Anaesthesia, Intensive Care and Pain Medicine - St Vincent's ...

Library & Information Service
St.Vincent’s Healthcare Group
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(OPAC) on any of the PCs on the premises to search for
books and to check availability.
Electronic Resources
Access to electronic databases in 2004 included Medline (via
PubMed),the Cochrane Library, Cinahl,PsycINFO and Web of
Science. Electronic publications that were accessible through the
UCD server included Science Direct,Synergy and MD Consult.
The LIS currently provides online access to 55 of its subscribed
journals.
In addition to one-on-one tutorials on searching electronic
databases,the Head of Library and Information Services gave a
seminar on the topic, entitled Evidence Based Information on the
Internet, to various departments within the Healthcare Group.
Interlibrary Loans/Document Supply Service
1967 Interlibrary Loans (ILLs) were processed in 2003,369
through the British Library, 222 through the Nursing Union List
of Journals (NULJ),64 through UCD and 1312 through the Irish
Healthcare Libraries (IHL) Co-operative.The cost to the
Hospital was €4166.66,which was partially subsidised by UCD
Library.These figures are substantially lower than in previous
years,thanks to the imposition of a charge for personal ILL
requests and the increasing availability of online material.
Library & Information Services Committee
The Library and Information Services Committee was
reconstituted this year as a sub committee of the Group
Executive. It met 6 times under the chairmanship of Professor
Diarmuid O’Donoghue and its members comprised:
Mr Noel Aherne/Mr Steve Richards (Surgery)
Mr Lloyd Felton (IT)
Mr Eamonn Fitzgerald (Group Executive)
Mr Saul Lugoye (Medical Informatics)
Ms Suzanne McKeon (St Michael’s Hospital)
Ms Mary Nicell/Ms Catherine Walsh (School of Nursing)
Prof Cliona O’Farrelly (ERC)
Dr Katherine O’Reilly/Dr AnneMarie McLoughlin (Medicine)
Mr Peter Sheehan (St Vincent’s Private Hospital)
Ms Majella Tonra (School of Diagnostic Imaging)
Ms Mary Ward (IT)
Outstanding/Significant Achievements
The Head of Library & Information Services continued her links
with other Librarians in the academic teaching hospitals in
Dublin and her membership on the committee of the Health
Sciences Group of the Library Association of Ireland (LAI).She
chaired the working group for, and was co-editor of,the second
edition of Standards for Irish Healthcare Libraries, which is due
for publication by the LAI in 2004.
In November, the Head of Library & Information Services gave
a workshop on Searching the Literature for Evidence at the
Annual Conference of the Academy of Medical Laboratory
Scientists in Galway.
Staff attended the following conferences and training days:
Cinahl training,NUI Galway
Cochrane Library Systematic Review training, UCD
LAI Health Sciences Group Annual Conference: Beyond the
Virtual Library, Bridge House Hotel, Tullamore
Future Plans
2004 promises to be a year of change and development as the
Library integrates with the existing services in St Michael’s
hospital to provide a uniform facility for the whole Group.A
professional librarian is due to be appointed to run the nursing
library in St Michael’s and will report to the Head of LIS in St
Vincent’s. The vision of the LIS is to provide equal services
throughout the Group.
A review of journal subscriptions is planned for 2004 to ensure
the collections reflect the clinical and research needs of the
healthcare staff and is in line with the collection development
policy.
Acknowledgements
Professor Diarmuid O’Donogue resigned from the Chair of the
Library and Information Services Committee at the end of
2003.Sincere thanks to him for his commitment to and support
of the Library down through the years and to Eamonn
Fitzgerald and the other committee members for their
continuing support.Many thanks also to Professor MX
FitzGerald,the Departments of Anaesthesia and Nursing,and
Dr Ken McDonald for their continuing financial support.
Niamh Lucey
Head of Library & Information Services
The year 2003 was a particularly challenging one for the
department.The trend towards increased complexity in medical
equipment continued unabated and this required increased
vigilance in terms of equipment management and quality
assurance. Increased equipment complexity also required staff
to constantly upgrade skills and to commit themselves to
improved competencies.
In addition to routine medical physics and clinical engineering
services to the hospital, staff were also very actively involved in
the initial commissioning stages for the new building and in the
essential preparatory work for hospital accreditation.
Medical Physics
The Medical Physics staff compliment remained unchanged in
2003.The four current staff members strove to provide medical
physics services including radiation protection, image analysis,invivo
and in-vitro testing,quality control,research support and
teaching to many of the hospital departments.
Staff continued to be actively involved in the professional
training scheme which is run jointly with St.Luke’s Hospital.This
year two candidates successfully completed the training
programme and obtained employment,one in Belfast and the
other in Leicester.
Staff participated in teaching programmes in affiliated
organisations e.g.UCD Physics Department,UCD School of
Diagnostic Imaging,and the Faculty of Radiology of the RCSI.
Staff also participated in the preparation of policy documents
on Radiopharmacy ( Irish Nuclear Medicine Association ) and
Diagnostic Reference Levels ( Faculty of Radiology, RCSI) and
Dose Constraints for Comforters and Carers (Faculty of
Radiology ,RCSI) .
Eileen Seymour successfully completed a further module of the
European Specialisation Course in Radiopharmacy and achieved
a distinction in the subsequent assessment process.
Medical Physics and Clinical
Engineering Department
Allied Health Professional and Support Services
Don Carey embarked on a research project to determine more
efficient scattered radiation correction mechanisms in SPECT
imaging.This project,when completed, should enable more
precise quantitative analysis in nuclear medicine studies.
We are very grateful to hospital management for allowing staff
the opportunity to attend the following scientific meetings:
• Image Registration.BIR, London,February 2003.
• British Nuclear Medicine Society Annual Scientific Meeting.
April 2003,Manchester.
• APSM Annual Scientific Meeting.Dublin, July 2003.
• European Nuclear Medicine Association Annual Scientific
Meeting.Amsterdam,August 2003.
Clinical Engineering
Staff numbers increased with the appointment of Declan
Murray. Declan is providing Clinical Engineering support to the
redevelopment Project.
A new equipment management system,HECS,has been
purchased to replace the existing system.The process to install
and implement this system has begun,and will be pivotal in
enabling Clinical Engineering to provide a more effective and
efficient equipment management services to the existing
equipment database and future developments.In brief,
Clinical Engineering provided key services to hospital
management and many different departments:
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