Strategy on a page Workshop

I attended the one day strategy on a page course led by Amanda Stearn. It was held at St. Chad's Court, Birmingham with 16 attendees. I wanted find a way to align the Library service strategy to that of my organisation and present it in a simple format that is succinct. Amanda steered the conversation away from the NHS to give some context to how we look to strategies as a whole. Bringing the session back to healthcare with a host of examples and exercises, she put us through our paces eliciting ideas on what we considered contributing factors from macro drivers such as the HEE, service users, host organisations to SWOT (local and external factors) such as budgets, staffing pressures, technology, and the political climate.

Aligning the vision and mission to that of the organisations ensures that the strategies and operations executed advance those of the organisation. We looked at how different segments of a strategy fit together and what they address.
Why - Vision - Why the service exists
Who - Mission - Who the service is in support of the vision
What - Priorities - What the service intends to accomplish in to meet the mission.
How - Strategies - Outline of how the priorities will be realised
How, where, when - Operational plan - More detailed practical actions that will be executed to realise the strategies.

We practiced on a whole strategy and converting it into a one page document with the use of a very helpful template. We also had the chance to identify enablers which are the things that will impact and make what we want happen such as funding and technology.

Different terminologies are often used to describe the same thing such as mission / purpose or goals / priorities. It is important to avoid the use of passive words like "support" and embrace the use of power words like enrich and strengthen to sell the service as an integral instrument for meeting the overarching goals of the organisation. We were supplied with tips on how to engage team members in the process by supplying the priorities and having them individually give their opinions on post-its on what the operational plans could entail. This gives every team member the chance to voice their thoughts and then collectively work backwards to the core strategies.

The focus of the workshop was generating a strategy on one page but it gave insight into how a template can be used to derive the summary for the service from my organisation strategy and then develop the full strategy for the service thereafter. It was useful to work with others and see how our different organisations and ways of thinking influenced our approaches to writing and structuring catchy sentences to reflect what we want. I had a wealth of ideas which I intend to implement in the hopes of enhancing the content of the service strategy.

Health Literacy Training

I attended this one day train the trainer event on Health Literacy held on the 17th of October 2019 at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham. My knowledge of health literacy beforehand was vague at best and I attended the event in the hopes of improving my understanding of health literacy levels and how it affects patient care as well as gathering ideas on how to support health literacy within my organization. The event was facilitated by three Librarians, Anita Phul (Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust), Lesley Allen (Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust), and Semanti Chakraborty (University Hospital Birmingham).

It started off with looking at what health literacy is and how issues and challenges surrounding it can be addressed. It was identified as being personal from a patient's point of view with aim of equipping the patient with information on their condition at a level they can understand to make decisions about their care. It was also looked at from a societal point of view which looked at the the accessibility of health information for those in need of it.

We looked at the different types of health literacy, functional - basic skills for everyday lie, Interactive - power to interpret and balance information as well as the confidence to undertake further investigation to inform decision making, Critical - ability to critically appraise and challenge information and make links with economic, social, and cultural factors. We also looked at health literacy levels across regions in England as well as the national and regional literacy of health materials which showed the information generally provided is often at a higher level than the average literacy level of the population. We looked how health literacy levels can be compromised depending on circumstances. I especially liked the activity which helped demonstrate how a professional with a high literacy level can suddenly have a low health literacy level where they or a loved one have been diagnosed with a life changing or life threatening condition.

We had an activity which helped drive home how dealing with health information you don't understand can feel. Comments made by attendees included frustrating, feeling stupid, and this helped stress the importance of providing health information at an understandable level. We looked at the population more likely to have low health literacy and this included people with learning difficulties or learning disabilities, people with low IT skills, older people. there was an activity where attendees were encouraged to discuss examples of when health literacy has had a personal or professional impact on them. The detriments and impact of low health literacy to patients and the NHS were also addressed such as unhealthy habits, high mortality, wrong usage of medication, missed appointments etc.

The areas where librarians and library services can influence health literacy were also covered.This included improving health literacy levels, ensuring information and services are accessible to all, and raising health literacy awareness. This can be done by using techniques such as Teach Back and Chunk and check to empower individuals and ensuring written information provided is at an appropriate level for the audience (i.e. simple, free of jargon, free of acronyms, conversational, use of everyday words, free of needless information etc.). We were also supplied with a list of tools that support creating health information and attendees talked about local initiatives they were aware of. The event ended with some recommendations that should be promoted such as not making assumptions about literacy or ability to speak or hear, and using different media to share health information, use of simple explanations.

