THE IMPACT OF HOSPITAL LIBRARY ON CLINICAL DECISION MAKING IN NIGERIA

THE IMPACT OF HOSPITAL LIBRARY ON CLINICAL DECISION MAKING IN NIGERIA

Background Of The Study

In the context of human beings, "health information" refers to the knowledge, facts, and news that are created from a variety of sources that are required for humans to be in excellent physical and mental condition. It is mostly sought for and employed by health professionals, notably physicians, who are the primary providers of health care and are considered the fountainhead of health. The health information resources serve as the medium of communication between the scientists who perform healthcare and biomedical research and the clinicians who use the findings of their research in medical practice and for other objectives linked to medicine. Textual or printed resources, digital resources found on the internet or World Wide Web, and resources make up these resources. Textual resources, also known as print resources, give information or knowledge in the field of medicine. Examples of textual resources include books, journals, and grey literature. Books have been around and in use for centuries at this point, and they are still considered to be traditional sources of information on health. They make up the majority of the holdings in medical libraries as well as the personal collections of practitioners of medicine. Due to the fact that they contain the authors' own accounts of the studies they conducted, medical journals are primary sources of health information. They include knowledge that is now considered to be state-of-the-art in their respective fields (Nworgu.2006). It is well knowledge that medical libraries store these publications for the convenience of doctors, who, in addition to using the libraries, also subscribe to the journals for their own personal collections. Another resource that doctors draw from in order to extract information on health is known as "grey" (or "gray") literature. Grey literature consists mostly of official and administrative papers that are not intended for commercial use (Reitz, 2007). The internet is another another source of information that medical professionals consult in order to further their knowledge. Internet resources, also known as electronic resources, provide doctors with limitless opportunities because they can be used for literature searches, accessing online journals and books, looking up patient-specific information, keeping up to date with professional association news, consulting with colleagues, sending e-mails, and taking prescription or patient orders. The proliferation of health information on the internet has made it possible for medical professionals to access it with the touch of a mouse button in a matter of seconds or minutes. The electronic databases stand out as the most important of the internet resources that are currently being utilized extensively by doctors. These electronic online databases give doctors easier access to the medical literature that is found in books, journals, newspapers, and other relevant sources, as well as unpublished information. The term "human" source refers to yet another information resource that is frequently utilized by medical professionals. In most cases, this comprises specialist consultants, senior colleagues, knowledgeable peers, and pharmacists who provide medication information. Additionally, it encompasses all those doctors who contact other professionals for health information. They achieve this goal via corresponding with one another in person, via e-mail, or over the communication (Davies: 2007).

Even though all of these resources are extremely important for teaching and practice, physicians may not always have access to them when they are needed. It's possible that the breadth of availability will change from one site to the next. However, the degree to which certain resources are utilized may be affected by a variety of elements and conditions, including pricing, duration, availability, and the intended use of the resource. It is common knowledge that the rate of quick information production in the field of medicine is far higher than in any other industry. As a consequence of this, there is now a large array of health information resources available; in fact, it appears that there are nearly too many possible information sources for clinicians to properly retrieve information (Davies, 2007). At present time, the primary priority of worldwide health organizations and national governments is the dissemination of this information to medical professionals. This is especially important in light of the Millennium Development Goals, which are primarily concerned with matters pertaining to health. It is evident that this has led in global organizations such as the World Health Organization providing finances and other resources to guarantee that health information flows down from their sources of origin to medical practitioners for use, particularly in developing nations. One illustration of this would be the open access policy. What is uncertain, however, is the degree to which the medical professionals working in the teaching hospitals in South Eastern Nigeria have access to these resources and how they put the information that they have gleaned from them to use. This investigation was carried out with the aforementioned considerations in mind.

1.2 Statement Of The Problem

Over the past few years, the programs and services provided by hospitals have been under intense examination. The increasingly competitive nature of the health care industry, along with a focus on maintaining high standards of care for patients, has served as a driving force behind an intensive examination of hospital services. Recent changes in the federal reimbursement systems for patient care and the anticipation that similar models would be utilized by private insurers are arguably a more significant motive for administrative action. This is because of the assumption that private insurers will employ these models. The following sequence of events has had a disproportionately negative impact on the hospital library. The Health Care Financing Administration published a proposed regulation in 1983 that would have abolished the need that hospitals maintain a library in order to qualify for Medicare reimbursement. This rule was ultimately approved in 1984. It was stated that the requirement for a library in a hospital is not self-evident, and that if hospital employees require information, education is a more effective way of spreading it than libraries are. Hardy, Yeoh, and Crawford suggest that it is now up to health sciences libraries to evaluate the impact of their services and assess their worth regardless of the validity of Dr. Brandt's opinions (and there is ample evidence that education is not sufficient to meet the clinical information needs of practitioners). The contribution of the library to clinical care is an essential but understudied subject. This is due to the intimate relationship between economic concerns and the quality of patient treatment. It can be difficult to determine whether or whether libraries contribute to clinical treatment and, if so, to what extent. It is not common practice for libraries to carry out assessments of the influence they have, and there is not yet an established method for quantifying the results they produce. Hospitals have attempted to evaluate their services and the quality of the care they provide through quality assurance procedures; however, the assessment methods either do not work properly when applied to the library or offer very little insight into the impact that library services have on patient care. As a direct consequence of this, assessments of libraries devoted to the health sciences are quite unusual. When they are carried out, most of the time they focus on inputs, outputs, and operations (structure and process), with some emphasis occasionally paid to customer pleasure. This information is essential and beneficial to the decision-making process for the library, and it need to be incorporated into the evaluations used for quality assurance in the library. Nevertheless, the indicators do not provide any direct proof of either the quality of service or the influence on clinical treatment. In recent years, assessments of the quality of information services and their effects on patient care have typically concentrated on specialized services to a limited clinical clientele, such as clinical medical librarian (CML) programs. This is because these services are more likely to have a significant impact. The cost of CML services is, without a doubt, significantly higher than the cost of the regular information services offered by health sciences libraries.

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