NHS Core Content access for NHS-commissioned health care students
1. Background
From 1 April 2011, students on NHS-commissioned education programmes involving practice and placement with NHS provider services have been eligible to have access to NHS Core Content for the duration of their education programmes, rather than just on placement as previously.
The drivers behind this change are quality and efficiency: ensuring all students are familiar with and competent to use NHS information resources, supporting equity of access and experience.
It is important to note that locally, each university library and the appropriate academic liaison librarians and academic staff in that institution will decide on its own policy and timing for registering eligible students for access to NHS core content.
2. Accessing NHS Core Content
Access to NHS Core Content is enabled through the Athens access management system. All Core Content users are required to have an Athens user name and password, which is assigned through a centrally coordinated system with local facilitation.
Each participating HEI has a local Athens administrator. Student data should be bulk-uploaded. The minimum information that is required, is first name, last name, university email address and course expiry date.
Central registration in HE gives access to the standard core of NHS-purchased materials:
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Eight bibliographic databases provided by Ovid (MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, AMED (allied and complementary medicine), British Nursing Index and HMIC) and EBSCOhost (CINAHL and Health Business Elite)
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Two full-text e-journal database collections (CINAHL with Fulltext and Health Business Elite with Fulltext) supplied by EBSCOHost
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A range of e-books, mainly focusing on mental health, from MyiLibrary
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Full-text e-journals from BMJ and JAMA and the Archives
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Zetoc, the table of contents alerting service
They are available until December 2013, with the exception of the MyiLibrary ebooks which are available until March 2012.
Resources highlighted in bold above are either not subscribed to by King’s College London (AMED) or contain some full-text resources which are not subscribed to (see above links for details).
These resources are accessible directly via suppliers’ websites, via MyAthens (www.athens.nhs.uk) , or other NHS websites, e.g. www.hilo.nhs.uk
They are not included in the King’s College London link resolver or Library Catalogue, and will therefore journals not be linked when conducting searches using KCL accounts.
It is possible to register additionally when on placement. If Trusts have access to additional content through local purchasing arrangements, this can only be accessed by registering on placement.
3. Training and support
The appointed administrator (anna.franca@kcl.ac.uk ) will answer queries from their institutional Athens account holders about their accounts.
Training materials on searching NHS Core Content resources are available.
The only additional bibliographic database (AMED) and full-text databases (CINAHL full-text and Health Business Elite) are available via Ovid, or EBSCO, which are already available to King’s students. Training materials on Ovid and EBSCO are also available.
4. Further information
Please see the national Wiki for general information, including FAQs, or contact sarah.lawson@kcl.ac.uk in the first instance for information about implementation at King's