Library Update

June is here and so is a new Library Update! This month's edition includes an exciting new addition to our team, brand new resources for you to access, and one of the many things Library Services has been up to.

Meet Rachel Fields, Library Services’ Newest Knowledge Specialist

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Rachel Fields joined the Library Services team this May, taking over for Pamela Barnard who retired earlier this year.

Rachel joins us after 10 years at the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation as a research librarian. She received her Master of Library and Information Sciences (MLIS) from St. Catherine University. 

Rachel describes herself as an “avid reader” and is on track to meet her goal of reading 60 books this year. When she doesn’t have her nose in a book, or her eyes on Browzine, she enjoys spending time with her family, hunting for treasures at antique malls and thrift stores, and getting outdoors.  

“So far I have loved getting to know the Library Services and Patient Education staff at Allina Health. They have been so welcoming!” Rachel said when asked what her favorite part of joining the team has been.

Her final word of advice is: “When in doubt, ask a librarian!”  

Welcome to the team, Rachel! 

New eResources!

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Summer is here and brought us a plethora of new eResources.  

First up we have the new version of Hale’s Medication and Mother’s Milk. This title has gone through some exciting changes as it is now its own website database instead of an eBook. It offers an easier to use searching experience and updated drug list including:

• GLP-1 medications for weight loss
• heart failure medications
• medications for postpartum depression.  

We have also added the Sports Nutrition Care Manual to our collection. This manual focuses on nutrition for the athletic patient of any age and includes

• evaluations of popular athletic dietary supplements.
• access to SHPN, USOC and CPSDA nutrition fact sheets in one place.
• calculators for calorie and hydration, sweat loss, body composition and energy needs.

We also have added new eBooks to our collection, including:

• Global LGBTQ Health Research, Policy, Practice, and Pathways
• Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking
• Leifer’s Introduction to Maternity and Pediatric Nursing.

Check out all of our 30 new ebooks.  

Library Services Gives Back with Opens Arms

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Last month, Allina Health’s Library Services, Patient Education, Learning and Development, and Nursing Informatics teams joined forces to pack meals for Open Arms.

Together, we:

• packed 386 meals and 120 nausea care packs
• mixed and bagged 487 bags of trail mix
• filled 248 dressing cups
• scooped 87 pork meatballs
• chopped 50lbs of crystallized ginger and 18lbs of red bell peppers.

Open Arms “prepares and delivers nourishing meals to critically ill Minnesotans and their families in need – 100% free of charge.”.

Learn more:

• Open Arms of Minnesota
• Allina Health’s Employee Volunteer Program.

Learn about how Allina Health Library Services can make your work easier. Visit our Library Services webpage or email us at Library@allina.com.

Happy May Day! This European festival celebrates the beginning of Spring. Our May Day gift to you is our May Update. Keep reading to learn more about research at Allina Health, read about the impact and accuracy of the new medical drama “The Pitt”, and get to know NatMed Pro.

Research at Allina Health

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Did you know within the latest year Allina Health clinicians and staff have published almost 400 peer-reviewed articles in biomedical science?

The number of publications from Allina Health authors grows year after year and this figure would likely be in the thousands if we included all known paper/poster abstracts, conference reports, book chapters, white papers, and research beyond scope of the biomedical sciences.

Are you working on a research project? Library Services can help you. We are your access point for journals, publications, and research. Check out our resources and databases or request a literature search from one of our expert librarians.

Impact and accuracy of HBO’s new medical drama, “The Pitt"

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The new medical drama series on HBO Max “The Pitt” has been widely praised for its portrayal of the challenges of working in a modern-day emergency department.

The Pitt is set in the fictional Pittsburg Trauma Medical Hospital, starring a world-weary senior attending ED physician Dr. Michael Rabinovich
(“ER” alum Noah Wyle).  Each episode covers one hour of a relentless 15-hour shift with a team of residents, nurses, and medical students. Each episode shows them facing heavy emotional exhaustion and confronting real-life issues, such as: ED overcrowding, complicated patients, workforce shortages, race and gender inequities, and grim or grisly patient encounters.

