gms | German Medical Science

At a time when the UK's National Health Service (NHS) is going through unprecedented change, access to fast high quality, evidence-based information is needed now, more than ever before, to inform decision-making and support the provision of high quality healthcare. A study undertaken by a key NHS information provider explores user awareness, usage and experiences of online health and social care information resources, by a range of clinical professional groups. A stratified random sample approach was used to generate 100 NHS Trusts across England, stratified by NHS region. For each selected NHS Trust, a quota sample based on the NHS workforce data was used to obtain a representative sample for each relevant professional group. Over 3,000 staff from over 20 professional groups participated in an in-depth quantitative research study of resource preferences and of how individual users prefer to access this information and for what purpose. The research also explored user trust and confidence of different online information resources. The study identified key themes and differences between clinical groups who use/do not use online evidence-based information resources and highlighted implications for guideline developers/users. A comparison of online information providers was also made to help understand where there are gaps in online information and to inform future discussions on how online evidence information resources can better support best practice and high quality care in health, public health and social care.