Maggie Learns about Watson's Theory of Caring on the Units!

St. Joseph Hospital has adopted Jean Watson's Theory of Human Caring to guide our caregivers in building and recognizing transpersonal caring moments with our patients. The Theory's 10 Caritas Processes such as Loving Kindness, Authentic Presence, & Healing Environment allow patients and caregivers to truly connect, building patient and nurse satisfaction levels! Magnet Maggie recently visited St. Joseph's Med-Tele unit to learn how our caregivers are adapting Watson's Theory into practice.

Stay tuned for more of Maggie's travels on the units in 2011!

The Nurse Angels of St. Joseph Hospital

Another St. Joseph Hospital nurse is recognized in the press for a job well done! Critical Care Manager Gemma Seidl, MSN, MPH, RN, PHN is featured in the latest issue of Advance for Nurses, discussing her innovative ICU Angel program to recognize staff nurses who go above and beyond the call of duty.

“The ICU Angel recognizes ICU team members who receive positive written feedback from patients and their families,” says Seidl, “[we] get the sickest of the sick, just hearing ‘thank you’ makes a difference. Morale is definitely up here.” Read more about Gemma Seidl and the ICU nurses at St. Joseph Hospital here.

New article published by Bogert, Ferrell, & Rutledge: St. Joseph Hospital, Orange

Congratulations to St. Joseph Hospital authors Soudi Bogert, Carmen Ferrell & Dana Rutledge for their new article published in the July/August 2010 edition of MEDSURG Nursing!

Experience with Family Activation of Rapid Response Teams
Soudi Bogert, Carmen Ferrell, and Dana N. Rutledge
MEDSURG Nursing: The Journal of Adult Health, 2010 July/August; 19 (4): 215-22.

Condition H allows family activation of a rapid response team in a hospital setting. Systematic implementation of Condition H at a 500-bed Magnet® community hospital led to varied types of calls, all of which met the policy criteria. Many communication issues were discovered through this process.

This article is so new it is yet to hit the pages of PubMed or CINAHL, but staff at St. Joseph Hospital, Orange & CHOC may access the full text of this article by making a request through the Burlew Medical Library.

Working together: nurses & librarians

While perusing the ANCC 2010 Magnet Conference virtual poster session, Magnet Maggie (a frequent library user – despite her horrible accident) was pleasantly surprised to find the following presentation:

The Evolving Role of the Librarian-Nurse Collaboration: Before, During, and Beyond Magnet Designation
Susan Keller, MLS, Medical Library; Wayne Neal, MAT, RN-BC, BSN; Eileen Engh, MSN, RN- BC, CPN; Deborah Gilbert, MLS

The authors present their experiences working together to support their organization’s magnet program, professional nursing practice, and evidence based nursing.

Here are a few more recent examples from the literature on collaboration between nurses and librarians:

1. Merging silos: collaborating for information literacy. Miller LC; Jones BB; Graves RS; Sievert MC; Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 2010 Jun; 41 (6): 267-72 CINAHL AN: 2010692418

2. A unique collaborative nursing evidence-based practice initiative using the Iowa model: a clinical nurse specialist, a health science librarian, and a staff nurse's success story. Krom ZR; Batten J; Bautista C; Clinical Nurse Specialist: The Journal for Advanced Nursing Practice, 2010 Mar-Apr; 24 (2): 54-9 CINAHL AN: 2010583113

3. Partnering with your library to strengthen nursing research. Hallyburton A; St John B; Journal of Nursing Education, 2010 Mar; 49 (3): 164-7 CINAHL AN: 2010602293

4. The road not taken: consumer information in nursing training for magnet re-certification. Muallem M; Journal of Hospital Librarianship, 2010 Jan-Mar; 10 (1): 64-71 CINAHL AN: 2010549526

5. Solo librarian and outreach to hospital staff using Web 2.0 technologies. Landau R; Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 2010 Jan-Mar; 29 (1): 75-84 CINAHL AN: 2010571386

