Health Library News

 Communicating effectively with your patients is an important aspect of your healthcare job. Understanding the health literacy of your patients is elemental in supporting their healthcare needs and ensuring good healthcare outcomes. Do you get it right? South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust have produced some videos to demonstrate how the teach back and chunk and check techniques can help you to communicate effectively with your patients. Phone call example Pharmacy example Directions example For more help developing patient information check out our etutorial 10 steps to creating patient information.

 Improve communication with your patients to improve their health outcomes. Book your place on our Health Literacy Awareness course to learn more. This session, accredited by the Royal Society for Public Health UK (RSPH), aims to: introduce you to the concept of health literacy; consider the impact low health literacy can have on your work, your patients, and the NHS; and explore practical methods that can be used to help improve health literacy and the patient experience. It is a 1 hour interactive session delivered online.  Dates available: Monday 27th April 10:00am Tuesday 19th May 12:00pm Monday 29th June 10:00am To book: email Jonathan Hutchins at jonathan.hutchins2@uhnm.nhs.uk

 Winter health resource list for #HIW2026 Check out  this resource sheet for resources to support winter health , includes sections on: Winter illnesses Keeping warm this winter Mental health and wellbeing Keeping active this winter Advice in alternative formats Health Library Resources A number of health library resources can help you to create your own patient information: BMJ Best Practice  - available to all NHS staff, includes patient leaflets on a wide range of conditions and diseases. Clinical Key  - available to UHNM staff, includes editable patient leaflets on a wide range of a conditions and diseases. Easy read and multiple language versions are also available. 10 steps to creating patient information  - our online tutorial giving you hints and tips on developing your own patient information

  Mental health resource list for #HIW2026 Check out  this resource sheet for resources to support mental health , includes sections on: General information and support Information and support for children and young people Self-management resources Self-management resources for young people Podcasts Health Library Resources A number of health library resources can help you to create your own patient information: BMJ Best Practice  - available to all NHS staff, includes patient leaflets on a wide range of conditions and diseases. Clinical Key  - available to UHNM staff, includes editable patient leaflets on a wide range of a conditions and diseases. Easy read and multiple language versions are also available. 10 steps to creating patient information  - our online tutorial giving you hints and tips on developing your own patient information

 Women's health resource list for #HIW2026 Take a look at this resource sheet for resources supporting women's health . It includes sections on a number of medical issues affecting women. Health Library Resources A number of health library resources can help you to create your own patient information: BMJ Best Practice  - available to all NHS staff, includes patient leaflets on a wide range of conditions and diseases. Clinical Key  - available to UHNM staff, includes editable patient leaflets on a wide range of a conditions and diseases. Easy read and multiple language versions are also available. 10 steps to creating patient information  - our online tutorial giving you hints and tips on developing your own patient information

Make sure your patients have the right information to support their care and help them to make good health decisions. Create your own patient information easily by following these steps - complete our updated online tutorial 10 steps to creating patient information . You'll learn about: Defining what you want to say Identifying who you want to say it to Finding the right format Where to check whether it already exists What type of language you should use How to create readable text How to use images Arranging the layout Why you should add help options Keeping your references Your course avatar provides helpful hints and tips: More tutorials For more online tutorials go to the Health Library Information Skills etutorials web page .

See this worksheet for suggested resources to support obtaining patient information in languages other than english . Worksheet includes sections on: General health and wellbeing translated materials Cancer Maternity Accessing services Health Library Resources A number of health library resources can help you to create your own patient information: BMJ Best Practice - available to all NHS staff, includes patient leaflets on a wide range of conditions and diseases. Clinical Key - available to UHNM staff, includes editable patient leaflets on a wide range of a conditions and diseases. Easy read and multiple language versions are also available. 10 steps to creating patient information - our online tutorial giving you hints and tips on developing your own patient information

 Children and young people resource list for #HIW2026 Check out this resource sheet for resources to support children and young people , includes sections on: General medical conditions and health advice Mental health and wellbeing Facts and figures Organisations providing support for children, young people and their families Reading Well collections Health Library Resources A number of health library resources can help you to create your own patient information: BMJ Best Practice - available to all NHS staff, includes patient leaflets on a wide range of conditions and diseases. Clinical Key - available to UHNM staff, includes editable patient leaflets on a wide range of a conditions and diseases. Easy read and multiple language versions are also available. 10 steps to creating patient information - our online tutorial giving you hints and tips on developing your own patient information

 This year Health Information Week is running from 19th to 25th January. Health Information Week is a national, multi-sector campaign. It aims to promote high-quality information for patients and the public. This year's themes: Children and young people Translated patient information Women's health Mental health Winter health Check our blog over the next week for suggested resources covering these topics.

  Save the date - Health Information Week from 19th - 23rd January 2026! For useful resources on each of this year's daily themes: Visit the Health Library's stand outside the restaurant at Royal Stoke Hospital on Monday 19th January 10 am - 3 pm, Keep an eye out for daily posts on our blog, Health Library's X channel ceclibrary  and Health Library at County's Bluesky  @countyhealthlib.bsky.socal .

  Need to create information for patients?  Wondering where to start, and how to ensure the information you communicate can be understood and acted on by the patient? Our tutorial gives hints and tips on preparing health information for your patients. You'll learn about health literacy and how you can accommodate poor health literacy to make sure that your patients are well informed and can make good healthcare decisions. Try the tutorial now:  10 steps to creating patient information Need more help? You can find more etutorials on  our Information Skills eTutorials page .

