Becoming evidence based practitioners: a study of final year clinical therapy students at University of Limerick

Background- Evidence based practice (EBP) is pivotal to health professionals ensuring their practice is gold standard (Crabtree et al 2012). EBP aims; to guide and support health professionals implement best evidence practice to develop patient's outcomes (Dizon 2012). Objectives- This study investigated if final year clinical therapy students have the perceived knowledge, attitudes and behaviours to become evidence based practitioners. It also investigated differences between disciplines of Occupational Therapy, Speech and Language Therapy and Physiotherapy students. Methods- Quantitative Research was used. The Knowledge, Attitude and Behaviour (KAB) questionnaire (Johnston et al 2003) was completed by final year clinical therapy students in the 2012/13 academic year. A response rate of (73% n=63) was achieved from a potential population of 86 students. Data was analysed using Statistical Packages for Social Science using version 21.0 (IBM SPSS Inc, NY, USA, 2012). Results- The curriculum prepared clinical therapy students to become evidence based practitioners and the students felt they were knowledgeable in using EBP. (8.1%) of the students reported EBP isn’t discussed on practice education. This impact’s on the students as they are not seeing positive role models using EBP. (98.5%) of students believed that EBP was useful and will incorporate it into their future practice. Conclusion- The students are prepared to be evidence base practitioners, however, some practice education sites are not using EBP. Collaboration between Universities and practice education sites will be essential in facilitating newly graduated therapists in maintaining EBP skills. Further study is required to explore how to facilitate this transition.