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Hello All, First, thank you to all the respondents who took the time to give comprehensive replies to my questions. The main message I’ve got from them is just do it – and add another string to the librarians’ bow! Here is a summary, culled from the replies. If anyone wants the detailed answers and other documents that were sent, please get in touch with me direct. A couple of general points came out: - CA training is about facilitation, rather than imposing learning. The participants tend to be highly motivated and bring their own skills (e.g., clinical knowledge) and the sessions are quite interactive - only a basic knowledge of statistics is needed, just enough to make sense of an article’s message - the design & conduct of the study is most important, so basing the training around the checklists (eg CASP) seems to be successful. The answers: 1. Who do you train? Doctors, nurses, AHPs, undergraduate and postgraduate students in science and medicine, managers and finance staff, GPs – anyone who has to read papers from scientific journals. 2. Who does the training? Normally just a librarian. 3. What level of teaching do you carry out? Is it enough to go through checklists, e.g. CASP, or do participants want more detail? The checklists are very useful and usually enough, especially when starting out as they are a way of getting back on track and keeping the session focused. They also deal with stats as only a part of the process so it helps to put stats in their place. There is usually enough in the checklists to generate plenty of discussion. It isn't teaching as much as facilitating. In the CASP checklist hints there are a few teaching points that I usually make sure people take away (e.g. stratified randomisation, intention to treat etc). 4. How much statistics do you get involved in for the majority of participants Very basic stats, enough to make sense of a paper: P-values, confidence intervals, the different types of risk (relative, absolute, NNT). 5. How important is clinical knowledge? No clinical knowledge is required, though of course it adds something to the session if you have, but this is something that the group supplies. Trying to find appropriate articles can be difficult and relevant ones could be checked with a friendly clinician before hand if necessary. 6. Do you do a one-off session or a series? How long do your sessions last? Mostly single sessions but from 1 hour to all day. 7. What training did you do before taking on CA training? A range from no formal training through local CA courses, CILIP, ScHARR, & CASP training, to CASP Train-the-Trainer courses. Regards, Paul Paul Manson Liaison/Clinical Librarian NHS Grampian Room 1:091 Medical Library Polwarth Building Foresterhill Aberdeen AB25 2ZD [log in to unmask] Internal: ext 59433 External: 01224 559433 ********************************************************************** This message may contain confidential and privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient please accept our apologies. Please do not disclose, copy or distribute information in this e-mail or take any action in reliance on its contents: to do so is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. Please inform us that this message has gone astray before deleting it. Thank you for your co-operation. NHSmail is used daily by over 100,000 staff in the NHS. Over a million messages are sent every day by the system. To find out why more and more NHS personnel are switching to this NHS Connecting for Health system please visit www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/nhsmail **********************************************************************