The Right Decision – Campaign Support

Thank you to all of the following people for lending their support. If you would like to add some supportive words please contact us.

Fiona McQueen, Chief Nursing Officer, Scottish Government

I am pleased to support the Right Decision campaign. NHS librarians play a key role in helping all nurses and midwives to deliver quality health care, ensuring that practice is based on the best available evidence. Librarians have also come to the fore in helping staff to develop their digital and information literacy skills to help with continuing professional development, including advanced practice, and revalidation.

Mark Simpson – Consultant Physiotherapist, NHS Lothian; Chair of Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professionals Consultant Network

NHS librarians showed real leadership in sourcing and summarising evidence about the impact of NMAHP Consultant roles to support the national NMAHP Consultant network. They challenged us to think in new ways about how to build our own evidence base and put into action by working together to define, evaluate and demonstrate impact of the work we do. I would recommend NMAHPs to take a fresh look at the opportunities for collaboration with NHS librarians to support their practice and improvement work.

Marion Bain – Medical Director, NHS National Services Scotland and Chair of Scottish Association of Medical Directors

I welcome the Right Decision campaign. It reminds us of the unique role of NHS librarians in linking evidence and best practice in health and social care.  NHS librarians provided invaluable evidence about the effectiveness of proposed new models of care to support development of the National Clinical Strategy for Scotland. They are now supporting work by the Scottish Association of Medical Directors – for example, by identifying areas of healthcare where there is evidence to inform changes in practice, to both improve patient care and reduce unnecessary costs. This campaign prompts us to make fuller use in future of librarian support to help us create best value services based on the best available evidence.

Jacqui Lunday-Johnstone, Chief Health Professions Officer in Scottish Government

I am pleased to support The Right Decision campaign. NHS librarians play a key role in providing evidence to support frontline decisions and to drive quality improvement. They also help staff to develop their skills and confidence in finding, sharing and creating evidence as they continuously learn and improve. It is important that we value and support our librarians so that they can help us to implement  the Health and Care Delivery Plan with its focus on Realistic Medicine, improvement, and shared decision-making.

Alpana Mair – Head of Effective Prescribing and Therapeutics, Scottish Government

NHS librarians are playing a key role in sourcing evidence to help us develop shared decision-making tools to support the medicines review process for people taking multiple medicines. It is timely to highlight their important contribution to evidence-based practice and person-centred care.

Paul Campbell, Consultant Anaesthetist in NHS Greater Glasgow and Glyde and the Golden Jubilee National Hospital; also chair of the national Clinical Change and Leadership Group

We all want the best outcome for patients. This requires the best people, processes, and at the very core, knowledge. The best outcomes depend on access to the best in knowledge services!

Elaine Torrance  and Susan Taylor – Previous and Current Presidents, Social Work Scotland.  Elaine Torrance is Interim Chief Officer for Health & Social Care Integration,  Borders Council. Susan Taylor is Head of Service: Children, Families and Criminal Justice, and Chief Social Work Officer, East Ayrshire Council

Social Work Scotland is delighted that NHS librarians are extending their support beyond health into social work and social care. This will help to ensure that new roles, interventions and integrated models of support and care are based on the best available evidence. Librarians are already supporting us in this way by producing evidence summaries on a range of matters including challenging behaviour in dementia, supporting the care experience of young people through technology, and caring at home for  frail elderly people with complex needs. This will be extremely valuable in assisting social work, social care and health professionals to have an easily accessible sound evidence base to review and design services with people and their families and carers.

Blythe Robertson – Policy Manager, Person-Centred Care and Self-Management, Scottish Government

The Right Decision campaign is very welcome. It recognises the valuable role of  NHS librarians and their colleagues in public libraries in helping people to make informed choices about health and care. By putting people in touch with evidence, librarians support healthcare staff and citizens to work as equal partners in care, and help people to live well on their own terms with any conditions they may have.