Frequently Asked Questions

To access CIAP offsite you need to sign in with your NSW Health StaffLink ID and password.

Contact the State Wide Service Desk on 1300 28 55 33 and they will be able to reset your password.

Access to CIAP is available to all individuals who currently work in or for a NSW Public Health Organisation, including Visiting Medical Officers (VMOs); and medical, nursing, and allied health students while working on placement in a NSW Health public hospital.

Due to the licensing agreements with publishers, CIAP is not available to individuals who have no working affiliation with NSW Public Health organisations, such as General Practice Divisions and Groups, Universities, private pharmaceutical companies, and Non-Government Organisations and Bodies such as Aged Care, Private Healthcare, and Private Hospital facilities.

If you believe you are eligible for CIAP access but do not have a StaffLink ID, please contact your manager or the CIAP helpdesk using our Contact Form.

No, you can access CIAP from within a NSW Health facility without needing to sign in.

If you are at a NSW Health facility and do not have seamless access to the CIAP resources, please report this directly through SARA.

If you are still employed by NSW Health and have maintained your Stafflink details you will have access to CIAP offsite.

No, you will need to use separate login details for each of the personalised resources and downloadable apps available on CIAP.

All mobile apps available for download are listed on CIAP’s Mobile Apps panel. Each App has a unique set of instructions for how to download and set up on your device.

CIAP has a range of online and face-to-face education opportunities.

Self-Paced Online Modules – CIAP has developed a series of online EBP Learning Modules that highlight the steps of evidence-based practice and how it can be applied in the workplace. Each of the four modules contains an assessment that generates a certificate of completion. Certificates can be used as evidence for 2 hours of online learning.

Face-to-Face Training - Register for a full day CIAP workshop or attend one of our 1 hour in-services that we run all over NSW Health. We also run live online training sessions that cover CIAP essentials and/ or database search skills. For more information or to register, check out our Training Events page.

User Guides and Videos – CIAP has a number of publisher produced videos and user guides that can support you in your learning. Check out our User Guides & Videos page for more information.

CIAP produces a monthly newsletter containing interesting reads from our journal collection as well as important information regarding changes or updates to the CIAP website and/ or resources.

To read our previous newsletter and/ or subscribe, check out our Newsletters page.

Other Australian States provide access to clinical information resources for health workers within their own public health systems. See their Clinical Information Portal websites.

The Bolam principle (1957) protected doctors against negligence claims if other colleagues would have acted in the same manner. The Bolam principle was overturned in an Australian court in 1995 and according to Coiera (1997) * it is likely that this will happen in other countries where it applies. It seems that this has already happened in Israel.

In 1998, an Israeli court issued a verdict that a doctor, who does not update his medical knowledge using professional literature, is liable for malpractice. It seems that a certain eminent brain surgeon established that his client was suffering from a brain tumour, while she was really suffering from a very rare kind of multiple sclerosis. The professor was not aware that such a disease even existed.

There is no doubt that patients are better informed these days as they have access to numerous information sources via the Internet (free Medline as well as non-accredited sources). A well-informed patient population and overworked clinicians with poor access to the literature is a recipe for increasing litigation. This should be a good incentive to ensure that we do provide the most recent literature at the most convenient location for clinicians in all care settings.