Objective

1. Results and Conclusions Setting/Participants/Resources • Over time, CHEC’s efforts to integrate into the academic and medical communities have been successful. • Students have sought out CHEC’s instructional activities; • 3 medical students have taken the CHEC elective; • 8 Community Health students have completed CHEC internships; • 5 Community health and 1 nursing students have shadowed in CHEC; • 6 students have enrolled in the CHEC blackboard self-paced course; and • Over 600 people attended our 5th Anniversary, Week of the Nurse, & World Kidney Day Open Houses. The Community Health Education Center (CHEC), a library for patients, their family members, and the general public to find health information, is located in an urban academic medical center. Contact Us Dana L. Ladd, MS, SLIS, AHIP Community Health Education Center Librariandlladd@vcu.edu 804.628.2429 & Shannon D. Jones, MLS, MIS, AHIP Head, Outreach ServicesTompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences sdjones@vcu.edu 804.828.0626 VCU Libraries Web site: www.library.vcu.edu/tml/ iFusions: Integrating a consumer health library into the academic medical center communityDana L. Ladd, Community Health Education Center & Shannon D. Jones, Head, Outreach Services, Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences, VCU Libraries Objective Integrating into the larger academic curriculum and medical community can be challenging for a consumer health library. Developing training opportunities, providing activities, and seeking opportunities to market CHEC are key to linking the faculty, students, and medical professionals with the services of the consumer health library. This poster explores ways in which the Community Health Education Center (CHEC) has successfully integrated its services into the academic and medical communities. Methods About CHEC • Training opportunities for students and medical center employees were made available through CHEC electives, internships, and shadowing opportunities. • The librarian also provides tours of the library to hospital staff and provides short training sessions to nurses and other hospital staff. • A Blackboard class, Providing Health Information to Patients was developed as a way of not only teaching users to how to find health information for patients but as a means of making them aware of CHEC’s services. • The librarian participates in health information rounds on the Women’s Surgical unit of the hospital. • Activities such as Open Houses were for medical employees and students were held to make them aware of CHEC and its services. Motto: Where Knowledge Empowers People Mission: To foster the advancement and development of health knowledge within the community Partners: VCU Health System, Medical College of Virginia Hospitals Auxiliary of VCU, and the VCU LibrariesWeb site: www.vcuhealth.org/chec