Embedded Librarian in an Emergency Department

A service evaluation

Abstract

Clinical librarians, knowledge specialists and informationists have been working closely with medical faculties and hospital departments for some years with the aim of mobilizing evidenced-based medical research in the healthcare workplace.  However, evidence of the effectiveness of these interventions is limited. This paper describes the initial findings of an embedded clinical librarian project in an emergency department (ED) of a rural NHS hospital. During the trial period 54 information requests were made by ED staff to the librarian and the librarian spent a total of 2600 minutes answering queries representing a considerable time and cost saving to ED department staff.  The librarian was able to effectively mobilise evidence at the point-of-need, supporting evidence-based decision making, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and staff learning. Staff satisfaction with the embedded librarian service was consistently high.