IS EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE (EBP) A REALITY IN THE CLINICAL ROUTINE OF BRAZILIAN PHYSICAL THERAPISTS? A SURVEY STUDY OF KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND BEHAVIOR.

Abstract

Introduction: Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) refers to the set of attitudes from which one can know and apply the best evidence, understand patients' preferences and use clinical experience to optimize care, as well as facilitate decision making by health teams. to prole physical therapy professionals as to their unde Objectives: rstanding and application of EBP in their clinical routines. Methods: this is a survey study involving 146 physiotherapists of both genders, from all Brazilian regions. The professionals were contacted exclusively by e-mail, through their respective regional professional councils, in order to receive the electronic questionnaires, prepared for this purpose using the Google Forms platform. The questionnaires were available for 90 days, after which they were no longer accepted. Results: 74.6% of the sample was female; there was almost unanimous agreement that EBP is necessary in clinical practice. Approximately 95% agreed that EBP can be applied even in high demand settings and 84.4% said they were able to insert the guidelines of practice guides into their clinical routines. However, it is noteworthy that 98.6% said they lacked the ability to search relevant scientic literature and the main reasons for not performing EBP were: lack of time, lack of ability to search relevant scientic literature and lack of ndings on a given patient population. the authors conclude that Brazilian physical therapists recognize the im Conclusion: portance of EBP as a guide for clinical decision making and that they use it in their professional routines, however, they need adequate orientation on efcient scientic searches in order to promote treatment excellence through reliable scientic materials.