Clinician reactions (Doctor Mike; Stevejoe; Simms 2025), critics (Holmes 2025), and researchers (Shaw 2025) have overwhelmingly praised the authenticity and depth of The Pitt as perhaps the most realistic medical drama on modern television. Cases featured in the show have been referred to as “classic ED cases” physicians and nurses learned about.

For instance, full-time emergency physician Alex Slog, MD in Oregon spoke highly of the show. “As far as the medicine goes, this is probably the most accurate I’ve seen of any medical drama.  Most of the time, if I’m watching a show set in a hospital, I can’t really focus on the story because I’m yelling about all the things they’re doing wrong that would kill the patient” (Shaw 2025).  

Dr. Michael Gotlieb of Rush University in Chicago said, “Not only is the show more realistic in its portrayal of emergency medicine in general, but also with how it shows our broader medical environment today—post-COVID times, ED boarding, contract management groups.  All of these external factors that make it a unique situation.  If you want to help your friends and family better understand what makes our work so challenging, physically and emotionally, I think this show does a relatively good job of that” (Shaw 2025). 

The Pitt is not without inaccuracies and sensationalistic storytelling. Dr. Kayla Simms from Ottawa’s Queensway Carleton Hospital described the depiction of a schizophrenic patient who is labeled as the “The Kraken” – not as a patient in distress, but as a monster lying in wait where his suffering becomes a spectacle. Instead of swift interventions, the ER team appears indifferent, lingering outside his room and debating restraint methods (Simms 2025).

Other widely reported inaccuracies, much to the chagrin of clinicians, included poorly executed CPR, unprofessional interactions with interns, ignoring charting and documentation process, and multiple instances where life-saving care is delayed for heightening the suspense (Doctor Mike; Stevejoe; Simms 2025). 

Medical dramas often influence public beliefs. The Pitt is no exception as the show has the potential to reshape the portrayal of US healthcare showing the strain and stress of all the components for ED patients on clinicians.

Get to know NatMedPro

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Looking for information on supplements or integrative therapies? We have a resource for that.
Check out NatMed Pro.  

NatMed Pro (formerly called Natural Medicines) provides high quality, evidence-based information on dietary supplements (including herbs, vitamins, and minerals), functional foods, diets, complementary practices (modalities), exercises, and medical conditions. NatMed Pro also offers interaction checker (including pregnancy and lactation interactions), nutrient depletion tools and free CME.

As supplements and integrative therapies become more common place, Natmed Pro is the place to start. Check out NatMed Pro. 

That is all for our May update! To learn about how Allina Health Library Services can make your work easier, visit our Library Services webpage or email us at Library@allina.com.

Spring has sprung! We’ve been busy here in Library Services and we are excited to share our updates with you. This month’s update includes a retirement announcement from a long-time staff member, information on navigating federal health data and misinformation, and a tool you can use to keep your research organized. Let's spring right in!

Pamela Barnard retired April 1st

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Congratulations to Pamela Barnard on her retirement! Pam’s last day was Tuesday, April 1st.  

Pam has been with Allina Health for 30 years as a Knowledge Consultant Librarian. Pam supported and served countless numbers of clinicians, leaders, staff, patients, and families throughout Allina Health.  

Her expertise, insights, kindness, humor, and hard work ethic have made her an amazing colleague and friend. Pam’s strong connections and foundational knowledge will be greatly missed.  We are excited for her to start her next chapter. 

Navigating Changes in Federal Health Data Access

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There are many questions and much uncertainty around the state of health data from the CDC and other health departments. Library Services is here to help you in the ever-changing federal government landscape.

The New England Journal of Medicine published “Disappearing Data at the U.S. Federal Government | New England Journal of Medicine” last month, offering their perspective on this topic and its possible consequences.  

What we know

• Many data sets were removed and/or altered.
• Some of these data sets were made available after court decisions. Find more specifics about this on the STAT website, an online newspaper reporting on health, medicine, and life sciences.
• There are resources available to find missing data sets, or other data sets that may suffice for your research purposes.