6. The Magnet journey: opportunities for librarians to partner with nurses. Allen MP; Allison MM; Bandy MM; KenneDy JC; Sherwill-Navarro P; Journal of the Medical Library Association, 2009 Oct; 97 (4): 302-7 CINAHL AN: 2010448138

7. An information technology infrastructure to enable evidence-based nursing practice. Pochciol JM; Warren JI; Nursing Administration Quarterly, 2009 Oct-Dec; 33 (4): 317-24 CINAHL AN: 2010435221

8. Networking with clinical nurses: fusing Magnet and organizational missions. Wickline M; National Network, 2009 Jul; 34 (1): 8-9 CINAHL AN: 2010580315

9. In an emergency--call the clinical librarian!. Coats TJ; Sutton S; Vorwerk C; Cooke MW; Emergency Medicine Journal, 2009 May; 26 (5): 321-3 CINAHL AN: 2010358158

10. Promoting research in clinical practice: strategies for implementing research initiatives [corrected] [published erratum appears in J TRAUMA NURS 2009 Jul-Sep;16(3):168]. Kleinpell RM; Journal of Trauma Nursing, 2009 Apr-Jun; 16 (2): 114-9 CINAHL AN: 2010325840

11. Nursing practice, knowledge, attitudes and perceived barriers to evidence-based practice at an academic medical center. Brown CE; Wickline MA; Ecoff L; Glaser D; Journal of Advanced Nursing, 2009 Feb; 65 (2): 371-81 CINAHL AN: 2010177698

12. Knowledge-based information to improve the quality of patient care. Garcia JL; Wells KK; Journal for Healthcare Quality: Promoting Excellence in Healthcare, 2009 Jan-Feb; 31 (1): 30-5 CINAHL AN: 2010201141

13. Nurses working with librarians. Hallyburton A; St. John B; Billings DM; Kowalski K; Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 2009 Jan; 40 (1): 16-7 CINAHL AN: 2010172054

14. Magnet again! Librarian's role in research collaboration to maintain magnet status. Schwartz LM; Iobst BJ; Journal of Hospital Librarianship, 2008; 8 (1): 72-81 CINAHL AN: 2009936018

15. Swimming with nurses: the hospital librarian Magnet perspective. Rourke D; National Network, 2008 Jan; 32 (3): 11 CINAHL AN: 2010060322

SJO nurses present "virtual posters" at the ANCC 2010 Magnet Conference

We are proud to announce St. Joseph Hospital of Orange nurses presenting two of the 25 "virtual posters" accepted at the 2010 ANCC Magnet Conference.

Transformational Leadership: Building Leadership Competency with Blended Learning by Vivian Norman, RN, MSN, CCRN and Factors Associated with Nurses' Discussions of Hospice by Denise Boyd, RN, BSN, OCN; Kristen Merkh, RN, BSN, OCN; Dana N. Rutledge, RN, PhD; and Victoria Randall, RN.

Those who follow this blog know how much Flat Maggie loves to travel, but even she has difficulty getting away from the office. Fortunately, their posters are now available for viewing at the ANCC 2010 National Magnet Conference Virtual Poster Session via Virtual World and will remain on view until the end of the October conference.

To access Virtual World please follow the steps below (note, the software required for entry into the Virtual World is not compatible with Mac).

1. View this training video with step by step instructions (Windows Media Player 9 or later & speakers/headphones are required), or view the written instructions.


2. Register and DOWNLOAD the Virtual World software which must be installed on your computer.


3. You may need to work with your Information Systems department in order to be able to download the software at your desktop computer (if accessing Virtual World from work).


4. Technical support for actual technical difficulties is available, call 1-800-679-3646 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Time and ask for “virtual technical support.” You may also email virtual technical support at support@virtualbeginnings.com. Please, carefully review the instructions above before asking for technical support.

New Leadership for Flat Maggie Blog and welcome to the new Library Manager

I would like to share that it has been a tremendous privilege and joy for me to have been involved in beginning the world's first blog devoted to nursing research and evidenced based nursing some 3+ years ago.


