Alison Brettle

Workplace physical activity interventions: a systematic review

Purpose – This paper aims to report a synopsis of a recent systematic review of the literature regarding the effectiveness of workplace physical activity interventions, commissioned by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).Design/methodology/approach – A search for English‐language papers published between 1996 and 2007 was conducted using 12 relevant databases and associated grey literature. Search protocols and analysis regarding study quality as recommended by NICE were utilised. Key inclusion criteria were, workplace intervention aiming to increase physical activity, intervention aimed at working adults, intervention initiated/endorsed by the employer, physical activity outcome. Thirty‐three studies (38 papers) met the inclusion criteria and were independently reviewed (checked by two reviewers) with a narrative synthesis of findings.Findings – Fourteen studies were graded as high quality or good quality. Evidence from previous systematic reviews was inconclusive. Data regar...

Evaluating clinical librarian services: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND   Previous systematic reviews have indicated limited evidence and poor quality evaluations of clinical librarian (CL) services. Rigorous evaluations should demonstrate the value of CL services, but guidance is needed before this can be achieved. OBJECTIVES   To undertake a systematic review which examines models of CL services, quality, methods and perspectives of clinical librarian service evaluations. METHODS   Systematic review methodology and synthesis of evidence, undertaken collaboratively by a group of 8 librarians to develop research and critical appraisal skills. RESULTS   There are four clear models of clinical library service provision. Clinical librarians are effective in saving health professionals time, providing relevant, useful information and high quality services. Clinical librarians have a positive effect on clinical decision making by contributing to better informed decisions, diagnosis and choice of drug or therapy. The quality of CL studies is improving, but more work is needed on reducing bias and providing evidence of specific impacts on patient care. The Critical Incident Technique as part of a mixed method approach appears to offer a useful approach to demonstrating impact. CONCLUSIONS   This systematic review provides practical guidance regarding the evaluation of CL services. It also provides updated evidence regarding the effectiveness and impact of CL services. The approach used was successful in developing research and critical appraisal skills in a group of librarians.

Searching for information on outcomes: do you need to be comprehensive?

The concepts of evidence-based practice and clinical effectiveness are reliant on up to date, accurate, high quality, and relevant information. Although this information can be obtained from a range of sources, computerised databases such as MEDLINE offer a fast, effective means of bringing up to date information to clinicians, as well as health service and information professionals. Common problems when searching for information from databases include missing important relevant papers or retrieving too much information. Effective search strategies are therefore necessary to retrieve a manageable amount of relevant information. This paper presents a range of strategies which can be used to locate information on MEDLINE efficiently and effectively.

ReLIANT: Reader's guide to the Literature on Interventions Addressing the Need for education and Training

Librarians need to be able to read critically published accounts of educational and training interventions (ETI) and to apply the results to their own practice. One mechanism for assisting library practitioners in doing this is the critical appraisal checklist. This article describes the process of developing such a checklist – involving a literature review of existing frameworks and experience in appraising such studies for a systematic review of information literacy skills training. The ReLIANT instrument is offered as a first attempt to equip library practitioners with a tool for use when appraising published reports of educational and training interventions.

Developing information literacy skills in pre-registration nurses: An experimental study of teaching methods

AIM To compare the effectiveness of an online information literacy tutorial with a face-to-face session for teaching information literacy skills to nurses. DESIGN Randomised control trial. PARTICIPANTS Seventy-seven first year undergraduate pre-registration diploma nursing students. INTERVENTION Online in-house information literacy tutorial COMPARISON One hour face-to-face session, covering the same material as the intervention, delivered by the nursing subject librarian. METHODS Search histories were scored using a validated checklist covering keyword selection, boolean operators, truncation and synonyms. Skills retention was measured at 1 month using the same checklist. Inferential statistics were used to compare search skills within and between groups pre and post-session. RESULTS The searching skills of first year pre-registration nursing students improve following information literacy sessions (p<0.001), and remain unchanged 1 month later, regardless of teaching method. The two methods produce a comparable improvement (p=0.263). There is no improvement or degradation of skills 1 month post-session for either method (p=0.216). CONCLUSION Nurses Information literacy skills improve after both face-to-face and online instruction. There is no skills degradation at 1 month post-intervention for either method.