How can I access removed data sets or other health information?

• STAT and the Internet Archive, another online resource, have archives of federal health data sets. However, these platforms are not the easiest to use. Library Services is here to help you find potential alternatives. Email us at library@allina.com.

More information

• The Medical Library Association, our professional organization, published a statement. Read “Protecting Access to Health Information: the Critical Role of Libraries, NLM, and NIH Funding”.
• Library Services will continue to watch the situation and provide updates when relevant.

Check out our new subject guide: Health Misinformation

From our media ecosystem to dinner table conversations, health misinformation is pervasive in our lives. It is more important than ever to be alert and respond to health misinformation to keep our patients, our communities, and ourselves safe and healthy.

Library Services can help you do that. Our new Health Misinformation subject guide is full of resources to help you address health misinformation. 

Spring Cleaning with Zotero

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Spring is a time for cleaning. Do you need to clean up your research? Zotero is a free, easy-to use tool to help you collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share research.  With Zotero you can:

• Obtain citations about any websites or references with a single click.  
• Research can be sorted into collections and tagged with keywords.  
• References and bibliographies can be seamlessly added to any text editor including Word, LibreOffice, and Google Docs.  
• Zotero lets you build a collaborative bibliography and share a library with as many people as needed at no costs. 

For more information about Zotero, visit our Citation Tools page or request training by emailing library@allina.com. 

That is all for our April update! To learn about how Allina Health Library Services can make your work easier, visit our Library Services webpage or email us at Library@allina.com.

March brings spring and new updates from us here at Library Services. Take a couple minutes to read about our Clinical Practice Guidelines, how you can support Minnesota's Health Library, and learn about our new e-book offerings!

Easily access trustworthy clinical guidelines

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Library Services offers easy access to Clinical Practice Guidelines to help stay current with the latest research standards and recommendations when caring for patients with specific conditions. 

How to access our Clinical Practice Guidelines

• Go to our Library Services webpage.
• Select the down arrow under Subject Guides from the top menu and select Guidelines.
• From here you can:
  • Browse more than 20 specialties and subspecialties.
  • Search all database guidelines for all disciplines and specialties under the Quick Links section.

Still need help?

Schedule a 15- or 30-minute consultation with a librarian on the Library Services webpage or email us at Library@allina.com to learn how to use our library resources and tools.

Help us expand Minnesota's Health Library to all Minnesotans

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The University of Minnesota and Minitex (Minnesota Office of Higher Education) is looking to develop the Minnesota Electronic Health Library (MeHL), but state funding is needed.  

Why it matters:

• Free online health information resources are often incomplete or inconsistent with results.
• Licenses for professional-level health information are costly and vary between institutions.
• Our state’s health care providers, educators, students, researchers, patients, and caregivers don’t have access to the information they need to support their work and training, or to promote patient engagement and informed decision-making.
• This 24/7 online library will help people access: 
  • clinical support tools (e.g. DynaMedex)
  • prescription drug references
  • learning and development tools (e.g. Dynamic Health CDS & Skills)
  • full-text books and journals (e.g.CINAHL/Medline Ultimate).

Take action

Check out the following ways you can help us secure additional funding:

• Share your personal or professional story on how access to health information has helped you. Submit your story here.

If you have questions, visit MeHL or email us at Library@allina.com. 

New eBooks!

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Library Services has recently acquired over 30 new eBooks. Some of our newest acquisitions include:

• 2025-2026 Perianesthesia Nursing Standards, Practice Recommendations and Interpretive Statements
• Demystifying Integrated Care
• Global Health and Nursing
• Guidelines for Perioperative Practice 2025
• Handbook of Basic and Clinical Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics
• Transcultural nursing: assessment & intervention

View all of our new eBooks.

All eBooks can be accessed on an Allina Health computer. If you are attempting to access eBooks remotely, contact Library@allina.com for further assistance. 

That is all for our March update! To learn about how Allina Health Library Services can make your work easier, visit our Library Services webpage or email us at Library@allina.com.

