Joey Nicholson, PhD

My research is primarily focused on librarian engagement in competency-based assessment of evidence-based practice (EBP) skills. The broad aim of this work is to integrate medical librarian expertise into health professions education assessment processes. This integration should help provide more accurate and actionable feedback about evidence-based practice knowledge, skills, and behaviors to learners – ultimately improving their ability to integrate high-quality evidence into their clinical practice and research decision making.

One particular area of interest is the use of Observed Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) to observe and provide feedback in real-time on the actual ways in which learners go about asking clinical questions, acquiring evidence through database and other searching, appraising study validity, and applying that evidence. OSCEs are a standard way of assessing health professions student practice behaviors, but has only been used sparingly for assessing EBP. Beyond assessment, I am interested generally in teaching and integration of EBP into curricula and practice settings. 

In addition to working in EBP, I have a history of research and practice in evidence synthesis methods. This includes teaching the methods and mentoring junior researchers on many published systematic reviews, scoping reviews, and meta-analyses. 

As the Department Chair for the Medical Library at NYU Langone Health, I also oversee the operations and administration of our library resources and services. Our library faculty and staff collaborate with and support clinicians, researchers, and students across NYU Grossman School of Medicine, NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine, Vilcek Institute of Graduate Biomedical Studies, NYU College of Dentistry, and all NYU Langone Health hospitals and ambulatory care sites.