What can we offer?

The Library offers the following mediated training courses, to book a place or find out more information, contact us on mtw-tr.library@nhs.net. MTW NHS Trust Staff are also able to book training via MTW Learning – log on and browse for the library courses to select a session to suit your needs

Our training sessions can be tailored to meet your information needs, and can be delivered either in small groups or on a 1:1 basis. All of our training sessions are available in face-to-face or virtual (MS Teams) formats. 

Preparing for Study (2 hours)

Our 2 hour Preparing for Study is designed to prepare you for undertaking academic assignments such as essays and reports. The 2-hour interactive session will cover: The 2-hour interactive session will cover: time management, answering the question, reading and evaluating research, planning and note-taking, structuring your assignment, punctuation and writing style, and referencing.

Learning Outcomes:

• To understand how to plan and manage your study time more efficiently
• To improve your reading and critical understanding of information sources
• To write in an academic style and express your arguments clearly
• To reference your sources correctly

Evidence Search Training (2 hours)

An evidence search is a considered and organised search to find key scholarly literature on a specific topic. The aim of this 2-hour interactive workshop is to provide you with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to carry out complex, robust and reproduceable searches to inform research, study, and practice.

Learning Outcomes:

• To recognise when you need to conduct a search
• To identify appropriate resources relevant to your search topic
• To develop a search strategy to guide your search
• To apply your strategy to appropriate resources
• To refine your search
• To manage outputs from your search

Don’t need training, but want a refresher on searching and review? Check out the resources on our Literature Searching and Review Resources padlet

Critical Appraisal: Quantitative Studies (2 hours)

Critical appraisal is the process of carefully and systematically assessing the outcome of scientific research to judge its trustworthiness, value and relevance in a particular context. Critical appraisal looks at the way a study is conducted and examines factors such as internal validity, generalizability and relevance. This 2-hour interactive session aims to help you make use of the best evidence within your practice by equipping you with the knowledge, skills and confidence to critically read and interpret scientific evidence.

Learning Outcomes:

• To understand the meaning of evidence-based medicine and the importance of critical appraisal skills
• To be able to identify different study designs and where they sit in the hierarchy of evidence
• To identify different types of bias and understand how they affect study validity
• To be aware of different tools and checklists for appraising studies
• To be able to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a randomised controlled trial

Looking for additional resources to support you with Critical Appraisal? Check out our Critical Appraisal Tools and Resources padlet

Health Literacy Awareness Training (1.5 Hours)

Our 1.5-hour Health Literacy Awareness Training is designed to promote understanding around the role health literacy plays in making sure patients have enough knowledge, understanding, skills and confidence to use health information, to be active partners in their care, and to navigate health and social care systems. During the session you will also learn simple and easy-to-use tools
and techniques to improve your verbal and written communication of health information.

Learning Objectives

• To increase your knowledge of what health literacy is and why it is important
• To raise awareness of how Health Literacy is relevant to your work
• To raise awareness of how having low health literacy impacts on individuals’ health and wellbeing and the services that support them
• To increase awareness of the tools and techniques that can support people with low health literacy and promote health literacy in practice
• To raise awareness of the resources and information available to support you in promoting health literacy.

Introduction to the NHS Knowledge & Library Hub (1 hour)

NHS knowledge and library services take the heavy lifting out of getting evidence into practice. The Knowledge and Library Hub brings all the resources available to NHS staff into one place, enabling you to find evidence resources to support your clinical practice, learning and research. The Hub is a single gateway and offers an intuitive search experience for quick searches and options for in-depth searches.
Our one-hour session will cover: accessing the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub, logging-in and authentication, basic and advanced searching, limits and filters, full-text access, and exporting results.

Learning Outcomes:

• To be able to formulate a search question and corresponding search strategy
• To use the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub effectively and efficiently to find high-quality evidence
• To manage the results that you find

We also offer online guidance, hints and tips to support you with the following:

Writing for Publication: Click here to access resources

Creating an Academic Poster: Click here to access resources