An enormous thank you to our entire blog team for their dedication to the continued improvement in the quality of our blog is in order. Nursing Research: Show me the Evidence! is truly a team effort . I will miss our entire team and wish everyone in the wider world of nursing research the best of everything. I will be retiring on August 6 after 31 years in my position as Library Manager of Burlew Medical Library, St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, California. My husband and I will be pursuing our twin loves of travel and all things "ballroom dancing". We, of course, also relish the thought of spending more time with our families, our garden, our cameras and our BOOKS!! We will also serve as volunteer couriers for the National Bone Marrow Association and I hope to involve myself in literacy training.

Please allow me to introduce Danielle Linden, MLS, AHIP as both our new Library Manager and the new administrator for our nursing research blog. Danielle received her BA in Anthropology from UCLA and her Master of Library and Information Science Degree from San Jose State University. Professionally certified by the Medical Library Association’s Academy of Health Information Professionals (AHIP) at the senior member level, Danielle has been actively involved in both the Medical Library Group of Southern California and Arizona as well as the Medical Library Association. Danielle’s experience includes working as a medical librarian in both academic and hospital environments. She is an experienced searcher and instructor in a wide variety of databases. She has a special interest in library services and resources for nurses and notably has presented a poster entitled “Incorporating Library Resources into an Undergraduate Nursing Program Wiki.” Danielle runs marathons for fun and has an outgoing, engaging personality.

Magnet Maggie featured in Advance for Nurses

A June 2010 issue of Advance for Nurses features a great article on Magnet Maggie and her adventures at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, California. Not only can you follow Magnet Maggie as she tours throughout the hospital but you can also see how much fun she has had accompanying nurses to conferences and even graduations. Thank you to feature writer Candy Goulette!!

SlideWorld: a portal of health sciences and medical PowerPoints

 

I stopped by Burlew Medical Library today and Julie told me 

about this cool new resource: Slideworld

I was getting ready to do a patient education slideshow and I wanted to see if any other professionals had done something similar that they would be willing to share. Sure enough, through Slideworld, I was able to view and download many excellent Powerpoints on topics of interest to me.

For instance,  there is a slide show on Asthma Pathophysiology which is both 5 star rated and has received

over 3800 hits.

SlideWorld is a powerful resource for PowerPoint Slide Presentations. It is a web resource designed to facilitate the educational process of medical professionals. As you know, slide presentations have become one of the key ways of facilitating education and a way of communicating new scientific developments. Academic faculties and clinicians in practice from worldwide have contributed to the web portal.

Take the Quick Tour of SlideWorld .

More than 5 million ppt presentations are searchable by both broad categories and textword searches. Slideworld employs web 2.0 technologies allowing you to rate presentations as well as incorporate them into

your tweets and other social networking tools. Registration is both free and easy. Medically orientated

PowerPoint templates are also available for purchase for a small fee. Upload your own presentations  to share information and receive a wider viewership.

Enjoy!!

A Fond Farewell to the CEO

At a barbeque on June 2, we had a chance to bid a fond farewell to President and Chief Executive Officer Larry K. Ainsworth, who is retiring this month after 16 years with St. Joseph Hospital. That day was pronounced as "Larry K. Ainsworth Day" by City of Orange Mayor Carolyn V. Cavecche for his outstanding achievements in improving the health of our community (shown here, along with COO Alan Garrett). Here are some of the achievements during his tenure:

* U.S.News & World Report named St. Joseph Hospital one of America’s top 50 hospitals for orthopedic care;

* St. Joseph Hospital was named one of 14 sites in the country by the National Cancer Institute to participate in the NCI Cancer Centers Program (NCCCP). St. Joseph Hospital was the only hospital on the West Coast selected;

*St. Joseph Hospital earned Magnet designation, the highest honor for nursing excellence;

* St. Joseph Hospital opened a 250,000-square-foot Patient Care Center and 85,000-square-foot Center for Cancer Prevention and Treatment at St. Joseph Hospital.

