Purpose: To develop and evaluate a programme of information skills training for social-care practitioners and health-care librarians.
Setting: Two one-day training courses run separately for 13 social-care practitioners and 10 health-care librarians in the Trent geographic region within Northern England.
Methodology: Qualitative and quantitative feedback collected through questionnaires supplemented by participant observation.
Results: While generally feedback was favourable, the courses were overly ambitious. More training sessions of shorter duration would offer participants opportunities to practise and use the skills they have acquired. Social-care practitioners responded more positively to skills associated with appraising qualitative research than with randomised controlled trials. Librarians appreciated the opportunity to learn about unfamiliar social-care resources. Both practitioners and health-care librarians reported that they acquired skills to support evidence-based social care as a result of the training intervention.
Discussion/conclusion: Involvement of a multi-disciplinary team and support from a social-care information provider maximized the impact of this experimental training intervention.