Padraig and Caroline De Brún have more than 20 years experience in the education and health sectors respectively.
Padraig De Brún MA
Padraig graduated from University College Dublin with a BA (Hons), English and Philosophy. Having obtained his teaching qualification from Durham University, he completed an MA at the Institute for Education, University of London. There, he also completed the first three years of a doctorate in new technologies, before turning his attention to professional development. He achieved his NPQH (National Professional Qualification in Headship) in 2005.He spent twenty years as a teacher of English, ten as a Senior Manager, in an inner-London secondary school. His specialism was research, publicity and communication, writing promotional material and financial bids. He has presented to local, regional, national, and international audiences.
In June 2011, Padraig used his professional experience to establish himself as a full-time writer. He is currently completing his second novel, while ghost-writing a financial blog. He believes that the business potentiality of social networking has as yet to be fully exploited, and he established PC De Brún Associates with Caroline De Brún as a way of doing this.
Caroline De Brún MA DipLIS MCLIP
Caroline has an MA in Library and Information Studies (University of North London) and a BA in Business Studies (University of Brunel: Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College). She is currently working on a PhD with the Biomedical Computing and Engineering (BIOCORE) Applied Research Group at Coventry University. Her topic is about improving access to online consumer health information by teaching appropriate skills to the general public. She is a chartered member and mentor of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP). She also sits on the CILIP Information Literacy Steering Group.Caroline started her career working in academic libraries before moving into medical librarianship, and has worked for the NHS since 1999. Throughout her career, she has focused mainly on user education, evidence based practice, and knowledge management. She has worked in primary care (Oxfordshire PCTs), mental health (Berkshire Health Informatics Shared Services), acute care (Oxford Radcliffe NHS Trust and Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust) and for national NHS organisations (National Knowledge Service, National Library for Health, NHS Evidence, and the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement). For several years, she was a Librarian Tutor for the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine and the Librarian for CASP (Critical Appraisal Skills Programme), both located in Oxford. Caroline is also a Tutor on the University of Oxford MSc Evidence Based Health Care Knowledge Into Action module, where she delivers an introduction to knowledge management in health, followed by a session on finding the evidence for health and knowledge management. She has co-written a book called Searching Skills Toolkit, which is aimed at helping health professionals find the best evidence, and is currently working on the second edition. Her aim is to do the same for patients, particularly as they are being encouraged to access their own health data and be involved in making decisions about their treatment. She has also written a chapter in Healthcare Knowledge Management: Issues, Advances, and Successes. Caroline has presented at regional, national, and international conferences and her research interests include knowledge management in healthcare settings, outreach librarianship, health information literacy, clinical decision support systems, QIPP (quality, innovation, productivity and prevention), and information skills training. Caroline is the Clinical Support Librarian at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, where she delivers information skills training, literature searching, and current awareness services to NHS staff. She is also the Technical Expert for the Department of Health Information Standard.