Connect with Us!

Welcome to Fall! It’s been a busy summer at the library. In addition to relaxing with our families, we also got a lot of work done, including meeting with people across the organization to show them how to use our services and resources. This summer alone we met with over 300 nurses, residents, research personnel, urgent care providers, and more! Did you know that we meet with both groups and individuals? We can customize our consultation to whatever you need. Maybe you are diving into a research project or simply need help finding an article or another piece of information – we’re happy to help! We even have an easy way to book a meeting right on our home page.  Check out the Request a Librarian Consultation to schedule your next meeting with us.  We look forward to hearing from you!

Create a Clinically Relevant Journals filter in PubMed

PubMed, the premier database for biomedical literature, has a personalized option for customizing your experience, called MyNCBI (see Tip of the Month in Library Update 2). 

There are many benefits to creating a MyNCBI account , and a major one is you can set up custom filters to apply to your searches.   You can limit searches to Review articles, last 5 years, or even a subset of 80 of the most clinically relevant journals, which have been identified by medical librarians who revised the core clinical filter in PubMed (e.g. NEJM, JAMA, Circulation).

 

To create a custom filter once you have a MyNCBI account, you go to your Dashboard --> Filters --> Manage Filters--> Create Custom Filter and then add the query terms and select a name to save your filter.  It should then appear in your filters at the side of your searches ready to be selected.

The query terms (or strategy) for the clinically useful filter can be found here.  There is a more detailed description of these instructions at MyNCBI Help.  And, of course, you can set up a quick consultation with a Librarian to show you how to do this from the Library’s web page.

 

 

 

Have you ever heard of Health Humanities?

The interdisciplinary field of Health Humanities includes the intersection of the fields of the arts, humanities, and social sciences through the lens of health and healthcare. We have created a LibGuide focusing on two fields of Health Humanities: Graphic Medicine and Narrative Medicine. 

Narrative Medicine is a term that encompasses, among other things, the use of story (of either the patient or the provider) to enhance the healthcare experience and ideally to improve outcomes. Here you can learn about various forms of narrative medicine, such as non-fiction, novels, and poetry, including books and articles from our collection, and view videos about the importance of storytelling and healing. 

Graphic Medicine refers to any comic or graphic novel that aids in either healthcare communication or storytelling. Here you can learn more about the art form of graphic novels and manga, how to read them and how to create them. You can also explore our curated lists of recommended titles both from our collection and from the Hennepin County Public Library*, as well as webcomics and videos about using graphic medicine to humanize medicine. 

 

*All Hennepin County Public Library books are accessible through your home libraries interlibrary loan system. 

Summer Leadership Reading

Welcome to Summer! With the sun shining from early morning until late at night, you might find yourself looking for something to read. These long days can mean more time for a new novel from your public library (see the April issue for more info), or perhaps you’d like to use this time for personal development such as building your leadership skills. We’ve got just the thing for you! Starting in May, Library Services began to curate a Leadership in the Literature list of recent leadership and management articles that will appear monthly in the Management Minute (sent to all Allina supervisors or higher). Even if you do not receive the Management Minute, you can access them right from our website on the Leadership Resources subject guide. For May, we had articles on everything from being an inclusive leader to getting past burnout to supporting a culture of care. Check back mid-June for a new list of articles.

Curated Content Collections: Library Subject Guides

What does a library within a library look like?  Check out the Library’s Subject Guides accessible from the top navigation of the Library web page.

The latest Guide to be added is Cardiology, but there are Guides on Health Data & Statistics, Leadership, Nursing, and much more.  Each Guide highlights and provides links to the library content, ebooks, ejournals, documents, guidelines, websites, and videos that relate to the subject topic. Keep an eye on the list because the librarians are adding new ones on a regular basis.  We also welcome suggestions for your favorite Guide.

