Rethinking Information Literacy: Reaching Out to Health Professions Students (Refereed Poster Presentation)

Objective: To assess the impact of a new “Information Resources in the Health Professions” course on students in the Dr. Ezekiel R. Dumke College of Health Professions program at Weber State University, a four-year public university.Methods: Prior to 2009, the university’s health professions students had little variety in fulfilling their information literacy graduation requirement. Most enrolled in a one-credit general information literacy course that limited their opportunity for in-depth exploration of unique health-related resources and information types. A one-credit course was created specifically for health professions students as an alternative to the general information literacy course. After completing the semester-long course, students were surveyed with regard to their opinions on course content, course set-up, and application in their other courses in the health professions program. University faculty members teaching a core biomedical course requiring students to write a literature review paper were also interviewed to gain their perspectives on student success since the addition of this course to the curriculum.Results: Survey results indicate that students find this course most useful when they take it prior to or concurrently with their other health-related research-based courses. They are appreciative of the online nature of the course as it allows for schedule and location flexibility. Faculty in the college of health professions have seen an increase in the quality of sources used by students in their research.Conclusions: The addition of this health-specific information resources course to the library science curriculum has increased student awareness and use of relevant resources, leading to improvements in their research endeavors at the university.