Our librarians run skills workshops for NHS staff on the wide range of medical, nursing and evidence-based information available online.

At present, most teaching sessions are online via Microsoft Teams.
Booking is via KnowledgeShare. Log in with your OpenAthens account, select the Skills tab, then click on Forthcoming Skills Sessions. If you need assistance please email nhslibrarysupport@imperial.ac.uk

Skills workshops

Evidence-based practice is the core of professional healthcare practice. This workshop will discuss resources for evidence-based practice and, after considering hierarchies of evidence, will focus on filtered resources including the Cochrane Library, everyday apps, and clinical decision support tools including BMJ Best Practice. You will discover where to find and access evidence and consider how evidence can be used with patients. 

This session will be delivered online via Microsoft Teams. Once you have booked through KnowledgeShare you will be sent a link to the Teams meeting by email.

By the end of the session participants will be able to:

  • Understand where and how to look for information
  • Understand the hierarchies of evidence
  • Understand the difference between filtered and unfiltered resources
  • Understand and use point of care tools including BMJ Best Practice
  • Access evidence on different devices
  • Consider how to use evidence with patients

This session will allow you to meet the following professional standards. Contact us for more information.

Session dates
Date and timeTimeLocation
Monday 12 June 2023 15.00 - 16.30 Online via Microsoft Teams
Tuesday 13 June 2023 09.30 - 11.00 Online via Microsoft Teams
Monday 19 June 2023 12.00 - 13.30 Online via Microsoft Teams 
Tuesday 20 June 2023 14.00 - 15.30 Online via Microsoft Teams
Contact your NHS librarian for details
Summary of the table's contents

Finding the strongest evidence requires searching beyond Google and PubMed and using medical databases such as Medline and Embase. This session outlines the principles of database searching and introduces some advanced techniques, focusing specifically on the Ovid platform. 

Some of these sessions will be delivered online via Microsoft Teams. Once you have booked through KnowledgeShare you will be sent a link to the Teams meeting by email.

By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

  • Understand where to search for academic literature and evidence on health topics
  • Develop a research question into a structured search strategy
  • Carry out a search for literature on a specific topic using the Ovid platform

This session will allow you to meet the following professional standards. Contact us for more information.

Session dates
DateTimeLocation
Thursday 22 June 2023 14.30 - 16.00 Online via Microsfot Teams
Friday 23 June 2023 10.30 - 12.00 Online via Microsoft Teams
Monday 26 June 2023  12.00 - 13.30 St Mary's Fleming Library
Thursday 29 June 2023 14.00 - 15.30 Online via Microsoft Teams
Contact your NHS librarian for details
Summary of the table's contents

Critical appraisal and evidence-based medicine can seem daunting, but with practice and confidence anyone can pick up the necessary skills to improve their engagement with, and understanding of, the literature. Working on these skills allows us to better approach clinical evidence and research, reading journal articles with a critical eye and an idea of if and how we might transform evidence into practice.

This session is aimed at those with no prior experience of critical appraisal but would be a good refresher for anyone who wants more practice. This session will focus on providing an overview of the critical appraisal process as applied to both quantitative research (in particular randomised controlled trials) and qualitative research, how it is undertaken, and why it is important.

By the end of the session participants will be able to:

  • Understand what critical appraisal is and why it is useful
  • Distinguish between different research methods and their applicability
  • Have an insight into the process of critical appraisal as recommended by CASP for different research methods
  • Understand and begin interpreting commonly used statistics and theoretical frameworks
  • Prepare for undertaking critical appraisal of an article

This session will allow you to meet the following professional standards. Contact us for more information.

Session dates
DateTimeLocation
 Monday 26 June 2023 14.00 - 16.00  Online via Microsoft Teams
 Wednesday 28 June 2023 12.00 - 14.00 Online via Microsoft Teams
 Monday 3 July 2023 09.30 - 11.30 Online via Microsoft Teams
 Wednesday 5 July 2023 09.30 - 11.30 Online via Microsoft Teams
Contact your NHS librarian for details
Summary of the table's contents

Critical appraisal and evidence-based medicine can seem daunting, but with practice and confidence anyone can pick up the necessary skills to improve their engagement with, and understanding of, the literature. Working on these skills allows us to better approach clinical evidence and research, reading journal articles with a critical eye and an idea of if and how we might transform evidence into practice.