Pride Month Resources

Library Services wishes you a happy Pride Month! Please check out the LGBTQIA2S+ and Transgender healthcare pages of our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging subject guide. These pages feature our collection of LGBTQIA2S+ eBook titles, as well as links further reading to authoritative sources on LGBTQIA2S+ healthcare, professional society guidelines , and videos. If you are interested in learning more about LGBTQIA2S+ Healthcare and earning free CMEs at the same time, check out the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center. There are also many ways to celebrate Pride locally, there are curated lists of fiction and non-fiction titles from Hennepin County Library, Quatrefoil Library in South Minneapolis, and don’t forget TCPride.

Do you want to learn more about Library Services?

Happy March! I think the groundhog was right about spring! This last month we’ve been happy to meet with several groups to talk about library services and how we can support work across the organization. Recently, we met with the Nursing Executive Leadership Council, the Nursing Advisory Council, ANW’s Evidence Based Practice Clinical Scholars, the Research Personnel Forum,  the latest cohort of ANW Medical Students, and several leaders in ambulatory nursing. We also have the privilege of serving as members of the Dementia Work Group and the Nurse Practice Leader Council. We’re happy to meet with workgroups, teams, or any other group or individual to present on a number of topics such as using our databases, searching for articles, evaluating resources, and using citation management software. We are also happy to just sit down with a group or individual and walk them through a hands-on search using our tools. Lastly, if you have an ongoing need for our support, we’re happy to join your group on a regular basis. If you’d like to have us meet with you, please reach out at library@allina.com

Staying Current

Want an easier solution to stay informed? Do you want the latest updates in your specialty, but don’t want to dig around to find them? Now we have a subject guide with numerous methods to stay up-to-date with journal articles, expert summaries, practice changing updates and clinical news. Visit our Ways to Stay Informed subject guide for links and instructions to have tailored updates pushed out to your email

Call for Books

Did you know that the library at Abbott Northwestern has a little library of free fiction and nonfiction books for patients and their family members? We are starting to run low on books and could use your help! If you have any gently used paperback or hardcover titles that you would be willing to part with, we would put them to good use. We are currently very low on mysteries and romance titles but are accepting all donations.

If you live near Abbott Northwestern or work at Commons, feel free to drop off titles anytime when we are staffed (Monday - Friday 9 am - 3 pm), or any time during your shift if you work at Abbott Northwestern (all ANW employees have badge access to enter the library, and set the books at the front desk.) Non-clinical books only, please.

Library Services Annual Report

We hope that your 2024 is off to a great start. We’ve been very busy at the library answering your questions, finding articles, conducting literature searches, and negotiating with our vendors to provide the best, most cost-effective resources. We also have started our 2024 strategic planning and have goals to increase awareness about our resources while improving access. As we look to the future, we also reflect on all the work that we did over the last year.  Our 2023 Library Services Annual Report is a good summary of that work and we are happy to share it with you. Have a great February!

Track Your Favorite Journals in BrowZine Bookshelf 

The Allina Health Library is excited to spread the word on the new feature in BrowZine, the Library’s ejournal portal, called My Bookshelf.  

My Bookshelf is the area within BrowZine where you can organize your favorite journals so the current issue is one click away.  To access, you simply need to create an account for yourself, with your email and password of your choosing.  The sign-up page can be accessed by clicking on “My Bookshelf” at the top of the Browzine screen and following the link to create an account.  You will need to select Allina Health as the institution.  You can accept to receive email alerts when new articles are available. 

For a quick 2-minute tour through this new feature in Browzine, view the new video:  

For questions on this and any library resources, email us at library@allina.com. 

Black History Month

This month we would like to highlight Joel Bervell, a Ghanaian-American medical student, social media star, medical educator, and host of "The Dose" podcast with the Commonwealth Fund. In the social media sphere Joel is known as the "Medical Mythbuster", He is committed to fighting health disparities in medicine through education and regularly posts about racial disparities, the hidden history of medicine, and biases in healthcare. Joel is currently participating in the White House Office of Public Engagement’s Healthcare Leaders in Social Media Roundtable, on the Council for Responsible Social Media, served as the American Medical Association’s Medical Student Digital Fellow. Please check out this short video biography of him from Scientific American.