Recent articles: Information needs of children in hospital; Collaboration in teaching

Two articles, one from outside the library and information science field, one from inside. It is ... interesting ... how the health literacy field has developed into an alternate (health) information behaviour research field that is carrying out good research, with no connection to the information behaviour literature.
- Bray, L, Appleton, V, Sharpe, A. (2019). The information needs of children having clinical procedures in hospital: Will it hurt? Will I feel scared? What can I do to stay calm? Child Care Health Developement, 45, 737– 743. https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.12692
"Children often have unmet information needs when attending hospital, and this can cause them anxiety and uncertainty. If children are prepared and informed about what will happen during a procedure, they tend to have a better experience ... This study set out to investigate children's perspectives of what information is important and valuable to know before attending hospital for a planned procedure. ... A “write and tell” activity sheet underpinned a semistructured qualitative interview with children attending hospital for a planned procedure. The interview focussed on the information children thought was important to know before a procedure. Data were analysed using content analysis techniques. ... One hundred six children aged between 8 and 12 years old participated in the interviews. The children identified 616 pieces of information they thought would be of value to children attending hospital for procedures. These were inductively coded into three types of information: procedural, sensory, and self‐regulation. Children want to know detailed procedural and sensory information to actively construct a script of a procedure and then build on this with information about specific strategies to help them cope with and self‐regulate the situation."

-Witek, Donna and Dalgin, Rebecca Spirito (2019). Collaborative Information Literacy Practices to Connect Theory to Practice in Rehabilitation Counseling Students. Collaborative Librarianship, 11(3), Article 6. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/collaborativelibrarianship/vol11/iss3/6
"The authors offer this case study of collaborating to scaffold information literacy learning into a semester-long research assignment within an undergraduate rehabilitation services course. The goal of the partnership was to teach students to research a rehabilitation theory/intervention in the professional literature and connect the evidence to rehabilitation services available locally for individuals with disabilities. Specific collaborative practices are identified as essential to the success of this pedagogical project, specifically the giving of time, the scaffolding of learning, and the continual return to reflection in the teaching and learning process, which are all enabled by the sharing of expertise between partners. The authors affirm that collaboration between librarians and course faculty in the counseling and human services fields improves outcomes for connecting theory to practice. This is an important component of evidence-based practice to develop in students the essential dispositions of more mindful and ethical future human services professionals."
Photo by Sheila Webber: Christmas decorations in Peter Jones, December 2019