. As a relatively new department, we seized the opportunity to engage with the SoM and envision a way for the curriculum to empower physicians with the ability to critically assess and apply digital evidence to the fullest potential. This is an essential key to lifelong learning and to knowledge growth.
During this time, the new standards for information literacy for higher education were published (ACRL Framework, Feb 2015), and KUMC SoM received training on the use of ACGME milestones and EPAs for planning medical education.
We have created EPAs and milestones to articulate to articulate undefined competencies relating to evidence-based fluency.
This work has the potential to:
1. Impact the SoM curriuculum
2. Be shared and co-created with medical schools and libraries across the country
We seek to align library personnel and resources with the strategic direction of the SoM. In addition to meeting evidence-based competencies for accrediting and professional entities, we wish to offer our expertise to faculty as they matriculate clinicians who make informed point-of-care decisions.
Goals:
Without this work, no one knows exactly what is meant by or expected by broad and largely undefined competencies associated with the access, application and assessment of evidence-based content. Unless these vauge statements are defined and developed, the concepts cannot be taught or assessed.
A thorough literature review and communication with library and medical educators in multipe states confirmed that this work is first to emerge. Additionally, a call for this work has been made by multiple authors and several professional organizations.
Currently, the SoM curriculum only utilizes the Research and Learning Department at three points in the curriculum, one of which is unfortunately in the last weeks of the program. Student feedback from that course consistenly states that they wished they had received this content earlier in the program. Our classes for resident groups include basic introductions to tools such as PubMed, as many have never been exposed to these resources, let alone the larger breadth of health information available and the contexts for critically appraising resources. The map and chart we created pinpoints concepts and knowledge areas in accrediting and graduation requirements which align with the ACRL Framework.
Two seminal studies assessed the impact of evidence-based fluency on patient care. The “Rochester” study (1992, J.G. Marshall, et al.) and the follow-up “Value” study (2006, J.G. Marshall et al.) both demonstrated that access to and use of evidence-based fluency expertise and tools impacted patient outcomes. The Value study reached over 13,737 clinical respondents, of whom 75% agreed that they handled clinical situations differently when using evidence-based expertise and resources. Respondents also highly valued the information they found using library tools and expertise and reported results of more informed clinical decision making, higher quality of care, substantiation of prior knowledge or beliefs, provision of new knowledge, and saved time. Finally and importantly, the studies tracked the avoidance of adverse events when librarians and health information tools were used. More on these seminal studies can be found here:
http://nnlm.gov/mar/about/poster_summary_results.pdf
1) Work together to identify strategic and repeated points in the SoM curriculum to embed evidence-based fluency
2) Focus on the librarian’s collaboration with faculty to enrich, not extend lessons
3) Create EPAs and Milestones
4) Publish scholarly papers on this work
5) Participate in interprofessional collaboration and modeling