* Mr. Ainsworth provided ongoing leadership in obtaining health coverage for 45,000 children by initiating Orange County’s first California Kids program in collaboration with CHOC Children’s, Hoag, St. Jude Medical Center, Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center and St. Joseph Health System Foundation;

* Mr. Ainsworth helped increased medical access to Orange County’s medically underserved by acquiring and licensing four fully equipped mobile health clinics. These clinics provide primary care, dental and vision services at schools, churches, and community centers in central Orange County.

* Mr. Ainsworth helped enrolled 900 children per year in the Healthy Families and MediCal programs through La Amistad Clinic, Puente a la Salud’s mobile health van and the Orange Unified School District.

Congratulations, Mr. Ainsworth, on your many achievements, and best wishes on your retirement!

New article published by St. Joseph Hospital Nurses: Jeannine Loucks, Dana Rutledge, Beverly Hatch and Victoria Morrison

Congrats to  Jeanine Loucks, Dana Rutledge, Beverly Hatch and Victoria Morrison  for their newly published article. The article is so new it hasn't yet ( as of 5/26/10) been picked up PubMed or CINAHL.

Rapid Response Team for Behavioral Emergencies

Jeannine Loucks St. Joseph Hospital, Orange, CA, USA, jeannine.loucks@stjoe.org
Dana N. Rutledge
St. Joseph Hospital, Orange, CA, USA, California State University Fullerton, Fullerton, CA, USA
Beverly Hatch
St. Joseph Hospital, Orange, CA, USA
Victoria Morrison
St. Joseph Hospital, Orange, CA, USA
Behaviors of patients with psychiatric illness who are hospitalized on nonbehavioral health units can be difficult to address by staff members. Instituting a rapid response team to proactively de-escalate potential volatile situations on nonpsychiatric units in a hospital allows earlier treatment of behavioral issues with these patients. The behavioral emergency response team (BERT) consists of staff members (registered nurses, social workers) from behavioral health services who have experience in caring for patients with acute psychiatric disorders as well as competence in management of assaultive behavior. BERT services were trialed on a medical pulmonary unit; gradual housewide implementation occurred over 2 years. Tools developed for BERT include an activation algorithm, educational cue cards for staff, and a staff survey. Results of a performance improvement survey reveal that staff nurses have had positive experiences with BERT but that many nurses are still not comfortable caring for psychiatric patients on their units.

Key Words: rapid response team • psychiatric emergencies • behavioral health • psychiatric nursing • de-escalation • Iowa Model of Evidence-Based Practice 

Blessing of the Hands

What a Blessing of the Hands on May 6 as St. Joseph Hospital kicked off its 2010 Nurses Week. I loved the blessing offered:

Creator God, Giver and Sustainer of Life, bless the noble work to which these many hands have been dedicated. Enable us all to be truly wise in our clinical judgments, courageous in our dedication to doing good and avoiding harm; compassionate in responding to the human need for healing. Guide our minds and hands. Inspire us with words of comfort that we may be a supportive presence to others. Endow us with the gifts that will enable us to provide the sick and suffering with the care and attention each human life deserves.

Strengthen us in times of trial and discouragement. Keep our hearts from becoming indifferent when faced with our own limitations in curing human ills. Grace our perceptions that we may behold the wonders of your healing power working through our hands. May we not lose sight of the divine truth: That is is Your consoling love that brings forth peace where there is anxiety; healing where there is injury; and new life when our journey on earth is complete. In your love, bless all our hands this day, and everyday. Amen

Labor & Delivery, Baby!

Touring the Labor & Delivery Unit was so exciting! And to think - 5,000 babies are born at St. Joseph Hospital every year! The staff are understandably proud to be designated a "Baby Friendly Hospital," which assures that new moms will have the information, confidence and skills to successfully breastfeed their babies, providing them with the best possible start.

March Magnet Madness!

On March 31, approximately 120 St. Joseph Hospital nursing professionals gathered for a rousing redesignation kick off. The incredible achievements and inspirational best-practice stories that were shared made us even prouder to be a part of St. Joseph Hospital Nursing! It's no wonder that the average length of employment for an SJO nurse is 11 years - well above the state and national average.

