HLG Nursing Bulletin Vol 37 (3/4)
Greetings and salutations to you all, as we come to the end of this long, hot summer. Once again, HLG Nursing Bulletin is here to inform (and perhaps, to a certain extent, entertain) with a range of articles. As you may know, following the Health Libraries Group Conference, we like to get the reflections, whether they are of the conference as a whole, or of something individual that they have seen there, of those that have attended and put them into a special issue for you, and this is no exception.
Our regular columnists, Heather Steele and Sam Burgess, both had the opportunity of attending HLG this year, with both having sessions on the programme. They have spoken in previous issues about being involved, as part of the Leadership Development Programme, of their involvement in the statistics group, and got to do a session on that very topic while there – unfortunately at the same time as Heather was making her very first conference presentation! We’ll take feedback over the timetable preparation to the HLG Committee!!
As professionals within the health sector, we all know by now the importance of evidence-based practice as the lynchpin of clinical decision making. But is it inherent on all of us to scrutinise more carefully the healthcare profession and how it uses the evidence-base in its communications with patients and the public? Anna Chapman comments on the conference keynote by Dr Mark Murphy, which addressed that issue. There were attendees at this year’s conference that have been on many occasions, and many for whom it was their first experience of HLG. Lisa Burscheidt is one who falls into the former category, but who keeps coming back for more, showing how HLG can always provide you with something new to learn. Here they provides their reflections on our time in Keele. On the flip side, we present a number of reports from winners of the various bursaries that HLG offers to its members to allow them to attend the conference. Four of the nine bursary winners are here, with the reports from the other five to be found in HLG Newsletter 35(3).
Speaking of awards, HLG was honoured to present the Cyril Barnard Memorial Prize at this year’s conference to Richard Osborn, formerly the London Strategic Lead for Library Services, for his contribution to the field of medical librarianship. Although Richard has now retired from full-time life at the coal face, he still keeps a finger in the pie by continuing to serve as the Chair of the HLISD Service Board.
We still want your articles. Whatever your idea might be, we want to see it, because whatever it is, it will be of interest. Whether you’ve attended something, trialled something, or have an opinion on something, let us know. Details on how you can contribute are at the end of the issue, and on our website.
Phillip Barlow
HLG Nursing Bulletin editor
Health Libraries Group 