If you’re looking for knowledge and evidence to support your work, development, study and research, you’ve come to the right place.
Below is a whole range of resources – all available free from your NHS knowledge and library services, for anyone working or studying in England.
Where do I start?
Your free NHS OpenAthens account is your key to unlocking digital knowledge resources.
If you need help to register or renew your account watch our short video for help.
Finding information
Connecting you seamlessly to a range of high-quality knowledge and evidence resources all in one place, the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub is a single gateway to 1000s of journals, books, clinical decision support and databases like Medline and CINAHL.
For quick access to high-quality clinical evidence, guidelines and systematic reviews, try Trip.
For more advanced searching, use databases like Medline, CINAHL and Social Policy and Practice. Go to our Resources for advanced searching page for more information and links to training.
If you’re new to literature searching, or need a refresher, why not try this e-learning course: How to search the literature effectively.
Clinical decision support and evidence summaries
BMJ Best Practice is an award-winning online decision-support tool for use at the point of care. BMJ Best Practice draws on the latest evidence-based research to offer step-by-step guidance on diagnosis, prognosis, treatment and prevention. It gives you a second opinion in an instant and supports your continuing professional development.
Clinical Knowledge Summaries is geared towards primary care practitioners and provides accessible summaries of the current evidence base and practical guidance on over 370 topics.
Maudsley Prescribing Guidelines is the essential evidence-based prescribing guidelines on the safe and effective prescribing of psychotropic agents.
Royal Marsden Manual of Clinical Nursing Procedures includes over 350 evidence-based clinical procedures related to every aspect of care, from handwashing to cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
E-books and journals
You have access to thousands of journals in family practice and primary care. It’s easy to access articles through the NHS Knowledge and Library Hub and databases for advanced searching. You can also install LibKey Nomad on your device for easy access to journal literature when you search the open web and platforms like Google Scholar.
All staff and students on placement in the NHS have access to a collection of Oxford Medicine e-books including:
- Emergencies in Primary Care
- Oxford Handbook of General Practice
- Oxford Handbook of Primary Care and Community Nursing
- Oxford Handbook of Clinical Diagnosis
- Oxford Textbook of Community Mental Health
- Oxford Textbook of Medicine
Kortext is an e-book platform that gives you access to hundreds of books for NHS staff and learners including collections on sustainability, wellbeing and resilience and equality and diversity. There are lots of books on the Kortext platform for GPs and practice staff including:
- Teaching and Learning in Primary Care
- 100 Cases in General Practice
- A Textbook of General Practice
- Prescribing in General Practice
- 100 Cases in Dermatology
Watch this short film to learn more.
Health literacy and patient information
Did you know that 43% of adults aged 16-65 struggle with text-based health information and that increases to 61% if the information also includes numbers? If you want to know more, take this 30 minute e-learning course which includes simple tools that can help increase understanding.
We have also co-produced two easy read guides to download and share designed to help people to navigate healthcare. ‘Get ready to talk about your health’ prepares people for what to do before they go for a consultation with any health or care provider. ‘3 questions for better health’ suggests important questions to ask during an appointment.
To help you, your patients and their families and carers with general health and wellbeing we have collected books and online links – take a look at our Uplifting Resources and Your Health Collection.
Learning from ‘know how’
Some knowledge is not published but is individual or organisational ‘know how’. The NHS Knowledge Mobilisation Framework is designed to help you develop and use skills to mobilise knowledge effectively.
Understand the basics of critical appraisal – elearning
Critical appraisal is the process of systematically evaluating and assessing research to check its quality, relevance and validity. Essential to evidence-based practice, it helps enrich your research and learning and can be applied in a range of circumstances, such as formal or informal research projects, your professional development or while studying.
By the end of the programme, you will be able to use the relevant tools and techniques with confidence across a range of research models and healthcare information. Try it now
How can I access my local NHS library and value-added services?
Depending on which area of the country your practice is in, you may have access to a local NHS knowledge and library service, including access to an embedded expert Primary Care Knowledge Specialists supporting your Training Hub. These specialists can help you to make the most of these resources. You can also speak to your local knowledge and library service to arrange access to a range of additional tailored services to help keep you informed and save you time. These include expertise in retrieving and summarising evidence from research and good practice, circulating horizon scans and bulletins to keep you up to date, facilitating knowledge sharing activities, offering bespoke information, digital and health literacy skills sessions and providing access to physical spaces for study, reflection and wellbeing.
Go to HLISD to find your local NHS knowledge and library service and contact your local knowledge and library service manager to see what services may be available.
You may also have access to other additional resources through your professional body or a university if you’re currently a student.
Download the flyer
You can download our flyer to share which summarises information provided on this page for GP and practice teams.
NHS Knowledge and Library Service for GPs and practice teams flyer
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