Information Skills Training

Helping clinicians to follow best practice, improve patient outcomes and reduce quality variation using BMJ Best Practice. 

Upcoming Sessions:

Friday 8th August 2025: 14:00-14:30

Friday 12th September 2025: 14:00-14:30

Friday 24th October 2025: 14:00-14:30

Friday 21st November 2025: 14:00-14:30

Friday 19th December 2025: 14:00-14:30

Can't make these dates but want to learn more?

If you would like to have this course delivered on a specific date for your department or team, contact us to discuss options.

If you need additional support to you getting started with BMJ Best Practice, please visit the training page on the BMJ website to book onto their 30 minute webinars, watch a recording of one of their training sessions or/and view training slides.

This informal course helps you to identify which information resources will best suit your needs, and shows you the easiest ways to access them. The course will take you through registering or updating an NHS OpenAthens account, accessing resources through the Leeds Libraries for Health website, and finding e-books and other electronic resources. It will also briefly introduce the Knowledge and Library Hub, Browzine, and the LibKey tools, helping you to access journals and articles quickly and easily wherever you are. 

Upcoming dates
Friday 8th August 2025: 11:00-12:00
Friday 12th September 2025: 11:00-12:00
Friday 10th October 2025: 11:00-12:00
Friday 24th October 2025: 11:00-12:00
Friday 7th November 2025: 11:00-12:00
Friday 21st November 2025: 11:00-12:00
Friday 5th December 2025: 11:00-12:00
Friday 19th December 2025: 11:00-12:00

Can't make the course but want to learn more about accessing to ejournals and eBooks?

If you would like to have this course delivered on a specific date for your department or team, contact us to discuss options. 

NHS England have produced a short video on how to register for an NHS Open Athens account in order to access ejournals and ebooks.

Our Find Evidence page introduces the different ways of finding and accessing online resources for NHS staff. You can also find out more about NHS OpenAthens, and manage your account easily online. Browse our A-Z of evidence to discover more of what's available to you, and explore our Topic Guides to find information resources selected to support your role or professional interests. 

Contact your library service with any further queries. 

 

 

Our one hour health literacy awareness session highlights some of the barriers that affect people’s understanding and use of health information.  It also provides tools and resources for healthcare professionals to support patients to make more informed decisions about their healthcare.

Upcoming Sessions:
Thursday 31st July 2025: 13:00-14:00
Friday 15th August 2025: 14:00-15:30
Tuesday 9th September 2025: 12:30-13:30
Thursday 9th October 2025: 13:00-14:00
Tuesday 14th October 2025: 14:30-15:30
Thursday 23rd October 2025: 15:00-16:00
Tuesday 18th November 2025: 12:30-13:30
Tuesday 9th December 2025: 13:00-14:00

Can't make the course but want to learn more about Health Literacy?

This 30-minute NHS e-learning session delivered via e-LfH will teach you why health literacy is important and how to use some simple techniques including TeachBack, chunk and check, using pictures and simple language to improve how you communicate and check understanding with others.

Find more resources through our guide to Health Literacy.

Contact us for any further support. 

This one hour session will guide you through the process of getting your work published, including hints and tips to get you started, outlining pitfalls to avoid, and highlighting further support and resources.

Upcoming Sessions:

Thursday 11th September: 11:00-12:00

Tuesday 14th October: 13:00-14:00

Wednesday 19th November: 14:00-15:00

Can't make the course but want to learn more?

Please visit the Writing for Publication pages on the NHS England Learning Academy website.

If self directed learning might be a better choice for you, or if you want to start developing your information skills before attanding one of our courses, a range of elearning courses are now available. These are centrally provided by NHS England.

All of these courses can be accessed through the eLearning for Healthcare Hub. Register and log in to access these programmes on the elfh Hub. If you already have an account with elfh, then you can enrol on to these courses by logging in to the elfh Hub, selecting My Account > Enrolment and selecting the programme. You can then access the programme immediately in the My elearning section.

• How to Search the Literature Effectively: A step-by-step guide to finding information and developing the skills for successful searching
  • These modules are designed to help the healthcare workforce (clinical and non-clinical) build confidence to search published literature for articles and evidence relevant to their work, study and research. The modules are short (each taking no more than 20 minutes to complete) and may be ‘dipped into’ for reference, or completed to obtain a certificate. There are seven modules suitable for novice searchers and those wishing to refresh their knowledge.
  • Module 7 looks at how to get the best out of the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub
• Critically Appraising the Evidence Base: Enabling the healthcare workforce to build skills and confidence

  • The critical appraisal programme has been designed to enable the healthcare workforce (clinical and non-clinical) to build confidence in the critical appraisal process when applying and evaluating research.

  • This programme aims to support NHS colleagues with understanding the different methods and tools to carry out critical appraisal of research, through 8 bite-sized modules. The sessions are short, with each topic taking approximately 30 minutes to complete.

• Health literacy: You can make a difference

  • NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and NHS England have collaborated to develop a new elearning module to help you understand the role health literacy plays in making sure everyone has 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.

  • The elearning session takes about 30 minutes to complete.  At the end of the session, you will know why health literacy is important and how to use some simple techniques including TeachBack, chunk and check, using pictures and simple language to improve how you communicate and check understanding with others. After each section you can complete an action plan of how you intend to use the techniques in your practice. You can use this plan as evidence of your learning in your appraisal or professional portfolio.