Read more about the Clinical Medical Librarian (CML) Program
UMKC CMLs work to help connect you and your team to information and learning resources. The Clinical Medical Librarian educational and clinical role on inpatient rounds started at UMKC School of Medicine in 1971. UMKC Medical Librarian Gertrude Lamb, in response to the unique, new system of in-patient teaching at UMKC called a docent system, saw the need to identify and meet information needs related to current cases. CMLs have participated in the medical education at the School of Medicine since its inception, and though times and technology change, CMLs add the human element, personal touch, and collaborative process to information services.
What exactly is a CML?
"Clinical medical librarian [is a] health sciences librarian who provides special services in teaching hospitals by participating in rounds with assigned teams of students and faculty, noting clinical questions as they arise, and responding to the questions by providing backup literature on specific clinical conditions."
From Hospital Administration Terminology, 2nd ed. American Hospital Association Resource Center, 1986.
How can a CML help me?
CMLs listen to the docent teaching cases at morning rounds. During in-patient rounds, the CML observes and listens to the students’ patient presentations, including the patient’s history, medical complaints, drug lists, test results, and plan for the day. Based upon the docent’s teaching points and the CML’s discussion with the team, the librarian provides information that relates to patient care, or supplements the students’ learning. The CML responds electronically to the whole team, or to individual students. The team is invited and encouraged to comment on the information provided, or to discuss ways for finding reliable and relevant resources that are important to learning and patient care. CMLs enhance collaboration and learning within inter-professional teams in many ways, among them:
- Modeling listening, conversation, and attentive observation skills
- Creating participatory learning opportunities, where possible
- Teaching lifelong learning skills, such as reading, inquiry, questioning, and curiosity
- Contributing learning materials to the Docent Rotation Clerkship Canvas site
CMLs teach information literacy skills – information skills that support the curriculum competencies of the School of Medicine for students in Years 4-6, and Resident Physicians. They help the team frame clinical questions that can be explored in the literature. They help the team acquire, and appraise literature, and to utilize information resources that support clinical skills, professionalism, the art of medical practice, and educational success. The opportunity to have CMLs as part of a team reinforces professional medical education views of optimal patient care as inter-professional.
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