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Infection control professionals' information‐seeking preferences
Author(s) -
Mortensen Heidi J.,
Alexander Jeffrey L.,
Nehrenz Guy M.,
Porter Cynthia
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
health information and libraries journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.779
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1471-1842
pISSN - 1471-1834
DOI - 10.1111/hir.12007
Subject(s) - the internet , medicine , control (management) , infection control , work (physics) , medical education , family medicine , world wide web , computer science , pathology , mechanical engineering , artificial intelligence , engineering
Objectives The aims of this study were to: 1) establish whether infection control professionals ( ICP s) who had access to and utilised medical librarian services for evidence‐based medicine ( EBM ) research perceived this assistance to be useful and 2) to establish whether ICP s who used electronic or hard copy resources for EBM research perceived that those resources had a significant impact on their work. Methods Convenience sampling was used to collect quantitative data via a questionnaire. Study participants were members of South‐west and Western chapters of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. There were 264 questionnaires distributed in this study; 179 participants completed the questionnaire. The response rate for eligible respondents was 59.5% (157). Results Results indicated 56.7% (51) of the ICP s with librarian access reported requesting assistance from their work facility librarian. In reference to locating infection control information, 77.9% (95), 87.3% (124) and 93.3% (138) of ICP s found textbooks, journals and the Internet ‘very useful’ or ‘useful’, respectively. Conclusion Study results indicated ICP s who used the assistance of medical librarians and/or hard copy or electronic resources for EBM research perceived such sources to be valuable for obtaining infection control information.