THE SURVEY OF EVIDENCE BASED PRACTICE COMPETENCY IN THAI PHYSIOTHERAPISTS

M. Vongsirinavarat¹, N. Hengsomboon¹, R. Kraiwong¹

¹Mahidol University, Faculty of Physical Therapy, Nakornpathom, Thailand

Background: Evidence based practice (EBP) competency is essential for the personal and professional development of healthcare providers. Physiotherapists (PT) need to use the EBP process to support their clinical decision making and improve health service outcomes. The competency of each step of the EBP process, including asking clinical questions, acquiring evidence, appraising the quality of evidence, and applying the evidence in their own practice, should be developed. All levels of PT education in Thailand had incorporated EBP in the curriculum. However, the competency of EBP implementation among Thai PTs is not known.

Purpose: This study explored the EBP core competencies in Thai Physical Therapists. The relationships among steps, the use and attitude toward EBP were also examined.

Methods: The research protocol was approved by the Mahidol University Central Institutional Review Board (COE No. MU-CIRB 2020/083.1507). A questionnaire was drafted based on the attested EBP core competencies. The listed questions reflected the attitude, use, and competencies of different steps (ask, acquire, appraise, and apply) of the EBP process. The responses by means of the likert scale were rated according to their confidence or the actual situation in their practice. After the face validation of the questionnaire, the survey was conducted online via several social networks of Thai PT. The scores of each domain were computed, and the correlations among domains were analysed.

Results: One hundred and seventy-eight PT responded to the questionnaire. Most of them were females (72.5%), aged 20-39 years (75.3%) and finished bachelor's degrees in Physical Therapy (70.3%). The average scores of attitudes, uses, and competencies of EBP were 76.8%, 57.3% and 57.4% respectively. The average competency scores of ask, acquire, appraise and apply steps were 56.8%, 66.1%, 54.2% and 54.9% respectively. The correlations between competency scores for the four steps were moderate to high (Pearson r = 5.92 to.890, p<.001). The use and competency scores of each step were also significantly correlated with moderate level (.643 to .782, p<.001). However, there were low correlation of attitude and overall competency (0298, p<.001) and the competency scores of each step (.251 to .298, p<.001).

Conclusions: The self-rated EBP competency of Thai PT were modest. Although a positive attitude was observed, a low level of actual use of EBP was reported among the respondents. Competency was strongly associated with use but only marginally related with the attitude toward EBP.

Implications: Reinforcing EBP competency might increase the use of EBP. Since there was low correlation between the attitude and competency, further study should explore the barriers associated with the attitude toward EBP among Thai PT.

Funding acknowledgements: No financial support was recieved in this study

Keywords:
Evidence based practice
Competency
Attitude

Topics:
Education: continuing professional development
Professional issues
Education

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Mahidol University

Committee: the Mahidol University Central Institutional Review Board

Ethics number: MU-CIRB 2020/083.1507