Information Competence for the Next Generation of Healthcare Professionals

Report on a grant received from the California State University Office of the Chancellor

Overview

During the academic year 2004-2005 faculty at Sacramento State University worked with librarians to enhance the information competence of students preparing for careers in nursing and physical therapy.

Abstract

The nation’s need for information competent health care professionals has never been higher.  New information is generated at a rate of more than 5 exabytes/year, which if printed, would require 37,000 new libraries the size of the Library of Congress Print Collections [1].   To compound the challenge of shear volume of information, the time available for nurses and therapists to access that data has decreased.  Improved care strategies and budgetary considerations have shortened hospital stay and the time a provider has to spend with each client.  Ethical and litigious considerations mandate use of evidence-based practice and require that practitioners be efficient and discriminatory in their ability to access information and make decisions about applying that information to the care of patients.

Faculty educating healthcare professionals need to ensure that these information competence (IC) skills are learned.  From the standpoint of quality and patient care safety, it is far more important to learn how to find the information needed tomorrow than to memorize the information needed today.  Facilitated by a grant from the Information Competence Initiative at California State University, nursing faculty, physical therapy faculty and librarians at the Sacramento campus created intradepartmental experts in designing assignments to teach and evaluate students’ competency to manage web-based information. Web search assignments were designed for a large course that is a prerequisite for both majors, and for additional undergraduate or graduate courses within the respective majors.   Additionally, the new faculty experts are providing training and curricular guidance for others in their departments.

Participants

Curricular Implementation

Simultaneous to these grant activities, Sacramento State University was adopting an information competence graduation requirement. Faculty worked to develop learning outcomes and educational strategies consistent with University-wide expectations.

Dissemination