If so, the SLA-TSG has some interesting information for you!
We recently went on a tour of the St. Michael's Health Sciences Library on February 7, 2012 and had a fantastic time learning more about the library's mission, goals, and objectives. The library serves an integral role in helping with the research of students and professionals from various healthcare fields such as nursing, medicine, and mental health. The librarians help with a variety of research requests, but one of their most important roles is providing literature searches for researchers. This requires the librarians to have expertise knowledge of medical databases and to also have subject knowledge of specific medical fields. Some of the tips the librarians offered for becoming more comfortable with medical terminology is to take continuing education courses on medical terminology.
We also learned about the hospital's archives and found out a lot of interesting facts about the hospital's history. Finally, we had a chance to visit the hospital's innovative patient simulation centre. This centre allows "instructors to reproduce various scenarios from basic patient interactions to technical procedures to critical situations" and ultimately allows students to gain hands-on training without having to involve actual patients (St. Michael's Hospital, 2012).
While we were on the tour, the librarians also showed us St. Michael's Patient and Family Information Centre. This newly developed center provides a range of resources and services for inpatients, outpatients, their families and friends and is currently recruiting new volunteers!
If you're interested in health librarianship this is a great chance to gain some experience in the field and be involved in special projects that will help develop your professional skills.
Please check out the following link for more information about this great volunteer opportunity:
http://www.ischool.utoronto.ca/jobsite/2011/volunteer-role-0
Sources:
St. Michael's Hospital. (2012). Learning resources: Allan Waters Family Simulation Centre. Retrieved from
http://www.stmichaelshospital.com/education/simulation.php