This session is aimed at those with no prior experience of critical appraisal but would be a good refresher for anyone who wants more practice. This session will focus on the practical aspect of critically appraising a randomised controlled trial and offers the chance for experiencing critical appraisal and discussion in a group environment online.

This session is intended for those who have attended 'How to read a research article: an introduction to critical appraisal', which introduces the concept, theory and tools required for critical appraisal, so it is highly recommended that participants also book a place on that session.

By the end of the session participants will be able to:

  • Understand critical appraisal in a practical context
  • Have an insight into the process of critical appraisal as recommended by CASP for randomised controlled trials
  • Understand and begin interpreting commonly used statistics
  • Critically appraise an article and consider its value to clinical practice
  • Engage in group discussion of an article during and following critical appraisal

This session will allow you to meet the following professional standards. Contact us for more infomation.

Session dates
DateTimeLocation
Monday 3 July 2023 12.00 - 13.00 Online via Microsoft Teams
Wednesday 5 July 2023 14.00 - 15.00 Online via Microsoft Teams
Contact your NHS librarian for details
Summary of the table's contents

Critical appraisal and evidence-based medicine can seem daunting, but with practice and confidence anyone can pick up the necessary skills to improve their engagement with, and understanding of, the literature. Working on these skills allows us to better approach clinical evidence and research, reading journal articles with a critical eye and an idea of if and how we might transform evidence into practice.

This session is aimed at those with no prior experience of critical appraisal but would be a good refresher for anyone who wants more practice. This session will focus on the practical aspect of critically appraising a qualitative article and offers the chance for experiencing critical appraisal and discussion in a group environment online.

This session is intended for those who have attended 'How to read a research article: an introduction to critical appraisal', which introduces the concept, theory and tools required for critical appraisal, so it is highly recommended that participants also book a place on that session.

By the end of the session participants will be able to:

  • Understand critical appraisal in a practical context
  • Have an insight into the process of critical appraisal as recommended by CASP for qualitative research
  • Understand and evaluate the use of different theoretical frameworks and methods of qualitative analysis
  • Critically appraise an article and consider its value to clinical practice
  • Engage in group discussion of an article during and following critical appraisal

This session will allow you to meet the following professional standards. Contact us for more information.

Session dates
DateTimeLocation
Wednesday 12 July 2023  12.00 - 13.00 Online via Microsoft Teams
Friday 14 July 2023  14.00 - 15.00 Online via Microsoft Teams
Contact your NHS librarian for details
Summary of the table's contents

Critical appraisal and evidence-based medicine can seem daunting, but with practice and confidence anyone can pick up the necessary skills to improve their engagement with, and understanding of, the literature. Working on these skills allows us to better approach clinical evidence and research, reading journal articles with a critical eye and an idea of if and how we might transform evidence into practice.

This session is aimed at those with no prior experience of critical appraisal but would be a good refresher for anyone who wants more practice. This session will focus on the practical aspect of critically appraising a systematic review and offers the chance for experiencing critical appraisal and discussion in a group environment online.

This session is intended for those who have attended 'How to read a research article: an introduction to critical appraisal', which introduces the concept, theory and tools required for critical appraisal, so it is highly recommended that participants also book a place on that session.

By the end of the session participants will be able to:

  • Understand critical appraisal in a practical context
  • Have an insight into the process of critical appraisal as recommended by CASP for systematic reviews
  • Understand and begin interpreting commonly used statistics
  • Critically appraise an article and consider its value to clinical practice
  • Engage in group discussion of an article during and following critical appraisal

This session will allow you to meet the following professional standards. Contact us for more information.

Session dates
DateTimeLocation
Tuesday 11 July 2023  12.00 - 13.30 Online via Microsoft Teams
Wednesday 12 July 2023  14.00 - 15.30 Online via Microsoft Teams
 
Summary of the table's contents

A good academic poster at a conference enables you to both network and communicate clearly the work that you've been doing. This bite-sized session will help you in designing and producing a great conference poster to make you and your work a talking point.

By the end of the session, participants will learn:

  • What makes a good poster
  • How to summarise your text effectively
  • How to plan and design your poster for maximum interaction

This session will allow you to meet the following professional standards. Contact us for more information.

