The impact of a small-group educational intervention for allied health professionals to enhance evidence-based practice: mixed methods evaluation

Introduction Delivery of healthcare services makes up a complex system and it requires providers to be competent and to be able to integrate each of the institute of medicine’s (IOM) 5 core competencies into practice. However, healthcare providers are challenged with the task to be able to understand and apply the IOM core competencies into practice. Objective The purpose of the study was to examine the factors that influence health professional’s likelihood of accomplishing the IOM core competencies. Methods A cross-sectional study design was used to administer a validated online survey to health providers. This survey was distributed to physicians, nursing professionals, specialists, and allied healthcare professionals. The final sample included 3,940 participants who completed the survey. Results The study findings show that younger health professionals more consistently practice daily competencies than their older counterparts, especially in the use of evidence-based practice, informatics, and working in interdisciplinary teams. Less experienced health professionals more consistently applied quality improvement methods but less consistently used evidence-based practice compared to their more experienced counterparts. Conclusion There is a need to understand how health professionals’ age and experience impact their engagement with IOM’s core competencies. This study highlights the need for educational resources on the competencies to be tailored to health providers’ age and experience.

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Importance of safety climate, teamwork climate and demographics: understanding nurses, allied health professionals and clerical staff perceptions of patient safety

BMJ Open Quality ◽

10.1136/bmjoq-2018-000433 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 7 (4) ◽

pp. e000433

Author(s):

Shahram Zaheer ◽

Liane R Ginsburg ◽

Hannah J Wong ◽

Kelly Thomson ◽

Lorna Bain

Keyword(s):

Patient Safety ◽

Health Professionals ◽

Allied Health ◽

Safety Climate ◽

Outcome Variable ◽

Senior Leadership ◽

Staff Perceptions ◽

Allied Health Professionals ◽

Leadership Support ◽

The Impact

BackgroundThere is growing evidence regarding the importance of contextual factors for patient/staff outcomes and the likelihood of successfully implementing safety improvement interventions such as checklists; however, certain literature gaps still remain—for example, lack of research examining the interactive effects of safety constructs on outcomes. This study has addressed some of these gaps, together with adding to our understanding of how context influences safety.PurposeThe impact of staff perceptions of safety climate (ie, senior and supervisory leadership support for safety) and teamwork climate on a self-reported safety outcome (ie, overall perceptions of patient safety (PS)) were examined at a hospital in Southern Ontario.MethodsCross-sectional survey data were collected from nurses, allied health professionals and unit clerks working on intensive care, general medicine, mental health or emergency department.ResultsHierarchical regression analyses showed that perceptions of senior leadership (p<0.001) and teamwork (p<0.001) were significantly associated with overall perceptions of PS. A non-significant association was found between perceptions of supervisory leadership and the outcome variable. However, when staff perceived poorer senior leadership support for safety, the positive effect of supervisory leadership on overall perceptions of PS became significantly stronger (p<0.05).Practice implicationsOur results suggest that leadership support at one level (ie, supervisory) can substitute for the absence of leadership support for safety at another level (ie, senior level). While healthcare organisations should recruit into leadership roles and retain individuals who prioritise safety and possess adequate relational competencies, the field would now benefit from evidence regarding how to build leadership support for PS. Also, it is important to provide on-site workshops on topics (eg, conflict management) that can strengthen working relationships across professional and unit boundaries.

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Strategies for research engagement of clinicians in allied health (STRETCH): a mixed methods research protocol

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2016-014876 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 7 (9) ◽

pp. e014876 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Sharon Mickan ◽

Rachel Wenke ◽

Kelly Weir ◽

Andrea Bialocerkowski ◽

Christy Noble

Keyword(s):

Mixed Methods ◽

Mixed Methods Research ◽

Allied Health ◽

Research Capacity ◽

Evidence Based ◽

Knowledge Brokering ◽

Programme Theory ◽

Allied Health Professionals ◽

Research Engagement

IntroductionAllied health professionals (AHPs) report positive attitudes to using research evidence in clinical practice, yet often lack time, confidence and skills to use, participate in and conduct research. A range of multifaceted strategies including education, mentoring and guidance have been implemented to increase AHPs’ use of and participation in research. Emerging evidence suggests that knowledge brokering activities have the potential to support research engagement, but it is not clear which knowledge brokering strategies are most effective and in what contexts they work best to support and maintain clinicians’ research engagement.Methods and analysisThis protocol describes an exploratory concurrent mixed methods study that is designed to understand how allied health research fellows use knowledge brokering strategies within tailored evidence-based interventions, to facilitate research engagement by allied health clinicians. Simultaneously, a realist approach will guide a systematic process evaluation of the research fellows’ pattern of use of knowledge brokering strategies within each case study to build a programme theory explaining which knowledge brokering strategies work best, in what contexts and why. Learning and behavioural theories will inform this critical explanation.Ethics and disseminationAn explanation of how locally tailored evidence-based interventions improve AHPs use of, participation in and leadership of research projects will be summarised and shared with all participating clinicians and within each case study. It is expected that local recommendations will be developed and shared with medical and nursing professionals in and beyond the health service, to facilitate building research capacity in a systematic and effective way.

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