Team leaders on the Magnet Redesignation journey, from left: Kathy Penzes, Executive Director of Women's Services; Carmen Ferrell, Executive Director, Critical Care and Telemetry Services; Alex Wiggins, Executive Director of Medical/Surgical Services; Patti Aube, Magnet Program Director and Executive Director of Nursing Professional Development & Research; Renee Mazeroll, Executive Director of Cardiac and Vascular Services; Magnet Maggie; Pat Brydges, Executive Director of Case Management/Social Services/Admitting Services/DSS/Beds; John Senteno, Executive Director of the Emergency Department and Chest Pain Center; and Soudi Bogert, Magnet Project Coordinator. In the coming months, these team leaders will be busily collecting and documenting evidence of Nursing Excellence at St. Joseph Hospital. Taking advantage of having so much Nursing brain power in one place, they asked the nurses to be thinking of and report on personal examples of best practices on the units, professional engagement and community involvement.

Maggie visits the National Library of Medicine

Maggie accompanies Julie Smith, Library Manager, who recently visited the mecca of medical librarians, the National Library of Medicine. Although they missed the Cherry Blossom season, they enjoyed exploring the vast offerings of the National Library of Medicine including PubMed which indexes more than 5,400 medical, nursing and allied health journals.
"The National Library of Medicine (NLM), in Bethesda, Maryland, is a part of the National Institutes of Health, US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Since its founding in 1836, NLM has played a pivotal role in translating biomedical research into practice. It is the world's largest biomedical library and the developer of electronic information services that deliver trillions of bytes of data to millions of users every day. Scientists, health professionals, and the public in the US and around the globe search the Library's online information resources more than one billion times each year.
The Library is open to all and has many services and resources--for scientists, health professionals, historians, and the general public. NLM has nearly 12 million books, journals, manuscripts, audiovisuals, and other forms of medical information on its shelves, making it the largest health-science library in the world." (NLM website quote)

Critical Care: Maggie was there!

What an amazing crew in ICU! Staff in the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) and the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) warmly welcomed me to their area. Among those I hung out with were, at top left, Cardiothoracic Nurse Practitioner Megan Liego, RN, MSN, ACNP, and a patient; above right, Critical Care Nurse Manager Gemma Seidl, RN, MSN, PHN, MPH, and Critical Care Outcomes /Magnet Project Coordinator Soudi Bogert, RN, BSN. I also had the chance to make rounds with the team!

Observing in Outpatient Surgery

Outpatient Surgery rocks! Even though the crew here performs more surgeries than any other hospital in Orange County and the third most in all of California, they're making time to volunteer their surgical expertise. On April 17 surgeons and staff will welcome indigent patients who will receive free procedures that they need, through the AccessOC Super Surgery Saturday program.

A dose of Emergency Medicine

Whew! St. Joseph Hospital's Emergency Department is one active place! On the day I came in, I was one of about 300 patients. Last year more than 101,000 patients were seen in this ER and so far this year the volume is higher than ever. Not only is this the busiest ER in Orange County, it is the third busiest ER in the entire state of California.

Even more impressive than their high volumes is the high level of competency I observed. The board-certified Emergency Medicine physician, advanced nurse practitioner, Chest Pain Center staff, clinical educator, child life specialist, and myriad other members of the ER team made me confident I was in capable and caring hands.

Where should Maggie go on her next vacation? The Grand Canyon?

Maggie takes at peek at Julie Smith's (Library Manager) photos from a trip she took to the Grand Canyon in January 2009. What an awesome sight!!

Maggie attends ENA workshop with Christine Marshall

Christine Marshall, RN, invited me to attend an item writing workshop for certification exams. The meeting was held in Wilmington, Delaware. I met lots of her colleagues and at the conclusion of the two day meeting in January, I couldn't wait to get back to sunny California!

Where should Maggie go on her next vacation?

