Identifying information literacy skills and behaviors in the curricular competencies of health professions

• Published in: Journal of the Medical Library Association Vol. 108; no. 3; pp. 463 - 479
• Main Authors: Waltz, Micah J, Moberly, Heather K, Carrigan, Esther E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States University Library System, University of Pittsburgh 01-07-2020
• Subjects: Academic libraries; Core curriculum; curricular competencies; Curriculum; Data analysis; Evidence-based nursing; evidence-based practice; Health Occupations; Health sciences; Higher education; Humans; Information Literacy; Information seeking behavior; Learning; Liaison work; Librarians; medical education; Medical libraries; Medical research; Original Investigation; Professional Competence - standards; Public health; Skills; Software; User training; Veterinary colleges; Veterinary medicine; United States > US; Texas
• ISSN: 1536-5050; 1558-9439
• DOI: 10.5195/jmla.2020.833

This research identified the presence of information skill and behaviors components of information literacy in curricular competencies to inform a medical sciences library's instructional schema for five different professional programs at Texas A&M University: College of Medicine, College of Nursing, College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy, and School of Public Health.
Curricular competency documents were collected from each program and reviewed. Coding categories were identified from the curricular competencies of professional health curricula using data-driven qualitative coding. To guide the identification and coding of competency categories, we developed a seven-category rubric from the coding categories. Three researchers used this rubric to independently code the categories of all of the included professional health curricular competencies. An additional researcher used a revised version of the rubric to identify action verbs in each competency.
Competencies for four of the five professional health curricula explicitly stated information skills and behaviors. Each of the five curricula included several competencies that depended on information-specific skills and behaviors. The most common verb used to describe implicit or explicit competencies was "evaluate."
The representation of information skills and behaviors aligns with the drive behind the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. Both underpin the importance of evidence-based medicine methodology.