title: An evaluation of the effectiveness of information literacy training for undergraduate midwives to improve their ability to access evidence for practice.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Several authors have suggested that computer skills should be taught within the undergraduate curriculum. In this paper, the focus is mainly on the results of an examination of midwifery students' search strategy in response to a specific question undertaken before and after training session in the first, second and third years of the undergraduate programme.
  
  
  METHODS
  The intervention allocated 16 h of library-based instruction over the first three years of the programme focussing specifically on the skills required to utilise electronic resources effectively. Following ethical approval by the university, 108 undergraduates took part from 2008 to 2011.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The data obtained from the search history files were categorised as either poor, fair or good. The primary analyses compared the pre and post-instruction categories in each year, within each student, with a comparison of each student's post-instruction category one year and the pre-instruction category the following year. The data indicated that the sessions in the first and second years of the programmes resulted in improvements in the ability to search, with less improvement in third year.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As with any complex intervention, it is not possible to tease out which elements of the session were most beneficial. We will try to identify ways in which midwifery students' search skills could be strengthened further.
authors: School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin, 24 D'Olier Street, Dublin 2, Ireland. j.lalor@tcd.ie
authors: Joan G
authors: JG
authors: Lalor
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Clarke
authors: Greg
authors: G
authors: Sheaf
mesh_terms: D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055318:Evidence-Based Nursing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D058980:Information Literacy; D008880:Midwifery / Q000193:education*; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D011247:Pregnancy; D013997:Time Factors