Knowledge and attitudes of entry-level and final-level physical therapy students about evidence-based practice - A cross-sectional study

Felipe Reis,Luis Correia,Ney Meziat Filho,Gabriela Andrade De Araújo,Julia Rodrigues Siqueira,Leandro Calazans Nogueira

doi:10.17267/2675-021xevidence.v1i1.1983

Abstract

Evidence-based practice (EBP) has gained widespread acceptance in the health profession. Little is known about the attitudes, knowledge, and behavior about EBP of physical therapy students at different levels in Brazil. OBJECTIVES: To compare the EBP-related knowledge, practice, attitudes between the entry-level and final-level physical therapy students. METHODS: A cross-sectional study including 60 physical therapy students was conducted. The participants completed a questionnaire to determine their attitudes, knowledge, practice skills and barriers regarding EBP. The survey consisted of 38 items about EBP (relevance, terminology and practice skills) and 7 items related as barriers to adopt the EBP during physical therapy graduation. Total scores were calculated. For each of the three sections scores of a 5-point Likert scale were considered. RESULTS: The sample was composed of 40 students in the entry-level and 20 in the final-level. The mean age of the sample was 23.3 (SD=7.6). The mean score of the sample in the EBP survey was 83.5 (SD=20.8). We did not find difference between final-level group (mean=101.6; SD=17.8) and entry-level students (mean=74.5; SD= 15.8) (p=.45). Students of the final-level group presented higher scores in all EBP sections (relevance, terminology, practice skills). A higher mean difference was observed in terminology (-17.8) section. The most common barriers reported by the students of both groups were “lack of knowledge of statistics” (19.3%), “lack of time” (17.7%) and “language” (16%). CONCLUSION: The difference in all sections about evidence based knowledge and attitudes where not expressive between the final-level and the entry-level students. Regarding practice skills, students were not confident about their abilities in the EBP steps.

Highlights

Health care practitioners are increasingly urged to ensure that they are delivering care based on the best current research evidence, which is the use of the evidence-based practice (EBP) to make clinical decisions[1,2,3]
Since the term EBP was first coined in the mid-1990s4, the integration of EBP in health professional education has continued to grow
EBP has initiated in medicine, it has been established for all health professions such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, nursing and psychology[5,6,7,8]

Summary

Introduction

Health care practitioners are increasingly urged to ensure that they are delivering care based on the best current research evidence, which is the use of the evidence-based practice (EBP) to make clinical decisions[1,2,3]. Evidence-based practice is a five-step model: (i) formulating the clinical question, (ii) searching the evidence, (iii) appraising the evidence, (iv) incorporating evidence into decision making, and (v) evaluating the process[4,9,10]. In this process, clinicians should integrate best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient preferences, producing the most appropriate and effective service[4,11]. In an era of growing accountability of healthcare practitioners, EBP steps may provide a useful framework within which to work This has led some professionals to argue that there is a moral obligation to base decision-making on research findings[13]

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Results

Discussion

Conclusion