Embedded Graduate Assistants Collaborations between Library and Nursing Students

Alexandria Brackett, MA, MLIS Student University of Oklahoma alexandria.brackett@ou.edu

“This experience gave me an invaluable opportunity to provide

advanced instruction to the students on database searching. It allowed

me to work with students of different learning styles and learn how to

customize my instruction approach to best fit their individual needs. All

in all, this has been a rewarding project for all parties involved and

should definitely be offered more regularly in the near future.”

--Nha Huynh, SLIS Student & Graduate Assistant

“The experience of assisting my group of nursing students gave me

great insight into how to tailor library instruction methods to the

specific needs of health sciences students. As a result of this

experience, I have an improved understanding of how to more

effectively explain clinical and nursing databases; and, the nursing

students have a better understanding of the amazing resources to be

found in libraries and library professionals."

--Leah Weyand, SLIS Student & Graduate Assistant

Setting

The Schusterman Library

at the University of

Oklahoma-Tulsa campus is

home both to a College of

Nursing and School of

Library and Information

Studies. In the 2014 Spring

Semester, six groups of

nursing students were

assigned a library graduate

assistant as a reference

consultant to their EBP

capstone project.

GA Experience

1. Training on PICO

question development

and Evidence-Based

Practice

2. Training on OVID

Medline

3. Initial meeting with

group of nursing

students and their

adviser to design a plan

for research

4. Periodic meetings or

email communications

with group to provide

additional support

through the duration of

the project

Problem

Library students have

limited classroom and

instructional experience

before their academic

library careers.

Nursing students are

generally unaware of the

databases and resources

available to them, and are

unsure how to find

Evidence-Based Practice

articles.

Rewards & Challenges

The partnership allowed

library graduate assistants

to directly work with a

group of nursing students

from their initial point of

research to the final

project. Graduate

assistants learned the

importance of embedded

librarianship, and had a

unique opportunity to

experience the positive

outcomes and difficulties

librarians face in the

classroom, specifically

clarification of schedules

and expectations.