Is there a need for another textbook on Evidence Based Practice?  If so, what would you include?

I’m thinking it would be relatively small – include the bare bones of research design, and, of course, ebp, with lots of examples from the OT literature (the good and the not-so-good with critiques).

Just wondering.

It is always so exciting to be at a conference or workshop with peers and discuss grand plans for contributing to the research base of our profession. Then we go home and regular life consumes all our time.

How do we maintain the commitment to collaborate and get some research started and finished?

It took me awhile to understand Type I and Type II errors. I have it now, although the double negatives can still be confusing. My favorite way to explain them is an adaptation from Rosnow & Rosenthal’s boxes in which Type I is gullibility and Type II is blindness. I describe the situation of suitors – each one is giving me flowers, candy, and claiming their undying devotion. I find that when I accept Suitor A’s proposal I become very disappointed because I was gullible (and made a Type I error) because in actuality he had been giving flowers, candy etc to three other women. So, having been burned by this, I reject Suitor B eventhough his claims of devotion are true. I remain blind to his love and spend the rest of my life in isolation (or a convent).

I don’t know if this actually helps, but the story remains in student’s memories.

Irma and I conducted the second research forum this weekend, focusing on how to appraise evidence in research articles. We briefly went through the EBP history and PICO questions and searching, but the focus was on appraising/evaluating the articles.  I think it went well, but I did a lot of the talking.

Afterwards, one of the comments that made me think a lot was “you don’t know what it is, or what you need to know until you do it”. I believe this is true, and I am going to create a virtual research study as a way to ease people into the process. This will not be a “real” study, but it will have the steps and some of the decisions, and (hopefully) will de-mystify the process.  Granted, with my current schedule, this may take until January to make it onto the Web…but it will be here.

If you are intrigued and want to help, send/post suggestions for the topic or design or issues you have encountered (or are afraid of) and I’ll see if I can address those ideas in the study.  Thanks in advance!

I’m reviewing Bringing Evidence into Everyday Practice by Winnie Dunn (SLACK inc publisher) to determine if I’ll use it for our EBP class this coming Fall and so far it is looking really good – and comes with a great recommendation from Linda Tickle-Degnan.  It is a workbook that includes many articles, but also relies on the use of another textbook on research methods. The activities appear to foster valuable learning.

In addition, Evidence-based Practice for Occupational Therapists (2nd ed) by M. Clare Taylor is an easy to read, comprehensive introduction to the topic as well. This text has ample examples, though no full articles. It is a smaller book, so may be less intimidating to some students than the Dunn text. Being self-contained, it may be more efficient for the clinician who wants to better understand this process.

These are just a few non-OT journals I have accessed through my university, so I cannot vouch that each would be available to the “public”. You might try through PubMed, or if you have access to a university library…

Journal of Child and Family Studies   ”an international forum for topical issues pertaining to the mental well-being of children, adolescents, and their families. The journal translates the latest research results into practical applications for clinicians and healthcare practitioners, by addressing all facets of emotional disorders, including issues associated with identification, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and prevention.”

Families, Systems, & Health  an APA publication ”is a peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary journal that publishes clinical research, training, and theoretical contributions in the areas of families and health, with particular focus on collaborative family healthcare.”

Child: Care, Health & Development  ”is an international, peer-reviewed journal which publishes papers dealing with all aspects of the health and development of children and young people. We publish quantitative and qualitative research papers relevant to people from all disciplines working in child health and child development. We aim to provide a forum for discussion of global child health issues and are happy to publish both primary research and systematic reviews.”

Topics in Early Childhood Special Education  ”Quarterly publication provides detals on childhood special education to program developers, advocates, researchers, & higher education faculty.”

Nurses have lots of journals, often targeted to specific populations or settings, that we need to be aware of as well.

Missouri seems to be ahead of the curve on information. They have an impressive Child Welfare Manual (under Department of Social Services) and they have this page (and links) on intervention and evidence called Intervention MICA (Missouri Information for Community Assessment). The links lead to comprehensive questions and information about interventions. Follow the links.

One one of the pages in Intervention MICA there is a link to The Community Guide on the CDC website with links to many topics in need of further research. (I’ve given you that link to save time searching for it).

Over the past month I have been amazed at the variety of journals out in the world and the wealth of articles (and topic ideas) that we OTs should be writing. That will be a different post.

Here is the link to the article on Effects of Occupational Therapy Program on Functional Outcomes in Acute Stroke Care (that Ricky Joseph spoke about during the Research Forum at annual conference).

Please post a comment if the link does not work for you…

We know our profession needs more evidence of effectiveness, efficiency, etc. and we can provide it!
Some of us need refreshers on the process and all of us need support – financial, yes – but mainly from colleagues and mentors. This site has been created to offer both – the refreshers and the mentors – [so that we can get the financial] so that we can get more of our evidence into the mainstream.

What do you say? Are you ready to document, analyze, and publish?

As I’ve said in many a research class…it is not as overwhelming as you think! It just needs some support.

This blog was created as a follow-up to a research forum organized by Irma Alvarado at the Georgia Occupational Therapy Association (GOTA) Annual Conference. Merrolee Penman wrote a wonderful article on education that had evidence that if we walk away from a conference/workshop with no follow-up we will not change our practice…so this is a step toward helping us change our attitude about and efforts towards doing research. We know we need it – if we work together we can actually get it done.

You do need to have at least a username on WordPress to leave comments…this is to facilitate linking people with ideas with people who want to assist or mentor. If some ideas are big enough, maybe they will need/want their own blogs…or else we’ll just give them their own pages. Are you ready for adventure?