Session describing the development of split critical appraisal sessions by Imperial College London Library

1. Library
Services
Split Critical Appraisal
Implementing bespoke sessions for individual teams
Phillip Barlow
NHS Support Librarian
Chelsea and Westminster campus

2. • Our training
• Critical appraisal – how we do it
• It’s good, but can it be better?
• A eureka moment
• So why does that work then?
• What do the users think?
• So just how did you come up with the idea?

3. Our training
About us
Four campus
libraries directly
supporting the
NHS
Each site with a
librarian tasked
with acting as
NHS Support
Coordination of
effort to ensure
single standard
offer to five NHS
trusts we have
SLA with; this
includes training

4. Our training
Core sessions:
Sessions always undertaken –
seen as core to needs of users:
Evidence –
based practice
Database
search skills
Critical
appraisal (both
quantitative
and
qualitative)

5. Our training
Rotating sessions
Suite of sessions that are periodically added to
and taken out of rotation:
Clinical
Decision
Support Tools
Poster
Presentations
Reference
Management
Preparing for
publication
Current
Awareness
Using Twitter
Plagiarism and
Copyright
Literature
Reviews

6. Critical Appraisal
One of the core training sessions delivered by the
library
Delivered primarily in the same format for both
quantitative and qualitative
• At the same time
• One session over two hours:
• First half – teaching with slides; going through principles, types of
research, introducing checklists, going through questions
• Second half – discussion of an article, in a group, using a
checklist (CASP)

7. What’s good about it?
• We’ve read it and know it well
• Any of us can do the session if required
We choose the article:
• No need for commitment over multiple days / weeks
Session done in one go
• We can concentrate on teaching or discussion depending on users
Flexibility to change focus as it goes
Concepts can be more digestible in one go

8. What’s less good about it?
• Onus is on us to choose article with wide appeal, but it won’t be
of interest to everyone
All job types from multiple departments sign up
• There will be terms and concepts in the article they may not be
familiar with
They read the article beforehand, then come to
the teaching
We have less opportunity of follow up, to reinforce
and assess retainment of what we’ve said

9. What to do?
Approached April 2018 by group of
physios asking for critical appraisal training
Wanted to do this in their own team
training time – one hour per week
Not enough time to shoehorn teaching and
discussion
So…

10. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

11. Split critical appraisal

12. Where did the idea come from?
The idea of flipped learning – making
them do what amounts to homework
before the session
• Couldn’t fit the whole session in a single hour
• Scheduling at a time that suited them made it more likely they’d come
• Gives time both to digest teaching, and get a thorough idea of the
article to discuss
Undertaking critical appraisal this way
just seemed logical

13. Split critical appraisal
Still delivered in the same format
• Teaching the basics first
• Discussion of an article
Rather than a single two hour session,
split into two sessions of one hour each

14. Split critical appraisal
Session 1
• Introduction
• Types of quantitative
research
• What is qualitative research?
• Differences
• What to look for when
appraising an RCT as
opposed to a qualitative
paper
• Introduction to statistics
Session 2
• Discussion of an article in
round table / journal club
format
• Using an appropriate CASP
checklist
• Facilitated by NHS support
librarian, but led by the group
themselves

15. Even though it just seemed logical, I was told it was
innovative
http://www.quickmeme.com/p/3vsu9w/page/2/
It’s innovative

16. What’s good about it?
Delivered during their set training period
• More likely that they will be able to attend, as it is their training time, instead of a
time we have set
They select the article (or at least approve the one we have found)
• The article is aimed either at their job role or specialty, so they feel a stronger
connection to what they read
They have the teaching first, read the article, then come back to
discuss it
• Having done the teaching, they feel more involved in their own reading, and are
better placed to engage in the discussion

17. Feedback
Format has been undertaken with multiple groups of
varying job types and clinical areas, and for various
reasons:
Assistant
psychologists –
psychologists in
training, wanting
help with critical
evaluation elements
of upcoming
professional exams
Physios – wanting to
start running journal
club as part of their
own training time,
using us to begin
implementing the
idea
Other groups – hand
therapists, specialist
physios, paediatric
dietitians,
pharmacists

18. Feedback
Technique employed as part of wider
library induction for new pre-
registration pharmacists
Better feedback – time to assimilate
and understand the teaching before
going into the discussion

19. Feedback
Session 1
• “The importance of
critically appraising, basic
steps, checklists to use”
• “Exploring the core ideas
of critical appraisal”
• “Clinical v statistical
significance; to be more
thoughtful about statistical
significance and not to take
it as is”
Session 2
• “Very useful having to go
through using CASP”
• “Going through the paper
in more detail - highlighting
faults”
• “Guided discussion -
allowing us to talk but
interjecting to keep us
focused”

20. Taking it forward
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY
COVID

21. Taking it forward
COVID led to us moving training online
• An opportunity to refresh and rework
Decision taken to use split format as way of refreshing critical appraisal
teaching
• An adaptation of the original split format
• Detail about the basics, including quantitative and qualitative in first session
• Discussion of an article in second
• Gives people choice of whether they need / want to attend both elements
Once teaching returns to more face-to-face, we will likely retain this format –
also possibility of other sessions that could potentially work in this way

22. And that’s the idea of split critical appraisal
(FYI – don’t call it “flipped”; I did
and was told it wasn’t)

23. Any questions?

24. Library
Services
Thank you
p.barlow@imperial.ac.uk
@hammerslibrary