Needle in a haystack? Effective literature searching for research

This is the third article in the series about research in radiography practice. The first two articles provided a rationale for undertaking research and an introduction to the research process. This article deals with one of the first stages of research, the literature search describing the process and steps to effective searching and undertaking a literature review. The aim of this article is to provide guidance on undertaking a literature search and the steps involved in writing a literature review. It will provide a rationale for undertaking a literature review, provide details of relevant sources of information for radiographers and when to use them, emphasise the importance of planning a literature search, provide guidance on searching, managing references and on writing a literature review.

Systematic Reviews and Evidence Based Library and Information Practice

This commentary presents a rationale for undertaking systematic reviews in library and information practice. As library and information practitioners have the skills to undertake systematic reviews, it is questioned why there are not more in the field. The barriers and challenges to undertaking systematic reviews are discussed.

The effectiveness of counselling with older people: Results of a systematic review

In 2003 the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) commissioned a systematic review of the research evidence relating to counselling older people. This paper reports on some of the findings of this review, particularly those which address the effectiveness of counselling with this population. Electronic searches of the research literature spanned six databases and were supplemented by hand-searches of reference lists and key journals, along with an extensive search of the “grey” literature. The location of papers testing interventions which fall within a definition of counselling set out by the BACP, with samples aged 50 years of age or above resulted in the inclusion of 47 relevant studies. Studies investigated a variety of mental health problems in older people, particularly depression, anxiety, dementia and the psychological impact of physical conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Of the 47 studies, eight tested counselling as a generic treatment, 15 tested cognitive behavioural therapy, 13 tested reminiscence therapy, and 11 tested various other specific approaches. The review concluded that counselling is efficacious with older people, particularly in the treatment of anxiety and depression and outcomes are consistent with those found in younger populations. Evidence as to the efficacy of counselling interventions in the treatment of dementia is weak.

Counselling in primary care: a systematic review of the evidence

Abstract Primary objective: To undertake a systematic review which aimed to locate, appraise and synthesise evidence to obtain a reliable overview of the clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and user perspectives regarding counselling in primary care. Main results: Evidence from 26 studies was presented as a narrative synthesis and demonstrated that counselling is effective in the short term, is as effective as CBT with typical heterogeneous primary care populations and more effective than routine primary care for the treatment of non-specific generic psychological problems, anxiety and depression. Counselling may reduce levels of referrals to psychiatric services, but does not appear to reduce medication, the number of GP consultations or overall costs. Patients are highly satisfied with the counselling they have received in primary care and prefer counselling to medication for depression. Conclusions and implications for future research: This review demonstrates the value of counselling as a valid...

Evidence of Impact

t h e w a y a h e a d ? B i o l o g i c a l C o n s e r v a t i o n , 1 4 3 ( 1 1 ) , 2 6 9 5 – 2 7 0 2 . h t t p s : / / d o i . o r g / 1 0 . 1 0 1 6 / j . b i o c o n . 2 0 1 0 . 0 7 . 0 1 4 P a l a c i n , C . , A l o n s o , J . C . , M a r t i n , C . A . a n d A l o n s o , J . A . 2 0 1 2 . T h e i m p o r t a n c e o f t r a d i t i o n a l f a r m l a n d a r e a s f o r s t e p p e b i r d s : a c a s e s t u d y o f m i g r a n t f e m a l e g r e a t b u s t a r d s O t i s t a r d a i n S p a i n . I b i s , 1 5 4 : 8 5 9 5 . S h a w , J . M . , 2 0 0 9 . T h e E n d o f t h e L i n e f o r S o u t h A f r i c a ’ s N a t i o n a l B i r d ? M o d e l l i n g P o w e r L i n e C o l l i s i o n R i s k f o r t h e B l u e C r a n e . M a s t e r s T h e s i s P e r c y F i t z p a t r i c k I n s t i t u t e o f A f r i c a n O r n i t h o l o g y , U n i v e r s i t y o f C a p e T o w n .