To celebrate Health Information Week 2025 take a look back to some of our blog posts that help you to find patient information: New tutorial! 10 steps to creating patient information - Get hints and tips on preparing health information for your patients. Looking for Patient Information - Whether you want to create your own bespoke patient information or find something ready-made, take a look at the options in this post. ClinicalKey and Patient Education - ClinicalKey offers access to leaflets that support hospital staff to deliver patient education in multiple languages, as well as adapted text for different populations (easy-to-read).

You can help your patients understand their condition better and improve their own outcomes by providing, or pointing them to, good quality patient information. Whether you want to create your own bespoke patient information or find something ready-made, take a look at the options below. BMJ Best Practice BMJ Best Practice is a clinical decision support tool, offering evidence-based information on a wide range of conditions and diseases. Browse for patient leaflets by selecting this option from the top menu bar. You can then either browse the A-Z list or search for the condition. Once presented with the information you can either print it out or download it as a PDF file. BMJ Best Practice is available to all NHS staff. Log in with your NHS OpenAthens username.   Clinical Key (UHNM staff only) Clinical Key is a clinical search engine, covering a wide range of full-text sources. It offers you quick and easy access to evidence-based content. Select the Patient Educatio...

  I nspired by   Health Information Week   we've created a new tutorial   10 steps to creating patient information . Here you'll get hints and tips on preparing health information for your patients. You'll learn about health literacy and how you can accommodate poor health literacy to make sure that your patients are well informed and can make good healthcare decisions. Try the tutorial now:  10 steps to creating patient information Need more help? You can find more etutorials on  our Information Skills eTutorials page . Contact the Health Library  if you need any help.

  NHS Knowledge and Library Services have worked with people with lived experience to produce  two, new, easy read guides  for people with learning disabilities. The documents have been produced as accessible PDFs to download or print out.  You can use them with your patients to help them to understand and participate in their healthcare choices. The guides are: ‘Get ready to talk about your health’  prepares people for what to do before they go for a consultation with any health or care provider.  It includes important information about their rights and what they can ask for, such as information in different formats, help to understand information provided or physical help to get to and from appointments. Download this document . ‘ 3 questions for better health’  suggests what to ask when people have a healthcare appointment. Adapted in consultation with experts by experience into easy read from the NICE shared decision making guidance, the main empha...

  You can help your patients understand their condition better and improve their own outcomes by providing, or pointing them to, good quality patient information. Whether you want to create your own bespoke patient information or find something ready-made, take a look at the options below. Main resources to help you to find patient information: BMJ Best Practice   BMJ Best Practice is a clinical decision support tool, offering evidence-based information on a wide range of conditions and diseases. Select the Patient Leaflets option from the top menu bar. You can then either browse the A-Z list or search for the condition. Once presented with the information you can either print it out or download it as a PDF file. BMJ Best Practice is available to all NHS staff. Log in with your NHS OpenAthens username. Clinical Key (UHNM staff only)   Clinical Key is a clinical search engine, covering a wide range of full-text sources. It offers you quick and easy acces...

 It's Health Information Week this week! "Health Information Week is a national, multi-sector campaign promoting high-quality information for patients and the public. High quality health information can have a huge impact on people’s ability to stay healthy and manage illnesses effectively, giving them a better quality of life." As healthcare professionals you want to make sure your patients have the best, most up-to-date and accessible healthcare information. We'll be posting more information for you during the week, so check back to our blog or follow us on Twitter .

If you missed any of our Tweets or Facebook posts during Health Information week, here are the highlights: Help your patients discover good quality health information; helping them stay healthy, manage illnesses effectively, and accomplish a better quality of life. Everyone benefits from good quality health information. Video and poster: Don't know what to believe? Think: Who? What? Where? Don't know what to believe? Think .. Who? What? Where? poster. Leaflet to support your patients to find the right information online . We put together this leaflet. The leaflet is available in the patient information library on the UHNM intranet.  Searching for good quality health information using the internet  leaflet Mood lifting books - ten books chosen by NHS staff for you to read to uplift your mood.  The books are available at Health Library at County and can be requested for collection from either Health Library at Royal Stoke or Health Library at County. Check out other online...

 Congratulations to the Hearing and Balance Clinic @UHNM_NHS you have won this prize!! Enjoy! The patient information leaflets you created were fantastic 😀 Thank you our judges Becci (PALS),  Emily (Comms), Liz @CountyHealthLib and Lindsay @CECLibrary and those who entered 👏 #HIW2021

  Health Information week is a national campaign promoting high quality health information for a better quality of life – learn more at your Health Library.  Our patients benefit from quality health information. They:  feel informed, confident and empowered rather than overwhelmed and fearful  are more likely to follow treatment, reducing costs and reducing complaints  have stronger partnerships with you and the team and an increased understanding of their health  We are running a competition to highlight the good quality information you give to your patients. You could have prepared the information yourselves, or it could be information you give clear direction to. The format can be whatever works best in your context (but we do love a good display!)  We will be looking for:  Simple easy to understand information with minimal or no jargon  Is the information using an evidence base?  Does the information come from or does it reference a ...