Evidence-Based Practice Methods and Application
Full Course Description
This course is designed to develop occupational therapists’ skills, knowledge and resources to implement evidence-based practice in clinical settings as well as guide and support knowledge translation in organizations or peer groups. Students will learn how to develop a searchable question, identify potential sources of evidence, and then utilize effective strategies to locate the available evidence. Skills for critical appraisal of the evidence, interpreting the findings, and identifying applicability to specific clinical contexts (clients and populations) will be developed and practiced using case scenarios and clinical examples. Students will learn how knowledge is translated into practice from individual and organizational levels and identify effective methods to facilitate this translation, including identifying and overcoming barriers.
Objectives
Upon successful completion of the course, the participant will:
- Diagram different types of clinical questions related to intervention effectiveness, diagnosis accuracy, prognosis, and the client experience.
- Formulate strategies to identify a knowledge gap in a clinical setting and then form a searchable question to address that knowledge gap.
- Create a search strategy to identify evidence available to answer the clinical question and be able to utilize the search strategy.
- Critically appraise the quality of the evidence found utilizing standardized appraisal tools.
- Synthesize the evidence into a comprehensive summary.
- Explain the concept of shared decision making and how to present research evidence to clients.
- Apply methods for integrating clinical expertise, research evidence and client values and preferences into a plan of care for occupational therapy.
- Develop a plan for disseminating the knowledge summary across practice settings.
- Analyze that barriers, both personal and organizational, to knowledge translation.
- Formulate a measurement strategy for the outcomes of knowledge translation interventions.