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Librarians’ Roles in Evidence Based Dentistry Education in the U.S. and Canada

This article explores the current roles of dental librarians in Evidence Based Dentistry (EBD) education, including their perceptions of EBD and barriers to their involvement. It presents the findings of a web-based survey conducted among academic librarians serving DDS programs in North America.

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Librarians’ Roles in Evidence Based Dentistry Education in the U.S. and Canada

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  1. Xiaomei Gu 9/26/2010 Madison, WI Librarians’ Roles in Evidence Based Dentistry Education in the U.S. and Canada

  2. Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) • Best evidence from medical literature • Clinical expertise • Patient values 2 3 1

  3. Five Steps of EBM • Formulate the question • Search for answers • Appraise the evidence • Apply the results • Assess the outcome

  4. Librarians’ Roles in EBM • Two recent empirical studies • Survey of over 200 librarians in the MLA Hospital Libraries Section • Lack of time was the major barrier to hospital librarians’ involvement in EBM • Most participants had taken formal EBM classes • It was mostly nurses who initiated the request to conduct EBM literature searches Pappas, C. “Hospital Librarians’ Perceptions Related to Evidence-Based Health Care.” Journal of the Medical Library Association 96, no. 3 (July 2008): 235.

  5. Librarians’ Roles in EBM (continued) • Survey of over 500 medical librarians in academic libraries, hospital libraries, and special libraries in the U. S. • Medical librarians are playing various roles in supporting EBM practice • While hospital librarians are the most active in providing EBM related services, such as providing EBM searches, academic medical librarians are especially active in teaching EBM Li, P., and Wu, L. “Exploring the Real World: Medical Librarians’ Involvement in Supporting Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) Practice.” (2009). Available: <http://www.cais-acsi.ca/proceedings/2009/Li_Wu_2009.pdf>. Accessed: July 19, 2010.

  6. Evidence Based Dentistry (EBD) “an approach to oral health care that requires the judicious integration of systematic assessments of clinically relevant scientific evidence, relating to the patient's oral and medical condition and history, with the dentist's clinical expertise and the patient's treatment needs and preferences” --American Dental Association (ADA), 2001

  7. Librarians and EBD Education • Knowledge gap: no empirical study in the literature examining the current roles of dental librarians in EBD education • Librarian

  8. Objectives • To describe the current roles of dental librarians in EBD education including their perceptions of EBD and barriers to their involvement.

  9. Methods: Web-based survey Target population: academic librarians who serve DDS programs in North America 58 institutions in the U.S. and 10 in Canada offer accredited DDS programs The directory from MLA Dental Section lists 57 dental librarians from 57 institutions in the U.S. and 10 in Canada Considering the small size of the population of interest, no sampling was conducted.

  10. Methods (Continued) • Email pre-notifications were sent out to alert participants and to verify their email addresses • 65 dental librarians in 65 institutions were identified for survey distribution • 55 in the U.S. and 10 in Canada

  11. Designing and Pretesting Survey • Questionnaire: 12 multiple-choice questions and one open-ended question • Question categories • basic work experience • involvement in EBD education • training on and perceptions of EBD • Pretested by 3 librarians in North Carolina

  12. Distributing Survey • Questionnaire was programmed and administered using Qualtrics survey software (Provo, UT) • A unique survey URL was send to each potential participant

  13. Data Analysis • Qualitative data for multiple-choices questions was automatically generated by Qualtrics • Content analysis of responses to the open-ended question and text entries for some of the multiple-choices questions was conducted manually

  14. Results:Survey Response Rate • 46 librarians responded • 39 from the U.S. and 7 from Canada • Response rate: 71% • 79% of all the institutions in the U.S. and Canada offering the DDS program. Please take the EBD survey!

  15. Results:Participant Background • More than half (57%) have worked in their current libraries for 11 or more years • The majority (91%) also serve as the primary contact librarians for other programs besides DDS programs

  16. Results:EBD Educational Opportunities

  17. Results:Roles in Teaching EBD Courses

  18. Results:Involvement in other EBD Services

  19. Results:Frequency of Assisting EBD Literature Searching • More than half (52%) reported they assisted DDS students at least once or twice a year. • Similarly, more than half (57%) reported they assisted dental faculty at least once or twice a year.

  20. Results: Competency in Providing EBD Services • The majority (89%) felt competent in teaching EBD and providing EBD services • Reason for incompetency: lack of hands-on experience in providing such services

  21. Results: Methods to Gain EBD Knowledge

  22. Results:Barriers to Librarians’ Involvement in EBD Education

  23. Results:Perceptions of EBD • Widespread appreciation and enthusiasm toward EBD • “It needs to foster the development of more effective research to strengthen the evidence base and (we) must learn how to develop secondary sources built around how dentist(s) actually practice”

  24. Summary • Dental librarians are playing multiple and diverse roles in EBD education and other EBD related services and feel competent in these roles • Despite of the low level of interest from some of the dental schools/students, dental librarians in North America are enthusiastic towards supporting EBD and are also aware of the challenges • Potential training needs on EBD and teaching skills

  25. Limitations of Study • Results are based on self-reporting • The listed items in the multiple-choice questions could potentially restrain participants’ thinking processes.

  26. Potential Future Research • How librarians can successfully integrate EBD into the “crowded” dental curricula • Viewpoints from administrators/faculty/students

  27. Acknowledgments • Survey participants • Kate McGraw, UNC-CH Health Sciences Library • Joanne Marshall, UNC-CH School of Information and Library Science • Connie Schardt, Duke University Medical Center Library

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