Clinical Medical Librarian Program

Introduction

The Clinical Medical Librarian (CML) Program at the University of Missouri – Kansas City Health Sciences Library is a unique and special program where health sciences librarians offer expert information support to the School of Medicine’s Docent Teams. Docent teams consist of a senior physician Docent, two or three residents, often a Clinical Pharmacist, and students from Year 4, 5, and 6 from the School of Medicine.

Goals

The CML Program has two goals. The first is to provide educational-support information to help the students have a better understanding of the patient care issues encountered on Internal Medicine rotation. The second is to provide clinical information that can help the Docent Team provide the optimal care for the patient.

How it Works

A Clinical Medical Librarian, at the discretion of the Docent, will join a team on Docent Rounds (called do-ro) for the two-month period the team is on Internal Medical Rounds. During daily rounds, the CML listens to team discussion for clinical and educational learning concerns, as well as accepts questions directly from team members on patient care issues. After rounds, the CML goes back to the library to research the questions and provides the information to the appropriate team members before the end of the day.

Examples: The CML in Action

For instance, the resident on the Docent Team suspects a patient of having acute pancreatitis but lab results are within the normal range. A team discussion ensues. The question is relevant to both a specific patient and serves as a vehicle to provide educational support about acute pancreatitis. The CML will respond by retrieving a general review article so the team as a whole can review some basic information on acute pancreatitis. She also will supply articles that discuss laboratory values in acute pancreatitis to team members having patient care responsibilities for this particular patient. These articles are left in the unit for other team members to read, and often are discussed on rounds.

As another example, often during the two-month rotation, various presentations to support patient care and educational objectives are made by members of the teams, including the Docent, the Clinical Pharmacist and residents. The CML is available to provide additional information to support these presentations.

In addition, the CML often provides consultation to team members as they independently look for information, including suggestions on search strategies and other resources likely to help the individual.

Customizable, Special Services Available

The CMLs can do many things to help the Docent Teams on do-ro access the information they need to maximize the learning experience and make good clinical decisions. All services are customizable, based on the needs of the team and the input of the Docent. These services are available to all Docent Teams, even if a CML does not follow the team during a specific rotation.

• No-cost photocopying in the Health Sciences Library for members of Docent Teams on do-ro.
• Offer formal classes or individual tutorials to teach students and faculty to access, search and evaluate biomedical databases, the Internet and print resources.
• Introduce the concepts of evidence-based medicine to faculty and students.
• Provide clinic topic summaries at rounds on specific clinical issues.
• Assist students and faculty with information overload and teach them to become life-long learners.
• Offer classes on bibliographic or reference managers, like EndNote and ProCite.
• Introduce concepts related to medical informatics.
• Create Websites with quality-filtered links to other medical resources, relevant articles and practice guidelines.
• Facilitate the use of all Library services and resources. This includes the use of Loansome Doc, the document ordering feature in PubMed, as well as the document ordering feature in Ovid. After running a search in either of these services, you can electronically request the article from the Health Sciences Library.

For more information about the Clinical Medical Program, please call 816-235-1880.