The next blog in our Top Tips for Health Teaching series looks at a case study from Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. This was one of the presentations at our Knowledge Sharing Workshop event in September 2025 and focused on how we at Berkshire Healthcare Library and Knowledge Service have had to adapt and evolve our searching training, the challenges and barriers we’ve faced teaching health staff and our most recent evolution from FEW to FAF.
Background
Starting with a bit of historical context, pre-covid we ran an information skills session aimed at teaching health care staff how to search for articles on databases and our discovery service. Our pre-covid course was called Finding the Evidence Workshop (or FEW for short) and was 2 and a half hours long. It was always done in person and included a demo of HDAS (our discovery service) and 20 minutes for the students to practice searching with the trainer able to go around and give advice on their searching technique. It was a popular course and worked well.
As with most other library services at the time, during covid all our training moved to online delivery (Microsoft Teams being the platform of choice in the NHS) and the training session was adapted to be delivered through Teams. Availability of trainers was difficult at this time and therefore we did less promotion, and attendance started to drop. Between 2020 and 2025, the course was adapted several times to try and encourage more attendance and reduce the amount of time the course took without impacting on the learning and interactivity. However, with the new user interface of the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub being launched in July 2025, we decided to change the session completely.
Our new session called Find Articles Fast is a 30-minute introductory session. This session introduces the key aspects of the Knowledge and Library Hub that we wanted all our staff to know about. There are only 6 PowerPoint slides with minimal information on and half the session is a demonstration of the Hub.
Why change it?
The main issue we had was time. 2 and a half hours, or even 90 minutes was still too long of a session for clinical staff who struggle to attend non-mandatory training. This is a key challenge that most NHS Library services have as many learners are often called in to work or cover a clinical shift and cancel training at the last minute, or can’t get time away from the ward to attend optional training.
We also started to think about who was signing up to our searching course and how we were marketing it. We were trying to fit two types of people into the same course: those who wanted to know advanced searching skills and those who just wanted to access quality articles quickly to support a project or learn something new. For some, they were learning things that may be relevant at some point but it wasn’t meeting their needs right now. Our updated course is now more suited for everyone at any skill level and we have clear next steps for those who need more advanced skills and knowledge.
Interactivity
The main issue with the 30-minute course is there is not enough time for meaningful interaction for learners to practice the skills and for the trainer to provide feedback. This is important as interactivity, done in the right way, can enhance learning and embed the skills they’ve learned. Previously we’ve included Padlet exercises, asking them to complete searching activities then feeding back, or getting them to share their screen.
For our Find Articles Fast session, we have created a post-session handout which has a mixture of quiz questions and searching exercises that they can do either straight after the session or at a time that suits them. The trainer blocks out 1 hour in their diary, 30 minutes for the session and 30 minutes protected time to stay on the call. The learners then can stay on after the session if they can and practice the skills they’ve learnt or go through the searching exercise and the trainer is on hand to answers questions and offer feedback and advice.
Where we are now and the future
So far, since the course launched in September 2025, it has received good attendance and good feedback. We have found that it covers what staff need to know to access our resources and search the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub effectively. Those who need to, can book onto our Expert Searching course and learn more advanced skills which is done on a one-to-one basis so it can be tailored to the individual.
We will continue to navigate the challenges of encouraging attendance, getting meaningful feedback and the availability of librarians, and constantly review and make updates to the course.
How have you had to adapt your training to overcome challenges?
