Every year, the Patient Education Team identifies patient pamphlets that have not been reviewed or updated within 5 years of the last review date. We then contact content creators to confirm whether these pamphlets need to be updated or removed from circulation.
Routine archiving of out-of-date pamphlets is done in accordance with policy AD-LIB-001 Patient Education Materials: Development and Maintenance, which helps ensure Nova Scotia Health patients, families and essential care partners receive up-to-date patient education materials.
This year, any pamphlets published in 2020 or before must be reviewed and updated or they will be removed from circulation on January 31, 2026.
The full list of items that must be reviewed and updated before January 31, 2025 can be found in the Pamphlets Due for Revision Dashboard.
As you know, changes to drug names, clinic or department contact information, and clinical practice are common. Patient pamphlets must be reviewed by the teams that created them, and/or the teams that use them, to ensure that such changes are reflected in the materials we provide to patients. This helps ensure misinformation and outdated directives are removed to help keep patients and care partners safe.
Library Services' Patient Education Team is available to support Nova Scotia Health staff in updating any existing pamphlets. Pamphlets published in 2020 or before that have not been reviewed and updated by January 31, 2026 will be archived and removed from the patient education resources collection.
What do you need to do?
- Check the list of titles that are due for review.
- Complete the Archiving Project form to let us know you intend to update a pamphlet or to recommend it be archived.
- Complete the Archiving Project form to recommend a pamphlet for archiving.
- Share this information with your colleagues who are involved in patient education pamphlets in your area, department, unit, or clinic.
How can the Patient Education Team help?
We can send you the latest version of the pamphlet as a Word document, so you can edit it easily. We facilitate the review and update process for you, including:
- Integrating your team’s edits and feedback
- Reviewing for plain language and readability
- Coordinating adaptation and reprint copyright permission requests
- Ensuring improved accessibility and consistent messaging in line with other Nova Scotia Health materials
- Updating layout and branding
Get started on your pamphlet review project by completing the Archiving Project form to connect with the Patient Education Team.
For guidance and resources on how to update or archive a pamphlet, refer to the Patient Pamphlets section of the Library’s Content Creator Toolkit.
Questions? Reach out to the Patient Education Team at Pamphlets@nshealth.ca.
Kallen Rutledge
Librarian Educator, Patient Education Pamphlets Lead
Nova Scotia Hospital, Central Zone
UPDATED: November 17, 2025. Original Post: July 20, 2020
Integrating the best available health evidence into decision-making processes is an important part of evidence-based practice. However, before applying clinical research findings to patient care, health care providers must determine whether the research findings are valid.
It is important to remember that published studies are not necessarily trustworthy. Healthcare research must be evaluated before being used to guide clinical decisions. Critical appraisal provides a framework for this evaluation.
What is critical appraisal?
Critical appraisal is “the process of carefully and systematically examining research to judge its trustworthiness, and its value and relevance in a particular context.” (CASP)
To critically appraise clinical research is to look at its methodological quality, trustworthiness, and applicability to a patient’s specific situation. Critical appraisal helps us ask two essential questions about a particular research study (Sala Serra & Domingo Torrell, 2022):
When should critical appraisal be conducted?
Research should always be critically appraised, no matter its intended use. Such uses may include:
For example, if a recently published study in your discipline suggests a therapy is effective and safe for patients, critically appraising the study ensures the findings are valid and unbiased, and the therapy is appropriate for the specific needs of your patient.
Beyond clinical scenarios, critical appraisal is also a key part of evidence synthesis. As part of the systematic review process, for example, articles included in the review are critically appraised for validity. This ensures that the integrity of the overall review is not impacted by the quality of the individual studies included.
Using critical appraisal checklists
Any type of clinical study can be critically appraised, and each study type has its own checklist. Critical appraisal checklists provide a step-by-step guide through the appraisal process. There are many critical appraisal tools available from organizations that are experts in evidence-based research evaluation, including:
For example, CASP’s Randomised Controlled Trial Checklist includes questions about study methodology such as:
Critical appraisal for antiracism is rarely addressed in standard tools. To avoid overlooking underrepresented patient populations, consider supplementing your chosen tool with Naicker’s Critically Appraising for Antiracism Tool.
Critical appraisal can be conducted without the use of a formal checklist, but using an established set of appraisal criteria may be helpful if you want to ensure that you are consistent in how you appraise clinical research.
For more info on critical appraisal in your daily work or a larger project, email AskLibrary@nshealth.ca or book a one-on-one consultation with a librarian.
Additional Support
In-depth Resources in Library Services' Searching subject guide.
References
1. CASP - Critical Appraisal Skills Programme. (2025, October 15). What is critical appraisal?. https://casp-uk.net/what-is-critical-appraisal/
2. Naicker, R. (2022). Critically appraising for antiracism. Education for Information, 38(4), 291–308. https://doi.org/10.3233/EFI-220052
3. Sala Serra, M., & Domingo Torrell, L. (2022). Validity of a study: Internal and external validity. Cirugia espanola, 100(10), 649–651. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cireng.2021.12.007
Selena MacDonald
Librarian Educator
Nova Scotia Hospital, Central Zone