How Comprehensively Is Evidence-Based Practice Represented in Australian Health Professional Accreditation Documents? A Systematic Audit

Abstract

Occurrence of the term evidence as it relates specifically to "evidence-based practice" ranged from 0 (pharmacy, dentistry and occupational therapy) to 8 (physiotherapy) in the accreditation documents. Overall, there were 77 occasions when terms relating to any of the 5 steps of evidence-based practice were used across all 11 accreditation documents. All 5 steps were included in the physiotherapy and psychology documents; 4 steps in medicine and optometry; 3 steps in pharmacy; 2 steps each in documents for chiropractic, osteopathy, and podiatry; and 1 step for nursing. There was no inclusion of terms relating to any of the 5 steps in the dentistry and occupational therapy documents. Insights: Terminology relating explicitly to evidence-based practice and to the 5 steps of evidence-based practice appears to be lacking in the accreditation documents for health professions registered in Australia. This is not necessarily reflective of the curricular content or quality, or dedication to evidence-based practice teaching. However, recognition and demand by accreditation bodies for skills in evidence-based practice may act as a driver for education providers to give greater priority to embedding this training in entry-level programs. Consequently, accreditation bodies are powerfully positioned to shape future directions, focus, and boundaries within and across professions. Future international audits of accreditation documents could provide insight into the global breadth of this phenomenon and contribute to closer scrutiny of the representation of evidence-based practice in future iterations of accreditation documents.

How comprehensively is evidence-based practice represented in councils on chiropractic education (CCE) educational standards: a systematic audit

“…The support for EBP with the use of explicit terms was generally disappointing in the CCE educational standards. These documents have the potential to act as drivers for education providers to embed EBP into practice [16]. EBP has been shown to influence educational, entry-level graduates and practitioner levels of care which in turn has improved patient outcomes [38].…”

“…Educational standards adopted and monitored by educational regulatory agencies across 11 health profession bodies in Australia were compared in a recent study [16]. The authors compared the frequency of the appearance of EBP-related terms, such as the word evidence, in documents for informing educational programs of required accreditation standards of the need for EBP.…”

“…Pharmacy, dentistry and occupational therapy did not mention evidence at all. It is noted that McEvoy et al, acknowledged that the frequency of inclusion of EBP-related terms did not necessarily relate to the quality of document [16]. They also recognized that assessment of educational programs included on-site visits, interviews, reviewing of program documentation and curriculum content.…”

A collaborative process for a program redesign for education in evidence-based health care

“…10 An audit of Australian accreditation documents for 12 health professions (medicine, nursing, midwifery, pharmacy, physiotherapy, dentistry, psychology, occupational therapy, optometry, podiatry, osteopathy, and chiroprac-tic) was published in 2016. 14 It found that only physiotherapy and psychology fully complied with the 2005 Sicily statement on the 5-step model of training in evidencebased practice; medicine and optometry complied with 4 of the statements, pharmacy with 3, and chiropractic, osteopathy and podiatry with 2.…”

Exploring self-management of chronic low back pain in Saudi Arabia

“…This change over the last decade may be due to elevated awareness of the importance of teaching evidence-based practices at the training level and increased emphasis on their use by licencing bodies in developed countries (Mcevoy et al 2016). However, the developing countries of India, Ghana and Thailand still report excessive use of passive treatments.…”