In this two part posting I will look at some new research that looks at how to make and embed evidence based practice in your organisation.
Part 1 The key challenges of evidence based practice (This Post)
Part 2 Solutions
Many professions have moved towards evidence-based practice over the years. The real pioneers here have been the various medical and health services around the world, but as a concept it is being increasingly used in just about every industry in the world to some extent. Indeed The Oxford Review has at its heart the support of evidence based practice by providing the current thinking, research and best practice across all industries for better organisational practice and decision-making.
Evidence based practice is the “Conscientious, conscious and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions”. In other words using the best and latest evidence from systematic and valid research integrated with experience from practice. This means that practitioners are up-to-date with and use the latest research evidence and practice from around the world to make better decisions and implement better solutions. This sentence is too long!
A paper just released yesterday by a team of practitioners and researchers from a series of universities in Norway and Canada, including the Centre for Evidence-Based Practice at Bergen University College in Norway, reports on a study they conducted looking at a wide range of strategies for the implementation of evidence based practice to see what are the critical factors for success.
- The first and main key challenge they identified was creating an interest in evidence-based practice in the organisation. This usually happens when people realise there is good evidence out there to help them make better decisions and then experience the benefit of this.
- The second issue is developing a practical and working understanding of how to go about evidence based practice. This is often a training then coaching then mentoring exercise.
- The third challenge is supporting evidence-based practice on an ongoing basis.