SCISTER act: delivering training in information skills for social-care professionals.
OBJECTIVE
To develop and evaluate a programme of information skills training for social-care practitioners and health-care librarians.


METHODS
Two one-day training courses run separately for 13 social-care practitioners and 10 health-care librarians in the Trent geographic region within Northern England.


METHODS
Qualitative and quantitative feedback collected through questionnaires supplemented by participant observation.


RESULTS
While generally feedback was favourable, the courses were overly ambitious. More training sessions of shorter duration would offer participants opportunities to practise and use the skills they have acquired. Social-care practitioners responded more positively to skills associated with appraising qualitative research than with randomised controlled trials. Librarians appreciated the opportunity to learn about unfamiliar social-care resources. Both practitioners and health-care librarians reported that they acquired skills to support evidence-based social care as a result of the training intervention.


CONCLUSIONS
Involvement of a multi-disciplinary team and support from a social-care information provider maximized the impact of this experimental training intervention.
White
Caroline
C
Library Informatics Manager, Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Derby DE1 2QY, UK. caroline.white@derbyhospitals.nhs.uk
Booth
Andrew
A
Cooke
Jo
J
Addison
Fiona
F
D003695:Delivery of Health Care; D004739:England; D006801:Humans; D007255:Information Services; D007318:Inservice Training; D020407:Internet; D016245:Librarians; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D012106:Research; D012947:Social Work; D013997:Time Factors