Abstract
The evidence-based practice (EBP) movement in social work has challenged the traditionally insular relationship between research and practice, demonstrating a critical need for more reciprocity. Despite a proclaimed commitment to EBP in social work, an implementation gap persists (Bellamy, Bledsoe, & Traube, 2006). This commentary identifies factors that have contributed to the gap between research and practice and proposes solutions to bridge this divide. EBP originated in the field of medicine and emphasizes the systematic use of research in the decision-making process of patient care (Sackett, Rosenberg, Gray, Haynes, & Richardson, 1996). EBP tasks researchers with conducting and synthesizing treatment research to develop best practices and clinicians with identifying and implementing appropriate EBPs and evaluating client response in a systematic manner. Clinicians can implement the EBP approach in a four-step process: (1) formulating a question, (2) appraising relevant literature, (3) applying data to the clinical context, and (4) evaluating outcome-based measures of the novel intervention (Edmond, Megivern, Williams, Rochman, & Howard, 2006).
Published Version
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