Evidence-based practice: knowing what's good or bad

Abstract

Within this article, the author will be discussing how the support worker can tell if research and evidence-based practice are good and robust and will benefit service users and their families. What makes a piece of research worthy of implementation into the clinical area—or not? First, evidence-based practice and research will be defined and discussed. Next, the article looks at what aspects need to be considered when critiquing a piece of research. The two main types of research, quantitative and qualitative, will be highlighted before moving onto key questions to consider in critiquing published research. The Code of Conduct for Healthcare Support Workers and Adult Social Care Workers in England ( Skills for Care and Skills for Health, 2013 ) clearly states the importance of continuing professional development (CPD) to improve the quality of healthcare, care and support and this will be examined in more detail. Support workers alone will not be implementing changes to clinical practice themselves. However, they should be involved as part of the wider team in doing so, and importantly should know and understand the research behind why care is delivered in the way it is. One key aspect to this is understanding what preferences the patients have for their own care needs.