The event had a good mix or presentations and activities but I found it a lot to take in and didn't have as much opportunity to share ideas with other attendees as I would have liked. It showed me that there is a varied mix of health literacy support already in place across a range of NHS Libraries and I took away some ideas on how to help my organisation create a patient information register and ensure that the information supplied are at an appropriate level. I also got the idea to support the discharge facilitators with how the information supplied to patients is provided in a way that will enable compliance. I believe the event was suitable for anyone looking to start off a Health Literacy service or looking for more ideas on how to improve an existing service.

GDPR and #HIW2018

I was certain that after May the 25th there would be a barrage of lawsuits arising from who did what without consent. I'm relieved that the upheaval has subsided but the question remains IS IT REALLY OVER? The answer would be no. It was never meant to be a quick fix but a change in culture and therefore a regular practice. This much was reiterated at the GDPR training session I attended at Stewart House, London on the 2nd of July. Naomi Korn was a breath of fresh air and it was a relief to have no PowerPoint slides in sight.

The session consisted of case studies, question and answer sessions and covered the interplay between data protection and the GDPR changes. This extended to the need for the speed of the regulatory framework to catch up with the speed of technological change in order to discourage the commercialization of personal data. We also discussed how to collect and process personal data and what action plans we should have in place for our services. The highlights of the session for me were the six principles of data protection and the six grounds for lawful processing.

DATA PROTECTION PRINCIPLES	GROUNDS FOR LAWFUL PROCESSING
Lawful, fair and transparent	Contractual
Specific, explicit and legitimate	Legal basis
Adequate, relevant and not excessive	Vital interests
Accurate and kept up to date	Public interest
Kept for no longer than necessary	Legitimate interest
Processed securely	Consent

It is important to distinguish the need for consent from the other lawful grounds as it is the only one that requires the data subject to actively opt-in. An interesting note was that although individual personal emails constitute personal data, corporate emails do not so it's worth making that distinction.  If you use a system which creates a handicap to compliance, change it. It needs to work for you and not the other way around. There were handouts provided and references to other helpful sources. There's a lot of technical jargon muddying waters in some sources which in no way allays my concern of how to equip frontline staff, particularly Library Assistants, with the skills to ensure they comply with the regulations in their day to day practice. I have found some comfort in the content and straightforward language at https://naomikorn.com/blog/ which I have now shared with my team in the hopes of filling in the blanks and making the transition a gradual process.

I am in no way a GDPR expert but I did have some notions confirmed and some misconceptions  corrected. I left more confident than I arrived with an action plan sure to make me the least favourite person on my team for a few weeks. I'll need to soften 'em up with lots of chocolate and biscuits. My take home has been the need for experienced information professionals to apply a degree of reasonableness (Naomi's description) i.e. ask ourselves what we consider to be a reasonable expectation from the person who has entrusted us with their personal data. Some things will clearly be right and others will clearly be wrong whilst there will be grey areas. I say stay as far away as you can from what doesn't fall into the clearly right category and you should be fine.

It's also Health Information Week #HIW2018 and I have been tasked with organizing and promoting events. It happens to coincide with NHS70 and I used the opportunity to team up with the Trust Charity who are celebrating with Big7Tea parties. They have cake and we have sources of good quality health information. It's a match made in heaven. I also put together a looped PowerPoint for our local library to promote health and digital literacy, healthy lifestyles, mindfulness, and relaxation on their big screen. Thanks to the templates on the Knowledge for Healthcare blog, I also tailored some posters and promotional materials.

@Healthinfoweek is fast approaching @bhamcommunity. Health literacy levels are known to impact on health outcomes so join us to look at avenues for improving it #HIW2018 pic.twitter.com/mjj8gDYeaI

— Smallwood Library (@smallwoodlib) 25 June 2018

In other news, the team that brought you the Development Needs Analysis is getting back together. Yes, you heard right. Team DNA is back. Commitment, gluttons for punishment or just missing each other (I think quite a bit of the latter LOL). We'll be working together over the next couple of months to get the next survey for the development needs of the NHS Library workforce ready for next autumn. It's gonna be great.

Go Team DNA #HEELKS pic.twitter.com/grh0XLfkFj

— Abimbola Alayo (@abombolo) June 26, 2018