Date of Award

3-31-2015

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Education

First Advisor

Annie Burke-Doe

Second Advisor

Jane E. Sullivan

Abstract

Background: The advancement of evidence-based practice (EBP) has generated a flurry of outcome measures (OMs) and continuing education courses to assist in the creation and tailoring of this knowledge to the clinical environment. Despite the development of these resources, little is known about the attributes and behaviors of the physical therapist for knowledge translation (KT) into clinical practice.

Purpose: To determine the practice style traits of physical therapists who attended an evidence-based continuing education course on Oms and to determine their perceived barriers, facilitators, attitudes, knowledge, behaviors, and prerequisites for KT.

Methods: Seventy-nine physical therapists completed two standardized, validated surveys titled the Practice Style Questionnaire and the EBP Questionnaire. These questionnaires elicited information on practice style traits and the cognitive and motivational variables related to their behavior for KT of OMs in clinical practice.

Results: Twenty-eight percent were seekers, 49% were pragmatists, and 23% were receptives. All practice style traits reported high levels of knowledge (>81%) in their abilities to search the evidence related to OMs and many (>88%) considered it important to use OMs in their work. Despite these responses, 31% of the participants did not use OMs in their daily clinical practice.

Conclusions: Differences in practice style traits show that physical therapists differ in their behaviors toward new information and how evidence is applied clinically. Future KT research is warranted to understand the impact of matching educational interventions to traits and to determine the best practices for furthering KT of OMs in clinical practice.

Comments

Dissertation presented in partial fulfillment of the degree of Doctor of Education at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences.

Download

Share

COinS