University of Washington

5 2016-2017 Annual Report An exciting opportunity took shape in 2016 to provide much needed outreach efforts for HEALWA to practitioners in Eastern Washington. The National Network of Libraries of Medicine Pacific Northwest Region (NN/LM PNR) granted a subaward to Washington State University (WSU) in Spokane in April 2016 geared towards improving clinical information discovery skills and advancing health literacy capacity in Eastern Washington. The subaward is targeted to reach health professionals including nurses working in clinics, long-term care facilities, and K-12 schools in Eastern Washington. The goals of this program are to: • Enhance clinical decision making and patient care for health professionals • Improve the quality of life of older Americans • Prepare K-12 students for jobs in the future • Increase National Library of Medicine, NN/LM PNR, HEALWA, and WSU Spokane visibility • Build capacity for sustaining these programs in rural and underserved areas Kathryn Vela, a Health Sciences Outreach Librarian, was hired by WSU Spokane in August 2016 to fulfill the activities outlined in the subaward including to increase awareness of HEALWA among the health professional population in Eastern Washington. Kathryn has primarily been focused on promoting HEALWA in Benton, Franklin, Grant, Okanogan, and Health Professions Outreach in Eastern Washington Spokane counties which includes holding in-person workshops at medical centers, health district offices, and school districts. She has also been attending, exhibiting, and speaking at several health professional conferences across the state along with University of Washington staff in order to make one-on-one contacts with the target population. To further increase awareness of HEALWA, Kathryn developed a monthly live online workshop to introduce the participants to the resource. In addition to these live online sessions, she has also created an online self-guided tutorial to accommodate individual learning styles and to allow health professionals to learn about HEALWA by working around their busy schedules. Practitioners in Eastern Washington are a primary target population for potential HEALWA users. The western side of the state holds the largest numbers of the state's population, whereas Eastern Washington is sparsely populated except in the greater Spokane area. Because Western Washington is more populous, there are more services and resources available and healthcare practitioners have more ready access to library services and health information resources. In Eastern Washington, by contrast, healthcare professionals have more limited access as there are fewer libraries or large medical centers available to provide services. This NN/LM PNR subaward and Kathryn's determination and expertise will help HEALWA connect with practitioners in Eastern Washington that the program has struggled with reaching since its creation in 2007. I am excited to have this resource available for me! Registered Nurse, Clark County

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