Here I am taking a look at Jan Grabowski's photo taken in front of Castle Mespelbrunn near Wurzburg Germany. It looks so atmospheric!! When I talked to Jan more, I found out that she is the Lead Library Technician at Burlew Medical library and has been at St. Joseph Hospital for  33 years!! This is definitely one more location to add to my vacation "bucket list". Help me decide by voting on this blog!

Dropping in on the Medical Pulmonary Unit

On my recent visit to the Medical Pulmonary Unit on the 3rd floor of Building 1 I had the chance to meet some wonderful nurses and staff, including (from left) Nursing Manager Cathy Leong, RN; Nagla Abdel-Magied, RN; Jae Kim, RN; Yvonne Shaver, RN, and Judi Demers, Hospitalist Clerical Assistant.

Since her arrival this past September, Judi De Mers has strengthened the link between the hospitalists and primary care physicians. She explained, “The main focus of my position is to communicate with the primary care physicians any pertinent information about their patients’ discharges from the hospital. Daily, physicians will call me to let me know that a particular patient will be discharged on that day. I will go to the patient’s room and visit with them if they are able to speak with me. I will call their PCP right there in the room and make a follow up appointment for them. So far, the patients that I have scheduled appointments for have been very appreciative. If I am unable to communicate with any patients, I attempt to contact their family members and will either schedule an appointment for them or I will remind the family member to call the PCP on that day and set up an appointment for the patient, depending on what the family member prefers that I do.”

Outpatient Surgery meets Maggie

I met so many friendly and helpful techs, nurses and doctors while visiting the Outpatient Surgery department. Thanks, everyone, for making me feel so welcome and sharing all the great work you are doing!

Here I am with RNs Amee Cuevas, Cory Celeste and Ana Ferrer; and (below) observing a case with Bariatric Surgeon Sami Hamamji, M.D. In 2009 St. Joseph hospital became a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence.

The team provided lots of evidence of Nursing Excellence!

Maggie impressed with how they roll on Orthopedics Unit

Was I ever impressed with all the good work the Orthopedics Unit is doing, and clearly I’m not the only one! Their ranking by U.S.News & World Report (in 2007, 2008 and 2009) as one of America’s top 50 hospitals for Orthopedic Care is one of several accolades they’ve received. In these pictures (clockwise from left) Orthopedic Nursing Manager Robert Garcia explains the pain scale to a recent patient who had knee replacement. One of their valued staff nurses shares how Nursing continues to practiced shared governance and has honed the Total Joint Replacement Patient Instructions, most recently with new information on preventing constipation. Muriel Morse and Robert stand in front of a Certificate of Achievement given by the hospital’s Board of Trustees for their Total Joint Replacement Clinical Excellence. And, I’m thrilled to see all of the Thanks for Caring notes from coworkers and patients as evidence of the many Sacred Encounters happening here every day!

PubMed adds even more changes in February 2010

I stopped by Burlew Medical Library to find out what happened to PubMed ( the major medical literature database). Pubmed looked so different that I hardly recognized it. Julie Smith informs me that the National Library of Medicine embarked on a MAJOR Pubmed redesign in October 2009. Then, based on the input of librarians and users, they further refined the Pubmed interface in February 2010. While you will need to accustom yourself to these changes, I think most of you will agree that the new redesign is more user friendly and offers some great new features.

First, Julie wants me to remind everyone that they should always access PubMed through the library's website. This SPECIAL link (rather than the generic Pubmed link) authenticates SJO and CHOC users and allows them access to full text articles which the library has linked on PubMed.

So-- what are some of the PubMed changes?

A new LIMITS page link is available directly above the search box on all PubMed pages, including the homepage. The homepage will also include a link to the Clipboard if citations have been placed in the clipboard.

Adding limits--the Limits link is much more visible at the top of each page now. You can limit by age group, time limits, type of article etc. Caveat: Your limits will continue to apply to your searches  in your search session unless you remove the limit parameters.

Please note that you can also use the pre-set FILTERS on the right hand side which allow you to restrict your search to journals available at Burlew Medical Library, review articles, English language etc.
Another very cool feature occurs when you are doing a basic , textword search. Off to the right will be a list of articles that have just the words you entered in the TITLE of the article.

