Healthcare librarians and the delivery of critical appraisal training: barriers to involvement.

Background:  Many healthcare librarians are undertaking training in critical appraisal but a significant number are not cascading the training to their end-users. Objectives:  To examine the barriers to healthcare librarian involvement in delivering critical appraisal training. Methods:  A questionnaire survey of 57 library services across 48 NHS Trust Library Services in north west England followed up with 21 semi-structured interviews. Results:  Two types of barriers were noted: extrinsic barriers (organisational, environmental, training, role expectations) and intrinsic barriers (knowledge, skills, attitude). Conclusions:  These barriers are not mutually exclusive and by overcoming one of them it does not necessarily follow that healthcare librarians will engage in delivering critical appraisal skills training. The challenge lies in developing strategies to deal effectively with these barriers to encourage and support healthcare librarians in the delivery of critical appraisal training at a level at which they feel confident and able.