Library tools at the nurses' station: exploring information-seeking behaviors and needs of nurses in a war veterans nursing home
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2022.1357Keywords:
skilled nursing, nursing homes, information seeking, information needsAbstract
Objectives: Analyze the information-seeking practices and identify the information and education needs of nurses in a war veterans nursing home. Develop an online toolkit for use at the nurses’ stations to meet nurses’ health information needs.
Methods: Investigators employed mixed methods to determine the health information needs of the participating nurses at the skilled nursing facility using an online questionnaire and in-person observations. Resulting data was compared to determine how nurses’ self-reported data corresponded with investigator observations.
Results: Twenty-seven out of a total of thirty-five nurses responded to the online questionnaire. The study principal investigator also observed a total of twelve nurses working across all shifts. The online questionnaire asked nurses to identify when they need health information for an acute clinical scenario. Nurses self-reported feeling most confident in assessing falls and pain, followed by medication adherence and skin integrity. Issues most frequently encountered during observation of nurses were falls, interventions surrounding cognitive ability or dementia, and use of antibiotics. Nurses reported and were observed to consult colleagues most frequently, followed by drug handbooks and relying on nursing experience.
Conclusion: Nurses in skilled nursing facilities will benefit from ready online access to current drug handbooks as well as information resources surrounding commonly encountered clinical issues and stated needs. An outcome of this project is an online toolkit site using a LibGuide created specifically for this purpose. Researchers purchased laptop computers that were installed at each of the nurses’ stations to provide ready access to the toolkit site.
References
Cohen-Mansfield J, Lipson S, Horton D. Medical decision-making in the nursing home: a comparison of physician and nurse perspectives. J Gerontol Nurs. 2006 Dec;32(12);14–21. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3928/00989134-20061201-03.
Kogan P, Underwood S, Desmond D, Hayes M, Lucien G. Performance improvement in managed long-term care: physician communication in managing community-dwelling older adults. Home Healthc Nurse. 2010 Feb;28(2):105–14. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/NHH.0b013e3181cb5a11.
Tjia J, Mazor KM, Field T, Meterko V, Spenard A, Gurwitz JH. Nurse-physician communication in the long-term care setting: perceived barriers and impact on patient safety. J Patient Saf. 2009 Sep;5(3):145–52. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/PTS.0b013e3181b53f9b.
Wilson TD. Models in information behaviour research. J Document. 1999 Jun;55(3):249–70. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000007145.
Reddy MC, Spence PR. Collaborative information seeking: a field study of a multidisciplinary patient care team. Inf Process Manag. 2008 Jan;44(1):242–55. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2006.12.003.
Blythe J, Royle J. Assessing nurses’ information needs in the work environment. Bull Med Libr Assoc. 1993 Oct;81(4):433–5.
Cogdill KW. Information needs and information seeking in primary care: a study of nurse practitioners. J Med Libr Assoc. 2003 Apr;91(2):203–15.
Corcoran-Perry S, Graves J. Supplemental-information-seeking behavior of cardiovascular nurses. Res Nurs Health. 1990 Apr;13(2):119–27. DOI: http://dx/doi.org/10.1002/nur.4770130208.
Hall J, Cantrill J, Noyce P. The information sources used by community nurse prescribers. Br J Nurs. 2003 Jul 10-23;12(13):810–8. DOI: http://dx.doi.org10.12968/bjon.2003.12.13.11349.
McKnight M. A grounded theory model of on-duty critical care nurses’ information behavior: the patient-chart cycle of informative interactions. J Document. 2007 Jan;63(1):57–73. DOI: http://dx.doi/10.1108/00220410710723885.
Reddy MC, Jansen BJ. A model for understanding collaborative information behavior in context: a study of two healthcare teams. Inf Process Manag. 2008 Jan;44(1):256–73. DOI: http://dx/doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2006.12.010.
Turner AM, Stavri Z, Revere D, Altamore R. From the ground up: information needs of nurses in a rural public health department in Oregon. J Med Libr Assoc. 2008 Oct;96(4):335–42. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3163/1536-5050.96.4.008.
Morrow CD, Reeder BP, Perraillon MC, Ozkaynak M, Wald HL, Eber LE, Trojanowski JI, Battaglia C, Boxer RS. Information needs of skilled nursing facility staff to support heart failure disease management. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2021 Jan 25;2020:878–85.
Byström K. Information and information sources in tasks of varying complexity. J Am Soci Inf Sci Technol. 2002 May;53(7):581–91. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/asi.10064.
Kouame G. Information toolkit for Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home [Internet]. Augusta, GA: Augusta University Libraries [rev. 21 Jan 2021; cited 6 Jul 2021]. <https://guides.augusta.edu/c.php?g=687942>.
Additional Files
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Gail Kouame, Steph Hendren
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