Thanks Julie for all the tips and tricks about the new PubMed. Of course, I know that I can always count on the fact that the expert library staff will do my lit searches for me. All you need to do is call, email or use the online lit search form on the library website!!

Where should Maggie go on her next vacation?

I heard that Julie Smith, Library Manager, went to Iceland in June 2009. Here's me sneaking into her photo. It looks like a cool place to me. Of course there are so many places to consider. What do you think?  Should I go to Iceland? Julie tells me that this photo was taken in the Þingvellir National Park which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Did you know that there are more sheep than people in Iceland? Julie says that if you like amazing scenery and friendly people without the crowds, you'll like Iceland. It's like Yellowstone National Park on steroids!! Give me your input by completing the poll on the top, right hand side of our blog.  THANKS

Learning about Literature searches at Burlew Medical Library

TGIF!! Decided to drop by Burlew Medical Library to expand my initial orientation and learn more about doing literature searches. I learned so much, my head is swimming!!

1. Did you know that, Burlew Medical Library will assist you in your hunt for nursing or medical information in any way possible? As experienced Medical Librarians, they are trained in the art of expert literature searches. They can even help you define your topic when you haven't clarified exactly what you're looking for. 
2. Librarian mediated searches for SJH/CHOC are free services to all SJH/CHOC staff. So whether you need information for patient care, research, job improvement, continuing education, personal/family health issues or even for SCHOOL, Burlew Medical Library will search the topic for you. They are pretty darn quick and will email a PDF of the search to you. This enables you to access some of the full text on your own.
3. So how do you request a lit search? The preferred manner would be to call the library at 714 771-8291 or 18291 and request a lit search. The advantage of this method is that the library staff have the opportunity to interview you and find out all the parameters of your topic. You can also use the "Request a lit search" online form on the library's website or send Julie Smith an email.  Remember, as brilliant as the librarians are, they are NOT mind readers. The more information you can give them, the better job they can do on your lit search. For clinical research questions, it's always a great idea to use the PICO format for structuring your question.
4. Of course, you can also try to do the lit search yourself. All of the library's research databases are centrally located on the library web site under "Research databases". If an additional id and password is required to use the database, you will be receive this information once you have entered the password protected section of the library web site. Library staff do conduct classes and are happy to  sit down with you and give you a hands on introduction. I only have time for a few general caveats here:  A. if you want to search PubMed, be sure to use the PubMed link on the library website. This special link authenticates you as a SJO or CHOC user so that you can access the full text that has been linked here for your convenience. For CINAHL, go to EBSCO databases and then select CINAHL. Burlew Medical Library has preconfigured CINAHL to encourage you to do an "advanced search" whereby you utilize Subject headings and not just textwords. They have also added in many handy limiters including "Burlew Library Journals", "full text", "research article", "peer reviewed", age group limiters and more.  They have also linked an amazing amount of full text journal articles in the database so often you can go straight from your search to the full text article. Of course, many lit searches really do require the skills of an expert librarian. Did you know there is an "Ask the Librarian" feature at the top of the EBSCO search page? If you're having trouble in the middle of a search, you can click on this and your search strategy will go to Burlew's librarian for review. She will get back to you with suggestions as to how to search your topic more completely and often will also complete the search for you.

St. Joseph Hospital in Orange and Children's Hospital of Orange County are to be commended for offering these incredible library and research services to their staff!!  Well that's enough for now-- next time I'll report to you about some special features, tips and tricks available through CINAHL

Haiti Relief Toolkit

Stopped by Burlew Medical Library this morning to say hello to the library gang and Julie told me about this amazing new resource. the Haiti Relief Toolkit . Created by K4Health with the aid of virtual collaborators, this toolkit "is a one-stop source for technical and practical information that will help health workers respond to earthquake relief efforts underway in Haiti. This toolkit covers the vital sectors in emergencies, including health, water and sanitation, food security and shelter. It also covers field activities supporting the operations such as logistics."If you know any health professional or aid worker who needs information for managing the Haiti Relief effort, this is the resource!!

