Introduction: Teaching evidence-based practice (EBP) has become part of the standard curriculum for health care students and professionals. Teaching EBP skills should be emphasized in entry level physiotherapy educati...Introduction: Teaching evidence-based practice (EBP) has become part of the standard curriculum for health care students and professionals. Teaching EBP skills should be emphasized in entry level physiotherapy education as physiotherapists are expected to practice in an evidence-based way. Identifying barriers to the application of EBP in clinical placement plays an important role in developing physiotherapy programs. The present study aimed to explore physiotherapy students’ perceived barriers toward the use of EBP during their clinical placements. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among third-year physiotherapy students at the Faculty of Health Sciences University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Participants were asked to complete a self-reported questionnaire that was developed by the researcher based on previously developed surveys. The analyses applied included descriptive statistics and calculation of frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations of the participating students’ scores. Results: Fifty final-year undergraduate students with a mean age of 23.7 (±4.3, range 23 - 27) years participated in the study. Majority of participants reported lack of formal training, poor ability to critically appraise research evidence, insufficient time, their clinical supervisors, or other therapists not using EBP when treating patients as barriers towards practicing EBP. Conclusions: Physiotherapy students face many challenges in terms of training, organizational, and personal barriers toward the use of EBP during clinical placement. Lack of formal training, lack of research skills, insufficient time and their clinical supervisors or other therapists not using EBP when treating patients, emerged as top barriers. This fact underlines the importance of teaching students EBP skills, which would enable them to use EBP when working with patients.展开更多
文摘Introduction: Teaching evidence-based practice (EBP) has become part of the standard curriculum for health care students and professionals. Teaching EBP skills should be emphasized in entry level physiotherapy education as physiotherapists are expected to practice in an evidence-based way. Identifying barriers to the application of EBP in clinical placement plays an important role in developing physiotherapy programs. The present study aimed to explore physiotherapy students’ perceived barriers toward the use of EBP during their clinical placements. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among third-year physiotherapy students at the Faculty of Health Sciences University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Participants were asked to complete a self-reported questionnaire that was developed by the researcher based on previously developed surveys. The analyses applied included descriptive statistics and calculation of frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations of the participating students’ scores. Results: Fifty final-year undergraduate students with a mean age of 23.7 (±4.3, range 23 - 27) years participated in the study. Majority of participants reported lack of formal training, poor ability to critically appraise research evidence, insufficient time, their clinical supervisors, or other therapists not using EBP when treating patients as barriers towards practicing EBP. Conclusions: Physiotherapy students face many challenges in terms of training, organizational, and personal barriers toward the use of EBP during clinical placement. Lack of formal training, lack of research skills, insufficient time and their clinical supervisors or other therapists not using EBP when treating patients, emerged as top barriers. This fact underlines the importance of teaching students EBP skills, which would enable them to use EBP when working with patients.
