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Evidence-informed practice-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP): describing nursing, pharmacy, occupational therapy, and medicine
Investigator (PI): Ritchie, Krista
Performing Organization (PO): (Current): Mount Saint Vincent University, Faculty of Education / (902) 457-6178
Supporting Agency (SA): Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation
Initial Year: 2015
Final Year: 2018
Record Source/Award ID: NSHRF/10066
Funding: Total Award Amount: $148,260
2017 Award Amount: $49,555
Award Type: Grant
Abstract: Using evidence is an important part of how people make decisions and solve clinical problems in health care; we call this use of evidence by health care professionals "evidence-based practice." Evidence can mean many things, including reflecting on personal experiences and also using (and doing) health research. We know that it is important for different professions to work together in health care. For example, a health care team might include a doctor, a nurse, an occupational therapist, and a pharmacist. We do not know very much about what people working in health care know or feel about evidence-based practice, let alone how similar or different the knowledge, feelings, or actual practices are of different professions. If the goal for health care is evidence-based and collaborative team approaches to patient- and family-centred care, then it is important to know more about how people in different university programs develop knowledge, feelings, and actual habits regarding both using evidence and problem solving. This research aims to use both surveys and focus groups to collect information about students as they go through their programs, and enter the workforce to better understand what people do, understand, and feel about evidence-based practice. The research team will work closely with people who make decisions at the university and hospitals about what and how to teach the use of evidence in health care. The goal of this work is to improve the learning experiences of students and early career health care providers in the fields of pharmacy, occupational therapy, nursing, and medicine. The impact this work can have on the health of Nova Scotians is widespread. By increasing the quality of care provided across the system, in these professions, and through future research looking at other health professions as well, we can make a systemwide change in the quality of care offered in Nova Scotia. Because we know that problem solving skills are important to how we provide care and make decisions about patients every day, it will be helpful to, for the first time, measure the relationship between problem solving skills and knowledge, feelings, and practices that relate to providing evidence-based practice. By identifying areas where professions (e.g., medicine and pharmacy) think differently about how evidence should be used in health care, we can inform each other and work toward a shared understanding, which will help us work together better.
MeSH Terms:
  • * Evidence-Based Medicine
  • Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
  • Health Services Research
  • Hospitals
  • Humans
  • Interdisciplinary Communication
  • Medicine /*organization & administration
  • Nova Scotia
  • Nursing /*organization & administration
  • Occupational Therapy /*organization & administration
  • * Patient Care Team
  • Pharmacy /*organization & administration
  • Problem Solving
  • Quality of Health Care
  • Universities
Keywords:
  • attitudes
  • evidence-informed practice
  • healthcare education practices
  • knowledge
  • prospective cross-sectional study
Country: Canada
State: Nova Scotia
Zip Code: B3M 2J6
UI: 20161223
Project Status: Completed