A core competency model for clinical informationists

Objectives: Access to high-quality information improves the quality of patient care, but lack of time and sufficient skills in information-seeking can prevent access to information by clinicians. To solve this problem, clinical informationists can provide high-quality, filtered information for clinical team members. In this study, we identified the core competencies needed by clinical informationists to effectively fulfill their role in clinical teams.

Methods: Participants were selected purposefully from clinicians and medical librarians. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

Results: We identified six competencies—communication, research, education and training, domain knowledge, information services, and technology—which together were used to develop a CREDIT model of core competencies for clinical informationists.

Conclusions: The CREDIT model can be used as criteria for evaluating the performance of clinical...