About The Knowledge Network

The Knowledge Network platform is the national knowledge management platform for health and social care delivered by the Knowledge Services Group. It provides high quality knowledge support for delivery of health and social care. The Knowledge Network provides:

  • A wealth of 12 million information and learning resources from more than 100 quality assured health and social care providers. These resources are brought together to search through one integrated access point - a kind of “Health and Social Services Google”. This includes collections of articles, books and journals, guidelines, policy documents, resources for patients and service users, evaluated websites and e-learning courses.
  • A personal webspace. You can select your own collections of content and features to create your own My Home page on The Knowledge Network. Here you can create Quick Links to favourite websites, online journals, and many other services. A Feeds Library allows you to choose newsfeeds to help you to keep up to date in your area of interest. The “What is here for me?” section allows you to choose collections of resources defined for different workforce groups and topics. My Resource Space also allows you to save and organize your personal collections of resources and to share them with others via email or tagging.
  • Online community tools, accessible through Communities tab, to help groups of health and social services staff and partners to work and learn together. They can create their own community websites and collaborative workspaces to share information and learning resources as well as personal knowledge and experience. Community websites provide Web 2.0 tools including wikis, blogs, discussion forums, tagging and personal profiles.

 

For more information on aspects of the service use these links:

 

Homepage and search

The search provides basic and advanced search options as well as an Evidence and Guidance search for focussed evidence based resources. The Library search provides access to NHS Scotland’s journals, articles and books. Filtering options are available to the narrow your search results and the ability to save and organise resources within a personal web space: My Resource Space. You can also save searches to rerun at a later date.

The Knowledge Network provides additional tools to support your information needs. The homepage tabs provide quick access to:

  • Portals and Topics – as before provides tailored access by topic or staff group
  • Library – Subscription journals, books and databases as highlighted within the Search box.
  • Learning and CPD resources – including eLearning courses (previously accessed from Virtual Learning Centre and NHS Shared Learning) and to pages dedicated to Educators and Supervisors.
  • Communities – Access Community websites, Shared Spaces and information about developing communities of practice.
  • Keep up to Date – News services, alerting services, table of content services, etc.
  • Tools and Apps – a new area dedicated to mobile devices where you can get information about downloading services to your phone.

Personalisation

Users can customise the content and features within the service to suit their individual needs. "Widgets" are elements of content and services that you freely move, remove, replace, expand or minimise as required. Users can add and remove content from these widgets. Essentially, you are able to create your own The Knowledge Network to suit yourself. Whenever you log in, The Knowledge Network will retrieve and display your personal settings.

The Knowledge Network is a highly navigable site. We're confident that you will find your way around with ease. If, however, you do get lost or are unsure about the function of a particular widget or site section, the Help and Training pages are at hand.

In summary, The Knowledge Network represents the cutting edge of knowledge management systems for health and social care. It enables people to access the full range of knowledge and learning resources available from NHS Scotland, from a single website, wherever they are.

Portals

The Knowledge Network platform also supports a wide range of Portals providing special collections of services and content focused on particular topics and audiences.  

 

E-Learning

The Learning and CPD tab on The Knowledge Network provides access to e-Learning courses (previously accessed from the Virtual Learning Cantre and NHS Shared Learning) and to pages dedicated to Educators and Supervisors. You can also browse resources mapped to the core Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF) dimensions.In addition The Knowledge Network supports tools for creating and sharing e-Learning objects and courses.

 

Knowledge Support for Patients and Public

Working in partnership with NHS 24, the new National Health Information and Support Service, NHS Inform provides in-depth information for direct use by patients, carers and the public who want to go beyond basic information leaflets.

 

Unified Library Management System

SHELCAT is the Scottish Health Libraries CATalogue. Health libraries across NHS Scotland and in the voluntary sector use uses software provided by NES Knowledge Services to enable users to access, borrow and request library resources via the Internet.

 

Health Information Partnerships

The Knowledge Services Group provides a portfolio of information-sharing technology tools which enable information services in health, social services and voluntary sectors to share information and learning resources across organisations. These information-sharing tools have created the large database of 12 million plus items of content which sits behind The Knowledge Network. Partner organisations can use these tools to create online knowledge services tailored to meet the needs of their own audiences for example, the Social Services Knowledge Scotland and Health Management Online portals. More information about these tools is available at http://www.healthinformationonline.scot.nhs.uk

A programme of outreach to Public and Further Education libraries, the voluntary sector and other community information points aims to help staff in these services to promote access to health information in the community for both health and social services staff and service users.

 

Information Literacy

Information literacy comprises the generic skills, values and attitudes required to define an information need, find, evaluate and share information. Information literacy is essential to lifelong learning, evidence-based practice and shared decision-making between patients and professionals in a mutual NHS. The Knowledge Services Group has developed a information literacy framework defining a model for information literacy, outlining core capabilities and promoting its benefits. The information literacy portalcontains training materials, courses and other documents helping the user to get to grips with information literacy.

The Knowledge Services Group is also supporting development of the Information Support role as an intrinsic part of the existing roles of staff in health, social services and partner sectors. This covers the skills, behaviours and values involved in finding and sharing information in partnership with patients.

The Knowledge Services Group is also supporting development of the Knowledge Worker role as an intrinsic part of the existing roles of staff in health, social services and partner sectors. This covers the skills, behaviours and values involved in finding and sharing information in partnership with patients.

 

Shared Space and Community Builder Toolkit

The Shared Space service and Community Builder Toolkit are accessed through the Communities tab in The Knowledge Network. The Shared Space tool enables communities of people with a common interest or area of practice to create a password-protected community website where they can share resources, experience and expertise. The tool comes with a range of facilities including an announcements service, discussion forum, uploading of documents and a contacts directory.

The Community Builder Toolkit has similar aims to the Shared Space, but enables groups to easily create open community websites which do not require password protection. It offers modern Web 2.0 tools including wikis, blogs and tagging.

 

About Knowledge Services Group

The Knowledge Network is provided by the NHS Education for Scotland Knowledge Services Group. We provide a national strategic and policy framework, leadership, resources and tools, to widen access to knowledge and promote competence in its use, to help to improve Scotland’s health and healthcare.

 

Our Values

Everything we do and plan is based on the following seven principles:

  • Embedding knowledge in the skills, practice and culture of health and healthcare.
  • Empowering individuals and communities in maximising health and wellbeing.
  • Equity of access and support, and proactively addressing inequalities.
  • Working in partnership with organisations and colleagues in NHS and other sectors.
  • Quality assurance of all resources and services.
  • Applying and promoting standards for sharing of knowledge.
  • Continuously improving and reviewing our services.

 

Strategic Development

The Scottish Government eHealth Directorate has commissioned NES to lead the development of a coordinated national strategy for knowledge services. This strategy aims to bring together both Special and geographic Boards and partners in the social services and voluntary sectors in a coherent, consistent and collaborative framework to manage knowledge to support all stages of the patient journey and all aspects of the patient experience. Enabling Partnerships: Sharing Knowledge for a Mutual NHS describes a National Health Knowledge Network of organisations working together to define and implement their own knowledge management strategies that support their own organizational priorities and stakeholder needs. These organisations will use a shared infrastructure of information content, technology and skills to support members of the public, patients and professionals in finding information and in developing the skills and confidence to use it effectively.

Further information from: Dr Ann Wales, Programme Director for Knowledge Management, ann.wales@nes.scot.nhs.uk