Session dates
DateTimeLocation
 Tuesday 18 July 2023  12.30 - 13.00 Online via Microsoft Teams
 Tuesday 25 July 2023  12.30 - 13.00 Online via Microsoft Teams
Contact your NHS librarian for details
Workshop dates

Twitter is a resource that we may all know of, but may not be especially familiar with. But, it can be a valuable tool in the sharing of information between professionals. This session will cover the use of Twitter, and how it can be used in your work, as well as some of the ethical issues surrounding its use.

This session will allow you to meet the following professional standards. Contact us for more information.

Session dates
DateTimeLocation
 Friday 21 July 2023  12.30 - 13.15  Online via Microsoft Teams
 Friday 28 July 2023  12.30 - 13.15  Online via Microsoft Teams
Contact your NHS librarian for details
Summary of the table's contents

This session will be a helpful overview if you are undertaking an evidence review, be it a literature review, scoping review or systematic review. It will introduce you to review processestools and resources to select and organise your papers, look at approaches to writing a methodology, and suggest ways to present your findings.

By the end of the session participants will be able to:

  • Understand the importance of a focused, answerable research question
  • Recognise differences and similarities between different kinds of reviews
  • Identify and understand review processes Know about resources to help organise and manage review processes
  • Consider ways to present results
  • Recognise how the Library can support those undertaking reviews.

This session will allow you to meet the following professional standards. Contact us for more information.

Session dates
DateTimeLocation
 Tuesday 1 August 2023  11.00 - 12.30  Online via Microsoft Teams
 Monday 7 August 2023

 14.00 - 15.30

 Online via Microsoft Teams
Contact your NHS librarian for details
Summary of the table's contents

Whether you’re writing academic assignments, doing research or keeping up with the evidence, managing your references well can save you time. Reference management software allows you to organise your reading materials and cite what you’ve read easily and accurately. In this session we cover the reasons you may wish to use reference management applications, provide examples of these, and demonstrate the main functions on freely available software (Mendeley or Zotero).  

By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

  • Understand how reference management tools help to reference and avoid plagiarism
  • Choose an appropriate reference management tool for their own needs
  • Use a reference management tool to save and organise references

This session will allow you to meet the following professional standards. Contact us for more information.

Session dates
DateTimeLocation
 Monday 31 July 2023  14.00 - 15.15 Online via Microsoft Teams
 Thursday 3 August 2023  12.00 - 13.15 Online via Microsoft Teams
Contact your NHS librarian for details
Summary of the table's contents

 

 

This session will introduce you to the basics of preparing your piece of work for publication. It aims to provide a set of tools and principles with which to approach publishing your piece of work, as well as aiming to increase your awareness of the areas of academic writing you need to focus on and improve.

By the end of this session, participants will:

  • Understand what 'writing for publication' means
  • Have explored the places that writing can be published
  • Think about what they could write, and why it could be published

This session will allow you to meet the following professional standards. Contact us for more information.

Session dates
DateTimeLocation
Tuesday 9 May 2023 11.00 - 12.30 Online via Microsoft Teams
Wednesday 10 May 2023 10.00 - 11.30 Chelsea and Westminster Campus Library
Friday 12 May 2023 14.30 - 16.00 Online via Microsoft Teams
Tuesday 8 August 2023 11.30 - 13.00 Online via Microsoft Teams
Wednesday 9 August 2023 12.00 - 13.30 Chelsea and Westminster Campus Library
Friday 11 August 2023 14.30 - 16.00 Online via Microsoft Teams
Contact your NHS librarian for details
Summary of the

 

Ensuring that individuals and communities can access, understand, appraise and use information and services to make decisions about health is key to health literacy. Improving people’s health literacy will enhance their ability to self-manage their health. This session will introduce the concept of health literacy, show examples of both good and bad resources providing information to patients, and demonstrate ways to help improve how information is provided to patients to allow them better control over their own health care.

This session will allow you to meet the following professional standards. Contact us for more information.

Session dates
DateTimeLocation
 Tuesday 16 May 2023  14.30 - 16.00  Online via Microsoft Teams
 Thursday 18 May 2023  11.00 - 12.30  Online via Microsoft Teams
 Wednesday 16 August 2023  11.30 - 13.00  Online via Microsoft Teams
 Friday 18 August 2023  14.30 - 16.00  Online via Microsoft Teams
Contact your NHS librarian for details
Summary of the table's contents

If you have any questions, please email nhslibrarysupport@imperial.ac.uk