Library and Knowledge Service News

The Reading Agency and Health Education England have crowd-sourced an uplifting book collection and a supporting list of digital resources, all recommended by NHS staff, for NHS staff.

All the books were recommended via a survey of NHS staff, and the final list selected by a panel of NHS staff. The book collection contains fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.

A supporting collection of uplifting digital resources, including poems, websites, videos and apps, is also available here. These can be used via any computer or mobile device.

The book collection is available in our libraries - visit our catalogue to find out more.

Here’s a selection of resources to support staff resilience and wellbeing. 

An NHS OpenAthens password is required to access electronic resources. You can register at http://openathens.nice.org.uk

Books

• Effective self-care and resilience in clinical practice: dealing with stress, compassion fatigue and burnout 
• Stress control: a mind, body, life approach to boosting your well-being 
• The resilient practitioner: burnout and compassion fatigue prevention and self-care strategies for the helping professions
• Self-leadership and personal resilience in health and social care
• First do no self-harm: understanding and promoting physician stress 
• Personal resilience for healthcare staff when the going gets tough
• Well-being and work: towards a balanced agenda
• One thought to be taken once a day: 366 well-being thoughts for health professionals 

Journals

• Health and Well-being
• Stress & Health

Evidence searches 

We provide evidence to inform patient care, service improvement, research and clinical teaching. Recent searches we’ve provided include:

• The teaching or training of resilience in health care workers
• What is the perception of Newly Qualified Nurses in relation to being equipped with resilience?
• Wellbeing and mental health in the workplace
• Psychological and organisational interventions for physician burnout
• Impact of communication styles on leadership or task completion in staff and wellbeing

Web and other resources 

• NHS Health Education England: Workforce Stress and the Supportive Organisation: A framework for improvement through reflection, curiosity, and change. A new framework aimed at helping health and social care employers improve the mental wellbeing of their employees has been launched by Health Education England (HEE):  
• MIND: How to improve your mental wellbeing. Explains how to improve and maintain your mental wellbeing, whether you have a diagnosis of a mental health condition or not.
• MIND: How to manage stress. Explains what stress is, what might cause it and how it can affect you. Includes information about ways you can help yourself and how to get support.
• Mental Health Foundation: Emotional Resilience Toolkit. This toolkit provides practical guidance in promoting the resilience of individuals and teams in companies as part of an integrated health and wellbeing programme.
• Mental Health Foundation: How to look after your mental health using mindfulness. Mindfulness is a way of paying attention to the present moment, using techniques like meditation, breathing and yoga. It helps us become more aware of our thoughts and feelings so that, instead of being overwhelmed by them, we’re better able to manage them. Mindfulness can be used as a tool to manage your wellbeing and mental health.
• Mental Health Foundation: How to manage and reduce stress. This gives you an introduction to what stress is, what the signs of stress are, what simple steps you can take when feeling stressed and provide practical advice for preventing it.

Contact us for further information.

Health Information Week is a national, multi-sector campaign to promote high quality information for patients and the public. High quality health information can have a huge impact on people’s ability to stay healthy and manage illnesses effectively, giving them a better quality of life.

This year the themes of Health Information Week will be:

• Finding information you can trust
• Wellbeing

Follow @Healthinfoweek and #HIW2020 on Twitter to find out more.

Across the country, NHS library and knowledge services are working with therapists and managers to inform the response to Covid-19. Here in Sussex, we have already provided evidence reviews for staff on a range of topics, including:

• How to make virtual groups safe and effective for people accessing mental health services
• The impact of Covid-19 on mortality of people with a learning disability
• Impacts of Covid-19 on perceptions and attitudes towards physical activity and wellbeing
• Impacts of Covid-19 on LGBTQ+ communities
• Advice on mental wellbeing during social isolation

We can help you find the answers to any question that comes up in relation to the outbreak. Contact us on spnt.library-services@nhs.net to request an evidence search.

As per the recent government guidance face masks or face coverings must be worn by all NHS hospital staff and visitors in areas where two metre social distancing cannot be maintained, to help stop the spread of coronavirus. This includes non-clinical areas, hospital corridors, and public areas. 

So if you are visiting our NHS libraries you may need to wear a Type 2 surgical mask, and please remember to stay two metres apart to keep your fellow colleagues and library staff safe. 

Read the guidance here

Opening times

All of our libraries are open and our staff are operating a mixture of home and on site working.

Some library rooms and locations have restrictions on maximum occupancy. Please check with your library ahead of your visit if you wish to book a room or a PC.

Sanitisation measures

We’re taking extra measures to protect our staff and library users, such as cleaning all door handles, computers, phones and self-issue kiosks on a regular basis. Clinical wipes and hand sanitiser are also available for you to use.

Returned books are being quarantined before re-shelving. This may cause slight delays before books are available so thank you for your patience.

Teaching

We are currently offering a mixture of remote and on-site teaching. On-site teaching places are limited to comply with social distancing guidance. Contact your specialist librarian to book a teaching session.

Extended loan periods

The loan period for all items has been extended to eight weeks. You will be contacted if an item is needed by another library member; otherwise you can renew online at www.southeastlibrarysearch.nhs.uk as many times as needed.

Contact spnt.library-services@nhs.net for further help and guidance.

Here is a list of freely available resources relating to the pandemic.

Summaries and advice

UK Government Covid 19 guidance for health professionals

Number of coronavirus cases and risk in the UK

Coronavirus: what you need to do (latest public information from the UK Government)

Coronavirus information on NICE evidence search

UpToDate

BMJ Best Practice

DynaMed

World Health Organization technical guidance

Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre

The scientific literature

Recent papers in PubMed (search string: covid-19 or novel coronavirus or ncov or 2019-ncov)

Trip Database ‘latest and greatest’ articles

CDC updates on coronavirus 

Several publishers have made their material on Covid 19 available on open access, including:

Elsevier novel coronavirus information centre

The Lancet Covid 19 Resource Centre

New England Journal of Medicine 

Springer Nature 

Wiley 

OUP

Wolters Kluwer Health Clarity 

Taylor & Francis

BMJ Coronavirus Hub

Public Health England’s Knowledge and Library Services: Finding the Evidence: Coronavirus

Health Education England’s (HEE) national Library and Knowledge Services team has collated trusted, accessible online patient information resources on Covid 19 for all staff who work directly with patients, clients, and families. 

You will find information in accessible formats, such as easy reads and British Sign Language, information for children and families, and information for older people (including people with dementia)

Visit the HEE website

This resource is being added to all the time, so please check it regularly to see what else has been included.

Health Education England and the Reading Agency have crowd-sourced a list of uplifting resources from NHS staff. They were all recommended by colleagues in the NHS, and are ideal for boosting your mood. 

The digital resources include poems, podcasts, websites and apps, and are available at https://library.nhs.uk/nhs-staff-and-learners/uplifting-resources/

The print resources comprise the following print titles chosen by NHS staff. Copies of these books will be available in NHS libraries later this month:

• "Love in colour” by Bolu Babalola
• “The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse” by Charlie Mackesey
• “Three things about Elsie” by Joanna Cannon
• “Before the coffee gets cold” by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
• “The lido” by Libby Page
• “Where the crawdads sing” by Delia Owens
• “The salt path” by Raynor Winn
• “Calypso” by David Sedaris
• “The lost spells” by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris
• “Happiness FM” by Mary Dickins