Evidence-based Practice: I Get it Now!
Evidence-based practice has been a hot phrase in OT as well as many other health professions over the last several years. And though I've actually written and read a good bit about this topic for ADVANCE, I've never really "gotten it." I get what evidence is -- research literature. I get what practice is. But how do the two go together?
I just sat in on a presentation by Denise Chisholm, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA, and Cathy Dolhi, OTD, OTR/L, FAOTA, called "Evidence, Practice and Professional Development: Making the Connection." They broke down evidence-based practice (EBP) into a few very simple-to-understand steps and gave some great examples of how it applies to clinical situations.
There are five steps to EBP, they explained:
Define the question: Who is your target population, what is the intervention in question, are there any comparison interventions (another intervention or no intervention, ie. control group), and what is your desired outcome.
Search the literature: There are a number of tools such as the Ovid and Medline databases (often available at universities), OT Search from AOTA (paid service), and OT Seeker and Google Scholar (both free).
Evaluate the evidence for usefulness and validity: Ask three basic questions -- what are the study's findings, is the study of sufficient quality, and how can the results help provide better care for the client/population in question?
Incorporate your relevant findings into practice: Once you identify potential interventions in the literature that may help your client, use them in practice.
Evaluate the client's outcomes: Did the intervention produce the outcomes you were expecting?
This EBP process works with individual clients, with populations, with program development, with requesting equipment and resources for your department, with appealing insurance claims for equipment or services. And best of all, you can use much of the work you do to count toward your NBCOT recertification because reading and analyzing peer-reviewed articles or texts counts as professional development units.
POTA is videotaping several sessions at the conference this weekend and will make them available online in the near future for OTs to access for continuing education units. If you are looking to learn more about EBP and how to apply it to practice, you may want to check this out. Plus you'll earn CEs toward your license renewal in the process.