Curation of Health Information Audit – September 16, 2018
cu·ra·tion
[kyəˈrāSHən]
curation (noun)
- the action or process of selecting, organizing, and looking after the items in a collection or exhibition. "the curation of the exhibition was informed by my experience as an artist"
- the selection of performers or performances that will feature in an arts event or program. "I had a chance to talk with a fellow musician about the festival's curation"
- the selection, organization, and presentation of online content, merchandise, information, etc., typically using professional or expert knowledge. "curation of online content that is relevant to your business can be an excellent way to drive SEO"
When initially considering this discussion topic of resource curation for the Master of Health Studies course, Foundations of Health Systems in Canada, I found myself unsure if I actually did this, or had any identifiable process around it. I found a dictionary definition (above) to clarify what was expected and intended by this term. As I percolated on the definition and how it related to my practice, I came to realize that in my role, I am called upon to integrate my knowledge of health conditions and case management with Provincial Law and health care policy, and in this effort, I do a great deal of research that is directly applicable to Home Care’s clinical practice and program delivery. Below are the questions asked within the course work that I have answered regarding curation, along with updates written when re-visiting this topic throughout the course.
- What is your first step when you need information? Do you ask someone? Do you search somewhere?
Part of my role is determining practices, precedents and process in program oversight. As my role is overseeing a method of support service delivery whereby Alberta Health Services (AHS) provides funding support based on assessed needs for clients/families to hire their own caregivers, I am not typically looking for diagnostic information, nor intervention outcomes. When I have a question, I actually start by re-reading the legal agreement that governs the relationship between AHS and the client/family for any article of the agreement that might provide guidance for the issue at hand. I will often follow that up by picking up the phone and consulting with my provincial counterparts. I have also found similar programs, and service delivery methods within Canada (once again, typically through telephone contact) and have had discussions with the professional overseeing that program, to better understand their methods and approaches to administration of direct funding. My tenure pre-dates most of my provincial counterparts, so I have often needed to find principles and practices for making the decisions and setting program direction. I look back into client files whose circumstances were similar to the one we were considering and document these precedents. At times, I have data-mined our existing or historical files to determine and analyze trends. I have also had AHS Library Services (now Knowledge Management Services) help me to find information on best practices. Often this has provided principles to assist with forming a recommendation.
Some of my most important research has included looking through relevant laws, provincially and federally, and into AHS and Home Care Policies directly relevant or adjacent. These include laws on Canadian Taxation, the Home Care Act, the Supportive Living Act and so on. I have saved each of these documents under their relevant category on our networked drives – some for consumption by all Home Care staff, depending on relevance, some only on the network drive related to our program. I have also found it beneficial, particularly after I had completed my research thoroughly, to discuss issues and challenges with our Ethics Representative.
- How good is the information you find? How do you know the quality of this information?
Because of the nature of the information I am searching, I am using exclusively reputable sources (Insite Alberta to search policy, Queen’s Printer for laws, Government of Canada and Government of Alberta websites). This information is then synthesized by considering it against the declared principles of AHS, ethical principles (duty to care), past practices, and research on best practices gleaned from program leads or reputable journals; I have good confidence in the information. When I am doing broader searching, to look up information on my own health, or on supporting my children with decisions around marijuana or alcohol usage, for example, I never rely exclusively on one source. I look for referenced material on websites and I encourage my children to take next steps on research of claims of benefit, or unsupported assertions
- What do you do when you find good information? Where do you keep it? Is it easy to retrieve?
These efforts have helped to improve the consistency of decision-making and program direction. We now have a concise resource library available to staff in order to allow them to independently source much of the information they need for working through supporting a client with Self Managed Care. I am responsible for curating the information available to our front-line Home Care staff. The information resides on a network drive in a well-ordered folder with several sub-folders to help staff find what they need when they need it. The folder includes background information, copies of relevant legislation and policy, information that can be provided to clients, assessment tools and education resources. This folder must be updated regularly, as new assessment tools are adopted, laws change and education tools are updated. The use of logical categories and practical, applicable file nomenclature help staff to readily find the information they are looking for.
My Curation Plan – September 18, 2018
Last week, after reading other’s experience and plans for curation, I found myself feeling that my skills in the area of research and curation required updating. I have used AHS Library Services in the past and thought there might be help to be found there. I was not disappointed! Library Services has now become Knowledge Resource Services (KRS) and I dug into their available tutorials.
I reviewed some curation tools suggested by my classmates and decided upon Refworks, as suggested by our course instructor, Caterina and by the instructor of the KRS Search Skills class. I’ve toured it and believe it will make research management much easier. I also now have confidence that if I am struggling, I can turn to AHS KRS. While I still feel a bit overwhelmed, I am at least feeling as though I have the appropriate tools for the job.
My Curation Reflection – November 29, 2018
Having completed several assignments and blog posts, I have learned a great deal about curation of resources. The most important rule I have learned is that regardless of the tools you are using, save and annotate your resources contemporaneously! Going back to figure this out retrospectively is time-consuming and challenging! I like RefWorks, but it does not save or share information in as web-friendly or fancy a format as some other tools, such as elink. My lists are pdf’s that I load onto my blog. I think this is fine, as the information is all there, regardless of the format.
I love the “save to RefWorks” button on my tool bar, but it does not download consistently, and sometimes, saving a resource ends up being a multi-stage process of saving a pdf, then dragging and dropping. Organizing my information into folders has worked well and helped me to find and cross-reference material. It took a bit of time to figure out the annotation and annotated bibliography process, but it’s pretty simple now. I may consider trying another tool in future courses as a comparison, but decided to stick with RefWorks throughout this course, rather than confuse my efforts with multiple platforms.
References
Definition curate/curation. (n.d.). Retrieved September 16, 2018, from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/curate
About elink. (n.d.). Retrieved November 28, 2018 from https://elink.io/about
ProQuestRefWorks.(n.d.). Retrieved November 28, 2018 from https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUSaf7dylqp2EnYbZW_5qPA