Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

French

Background.

Recent literature in evidence-based practice indicates that evidence is defined differently from practice and research perspectives. However, few published works address therapists’ perspectives of the nature and use of evidence in everyday practice.

Purpose.

This study describes the definition, types, and use of evidence from the perspective of six school-based occupational therapists.

Method.

Data were collected through focus groups and participant-submitted documentation and analyzed using qualitative and quantitative content analysis.

Findings.

Two categories of evidence emerged: internalized evidence and evidence gathered during the intervention process. Clinical reasoning, identified as a key skill in evidence-based practice, supported the synthesis of therapist internalized evidence with “in-the-moment” evidence gathered from activity, contextual, and occupational analyses of the client.

Implications.

The findings support current literature that has suggested expanding the definition of evidence (i.e., more than research findings alone). Further investigation of evidence building in practice may help in constructing a more inclusive professional culture of evidence-based practice.

Keywords

Client-centered Clinical reasoning Evidence-based practice Occupational therapy Qualitative research

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bergstrom

(2008). The gap between discovery and practice implementation in evidence-based practice: Is practice-based evidence a solution? International Journal of Evidence-Based Healthcare, 6, 135–136. doi:10.1111/j.1744-1609.2008.00102.x

Braveman

B. H.

Helfrich

C. A.

Fisher

G. S.

(2001). Developing and maintaining community partnerships with “a scholarship of practice.” Occupational Therapy in Health Care, 15(1/2), 109–125. doi:10.1080/J003v15n01_12

Copley

Allen

(2009). Using all the available evidence: Perceptions of paediatric occupational therapists about how to increase evidence-based practice. International Journal of Evidence-Based Healthcare, 7, 193–200. doi:10.1111/j.1744-1609.2009.00137.x

Copley

J. A.

Turpin

M. J.

King

J. L.

(2010). Information used by an expert paediatric occupational therapist when making clinical decisions. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 77, 249–256. doi:10.2182/cjot.2010.77.4.7

Crist

Munoz

J. P.

Hansen

A. M. W.

Benson

Provident

(2005). The practice-scholar program: An academic-practice partnership to promote the scholarship of “best practices.” Occupational Therapy in Health Care, 19(1/2), 71–93. doi:10.1080/J003v19n01_06

de Cordova

P. B.

Collins

Peppard

Currie

L. M.

Hughes

Walsh

Stone

(2008). Implementing evidence-based nursing with student nurses and clinicians: Uniting the strengths. Applied Nursing Research, 21, 242–245. doi:10.1016/j.apnr.2008.06.008

Embrey

D. G.

Guthrie

M. R.

White

O. R.

Dietz

(1996). Clinical decision-making by experienced and inexperienced paediatric physical therapists for children with diplegic cerebral palsy. Physical Therapy, 76, 20–33.

Fange

Ivanoff

(2009). Integrating research into practice: A challenge for local authority occupational therapy. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 16, 40–48. doi:10.1080/11038120802419357

Gabbay

le May

(2004). Evidence based guidelines or collectively constructed “mindlines?” Ethnographic study of knowledge management in primary care. British Medical Journal, 329 , Article 1013. doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7473.1013

10.

Graham

I. D.

Logan

Harrison

M. B.

Straus

S. E.

Tetro

Caswell

Robinson

(2006). Lost in knowledge translation: Time for a map? Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions, 26, 13–24. doi:10.1002/chp.47

11.

Green

L. W.

(2006). Public health asks of systems science: To advance our evidence-based practice, can you help us get more practice-based evidence? American Journal of Public Health, 96, 406–409. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2005.066035

12.

Horn

S. D.

DeJong

Ryser

D. K.

Veazie

P. J.

Teraoka

(2005). Another look at observational studies in rehabilitation research: Going beyond the holy grail of the randomized controlled trial. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 86(Suppl. 2), S8–S14. doi:10.1016/j.apmr.2005.08.116

13.

Horn

S. D.

Gassaway

(2007). Practice-based evidence study design for comparative effectiveness research. Medical Care, 45(Suppl. 2), S50–S57.

14.

Kielhofner

Hammel

Finlayson

Helfrich

Taylor

R. R.

(2004). Documenting outcomes of occupational therapy: The center for outcomes research and education. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 58, 15–23. doi:10.5014/ajot.58.1.15

15.

Krathwohl

D. R.

(2009). Methods of educational and social science research: The logic of methods. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.

16.

Krueger

R. A.

Casey

M. A.

(2015). Focus groups: A practical guide for applied research (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

17.

Lin

S. H.

Murphy

S. L.

Robinson

J. C.

(2010). The issue is…facilitating evidence-based practice: Process, strategies, and resources. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 64, 164–171. doi:10.5014/ajot.64.1.164

18.

Miles

M. B.

Huberman

A. M.

Saldaña

(2014). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

19.

Missal

Schafer

B. K.

Halm

Schaffer

M. A.

(2010). A university and health care organization partnership to prepare nurses for evidence-based practice. Journal of Nursing Education, 49, 456–461. doi:10.3928/01484834-20100430-06

20.

Nevo

Slonim-Nevo

(2011). The myth of evidence-based practice: Towards evidence-informed practice. British Journal of Social Work, 41, 1176–1197. doi:10.1093/bjsw/bcq149

21.

Reagon

Bellin

Boniface

(2008). Reconfiguring evidence-based practice for occupational therapists. International Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation, 15, 428–436. doi:10.12968/ijtr.2008.15.10.31211

22.

Resnik

Jensen

(2003). Using clinical outcomes to explore the theory of expert practice in physical therapy. Physical Therapy, 83, 1090–1106.

23.

Robertson

S. C.

Colborn

A. P.

(2000). Can we improve outcomes research by expanding research methods? American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 54, 541–543. doi:10.5014/ajot.54.5.541

24.

Sackett

D. L.

Rosenberg

W. M. C.

Gray

J. A. M.

Haynes

R. B.

Richardson

W. S.

(1996). Evidence-based medicine: What it is and what it isn’t. British Medical Journal, 312, 71–72. doi:10.1097/BLO.06013e31802fba1e

25.

Schreier

(2012). Qualitative content analysis in practice. London, UK: Sage.

26.

Thomas

Law

(2013). Research utilization and evidence-based practice in occupational therapy: A scoping study. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 67, e55–e65. doi:10.5014/ajot.2013.006395

27.

Tomlin

G. S.

Dougherty

(2014). Decision-making and sources of evidence in occupational therapy and other health professions: Evidence-informed practice. International Journal of Health Professions, 1, 13–19. doi:10.2478/ijhp-2014-0001

28.

Turpin

Iwama

M. K.

(2011). Using occupational therapy models in practice: A field guide. London, UK: Churchill Livingstone and Elsevier.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.32 MB

Beyond research literature: Occupational therapists’ perspectives on and uses of “evidence” in everyday practice