Writing in plain language matters. In Canada, it’s reported that nine million people have limited literacy skills, with over half of Canadians reading below a high school level. This is just one of the reasons why it is important to offer additional support to patients and families with easy-to-read, straightforward patient pamphlets. For more information about creating or updating patient pamphlets, please visit the Content Creator Toolkit. Please contact Pamphlets@nshealth.ca with any questions. You can search for pamphlets by title, keyword, or four-digit pamphlet number in the library catalogue, or view the complete listing of active titles in our Print Code Index.
The following pamphlets were updated or created in February 2023.
Arabic Translations
AR85-2323 NEW Your Emergency Department Visit (English: WA85-1845; En français: FF85-1851)
Cardiovascular System
WG85-0392 Right Heart Catheterization Test - Halifax Infirmary (En français: FF85-1913)
WG85-0629 Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) - Inherited Heart Disease Clinic
WG85-0630 Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC) - Inherited Heart Disease Clinic
WG85-0631 Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) - Inherited Heart Disease Clinic
WG85-1021 Long QT Syndrome (LQTS) - Inherited Heart Disease Clinic
WG85-1773 Brugada Syndrome - Inherited Heart Disease Clinic
WG85-2083 Catecholaminergic Polymorphic Ventricular Tachycardia (CPVT) - Inherited Heart Disease Clinic
Gynecology & Reproductive Health
WP85-2003 Pain Relief Options When Having Your Baby: Yarmouth Regional Hospital
WP85-2007 Stem Cell Collection from Cord Blood: Yarmouth Regional Hospital
WP85-2004 How to Hand Express Breast/Chest Milk: Yarmouth Regional Hospital
WP85-2009 Miscarriage: Yarmouth Regional Hospital (En français: FF85-2201)
Infectious Disease
WC85-2260 COVID-19: Taking Care While You are in the Hospital
Mental Health & Addictions
WM85-2324 NEW Mental Health and Addictions Recovery Support Program
WM85-0662 Dynamic (attachment-focused) Relational Therapy (DaRT) Program - Virtual Program Guide
WM85-2325 NEW Family-based Treatment for Eating Disorders in Children and Adolescents
Nephrology
WQ85-1425 Hepatitis B Vaccine and Kidney Disease
Nervous System
WL85-0589 Your Craniotomy Surgery - Halifax Infirmary (HI)
WL85-1986 Memory After Acquired Brain Injury (ABI)
Nursing Units
WZ85-1295 Unit 7.4: General Neurology, Acute Stroke Care Unit, and Epilepsy Monitoring Unit - Halifax Infirmary (HI)
Nutrition & Food
LC85-1748 Let's Get Cooking: Kidney-Friendly Recipes
Surgery
WO85-0533 Colour, Sensation, and Movement
Kendell Fitzgerald
Librarian Educator
Central Zone
In the fall of 2021, the Patient Education Team invited staff and physicians to participate in a short online survey, as part of a service quality improvement initiative. With the approval of the Central Zone Quality Improvement and Safety Council, the survey was released on November 1, 2021, and ran until we received submissions from a minimum number of participants (20) in each zone.
Here are the top 5 misconceptions staff have about Nova Scotia Health Patient Pamphlets and the Pamphlets service:
FALSE Nova Scotia Health’s patient pamphlets collection is not available on the Intranet.
Staff and patients can find pamphlets on 3 public-facing websites:
The Patient Education Team does not post pamphlets on the Intranet and recommends that you don’t either. Why? We can’t manage items (version control) posted on the Intranet (including SharePoint sites) by individual teams. This means that when a pamphlet is removed from the collection or the title changes, the pamphlet posted on the Intranet will become out of date.
Teams should become familiar with searching the 3 resources listed above to find patient pamphlets. We’ve created these handy instructions to help you get started.
FALSE Last fiscal year (2021-2022), we helped staff update 217 pamphlets.
To keep items up to date, as per policy AD-LIB-100, the Patient Education Team sends reminder emails to pamphlet creators/owners once an item is 3 years old.
If the item still has not been updated in 5 years, we send another reminder, giving creators/owners 3 months to initiate a review. If the item is still not updated after 3 months, the item is removed from circulation (archived), creating a gap in patient education. Once the creator/owner has reviewed the content and updated the item, the pamphlet can be brought back into circulation.
FALSE Working with French Language Services and Nova Scotia Health Interpretation and Language Services, the Patient Education Team supports the translation of pamphlets into French, Arabic, and Simplified Chinese. Currently in the collection, there are:
To find all available translated titles, search the collection using the Library Services website or the pamphlets listing page and limit your search by ‘Language'.
FALSE We rely on the clinical expertise of creators/owners to author patient pamphlets. Staff and physicians develop pamphlets for whatever topic they identify a need. Do you have a topic in mind, but can’t find anything in the collection? Email Pamphlets@nshealth.ca to find out if something already exists in our active or archived collections.
If nothing exists, you can work with your team to draft a pamphlet. For more information about the process, check out the library's Content Creator Toolkit and our tips on creating a pamphlet.
FALSE Nova Scotia Health Policy AD-LIB-100 and the Patient and Family Education Material Guidelines (2021) both stipulate that all pamphlets should be developed for provincial use when and where possible.
Prior to the amalgamation of the regional health authorities in Nova Scotia, the Pamphlets service was a Capital Health (now known as Central Zone) service. As such, many of the pamphlets in the current collection originated in Central Zone. Since the amalgamation, all pamphlets applicable for a provincial audience are published as such.
As pamphlets are updated, our goal is to create items that are applicable for provincial use, unless the content of the pamphlet contains site-specific information, or the creator/owner clearly identifies the pamphlet only for a specific site or zone’s use.
For more information:
Vinson Li
Librarian Educator, Patient Education Pamphlets Lead
Yarmouth Regional Hospital, Western Zone
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