| 9673 |
abstract |
This paper builds on Leslie Morton's vision of enabling users through education and
training. It describes three different approaches to mediated training for medical
students and clinicians provided by peers, juniors (i.e. medical students) and information
specialists (i.e. clinical librarians) and considers the benefits to the participants.
The training was provided either on a one-to-one basis or within teams in their work
environments (e.g. offices, wards, team meetings). The first two projects (peer tutoring
and reverse mentoring) suggest that contextualized training, using intermediaries,
provides the direct benefit of cost-effective IT skill development and the indirect
benefits deriving from the interactions between the trainers and the target groups.
The third project, the outreach librarian study, provides evidence of both direct
benefits (i.e. time saved, quality of service, skills acquired, financial savings
and improved evidence-based medicine implementation) and indirect, long-term benefits
relating to more social issues (e.g. perceptions of the library, clinical teams, job
satisfaction and patient interactions). The general conclusion to emerge from this
review of case studies is that the concept of educational benefits is very broad and
that empirical studies need to look at both obvious and less obvious benefits. |