Haiti Earthquake resources from Burlew Medical Library

Just stopped by Burlew Medical Library today to see what information they could give me about helping earthquake vicitims in Haiti.  Julie Smith told me about this new web page of Haiti earthquake information now available at http://disaster.nlm.nih.gov/dimrc/haitiearthquake.html.  Compiled by the Disaster Information Management Research Center, this page includes resources about the Haiti earthquake situation from both government and non-governmental organizations as well as related  resources for first responders and health issues such as management of crush injuries, management of dead bodies etc. This is an extremely rich source of information which will continue to expand. When I asked Julie about a list of organizations which are accepting donations for Haiti, she made me aware of a group called Charity Navigator. This organization was founded in 2001 and has become the nation's largest and most utilized evaluator of charities. In fact, TIME Magazine called this website "One of America's 50 Coolest Websites for 2006." Charity Navigator maintains a completely objective stance and accepts no funding by any of the organizations it reviews.

Magnet Maggie Visits Burlew Medical Library for Orientation

Despite my harrowing experience in surviving a collapse of books and documents while in Burlew Medical Library, I have returned to Burlew Medical Library to learn all I can about the  fabulous services and resources available to all staff at St. Joseph Hospital, Orange/CHOC. Here's what I learned in my initial orientation.

• Burlew Medical Library serves the information needs of all the staff at St. Joseph Hospital, Orange and Children's Hospital of Orange County. The medical library also meets the information needs of hospital patients and their families and even offers a website that is open to the public http://www.sjhhealthresourcecenter.org/ . This website attempts to direct lay people to authoritiative information. As a nurse. I find this website helpful to look up general information about health conditions with which I have little familiarity.
• The medical library is open weekdays from 8:30 - 5:00 but staff can access the library anytime by checking out the library key. The library is staffed by 3.2 FTE's and even has two librarians with Master's degrees who are also certified by the Medical Library Association. These people really know their stuff!!
• The staff are really friendly and welcoming. I guess they must really like it there because two of the staff have been there for more than 30 years. They are more than happy to show you around the library, explain how to navigate the library website, teach you the basics of literature searching, obtain documents for you and much more. BTW- the library website is password protected for the exclusive use of SJH/CHOC staff. Call the library if you don't know the password and id.
• Since more of their journals have migrated to electronic status, the library website is where it's at. Did you know that they now have more than 850 full text journals on their website? And that over 150 of these journals are nursing journals?  That's impressive!!
• The library website has some electronic books, but the majority of their books are in the physical library collection. To look up a book in the library, use CyBurCat.  CyburCat is linked prominently on the library website. If they don't have a book that you need, they'll borrow it for you from another library. All the nursing books and nursing journals are in a separate section of the library. The call numbers for all the nursing books end in NSG .
• This library has one of the best nursing collections I've ever seen. Julie Smith, MLS, Library Manager, tells me that years ago they received a grant from the National Library of Medicine  to support their nursing collection and that they have always maintained their committment to nursing resources.

         That's enough orientation for me for now. I'll be back again to learn much more about this outstanding
          resource and all of the library services available to staff.
   

Maggie's Welcome Marred by Incident in Burlew Medical Library

Magnet Maggie was also attending the fall Magnet conference, hoping to find a hospital committed to nursing excellence that she could join. Maggie met the St. Joseph Hospital team, felt they were a great fit and was invited to accompany the team back to Orange. Burlew Medical Library was one of the first locations visited by Magnet Maggie. Unfortunately, some of the Magnet manuals fell off the shelf, flattening Maggie in the process.

Above, Director of Regulatory and Privacy Compliance Marty Jones and Director of Risk Management and Patient Relations Julie Hernandez assess the painful situation. (A patient consent form was signed by Maggie before the release of this information.) Medical Librarian Julie Smith reacts with horror when she discovers Maggie's mishap.

Inspired by her new friend Flat Stanley, Maggie has not let this crushing injury slow her down. She is alive and well and working with St. Joseph Hospital nurses on their Magnet redesignation.