Education for inpatients: working with nurses through the clinical information system

Librarians at the UMDNJ Cooper Library have been filling orders for patient education materials through Cooper University Hospital's Clinical Information System (CIS) since December 2000. This service was instituted in response to a JCAHO survey, which revealed that although patient education was being provided, it was not being routinely documented. Patient education orders fall into two categories: customized disease/procedure information and smoking cessation information. Nurses note the condition(s) and/or procedure(s) regarding which information is needed and indicate the education level of the material desired (basic, intermediate or advanced). Requests are received via a dedicated printer in the reference office. Librarians rely heavily upon a wide variety of Web-based consumer health resources, including proprietary resources such as MD Consult and Micromedex CareNotes. Patient Transport staff delivers two copies of all materials to nursing stations on patient care floors. One copy is for the patient to keep, while the other is attached to the patient's chart. To complete and document that patient education was provided, librarians record the order as filled in the CIS system.