Clinical Librarian Rounding in Community Hospital Internal Medicine Residency: 2022-2023 Pilot Program Survey Results and Evaluation

Abstract

A Clinical Librarian is a professional capable of effectively providing information needed by medical and research team members, who has a key role in supporting clinical decisions (1,2). The clinical librarian takes the library to clinicians and managers to enhance decision-making, and to help them translate research evidence into meaningful knowledge. A clinical librarian is not pushing a cart full of novels and magazines around the hospital floors; rather, the clinical librarian supplies evidence to health care professionals to improve practice. The author practices in a small primary care community hospital that maintains four residency programs and a fellowship program. The hospital’s internal medicine (IM) residency added the clinical librarian to their rounding team to increase support for evidence-based medicine. This is an action step to support the program’s improvement plan for an identified Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) deficiency.