Clinical Assessment Tools: Evidence Based Practice (EBP) Competency Assessment

Evidence Based Practice (EBP) Competency Assessment


 * Evidence based practice (EBP) involves making clinical decisions informed by the most relevant and valid evidence available.


 * EBP has been described as the integration of clinical expertise and patient values with the best available research evidence.
 * Clinical expertise draws on the health professional's clinical skills and past experience to identify and treat each patient's individual circumstance.

EBP requires the health professional to apply the best available evidence to assist with their clinical decision making. The practice of EBP consists of the following key steps;


 * 1) Converting clinical scenarios into a structured answerable question,
 * 2) Searching the literature to identify the best available evidence to answer the question,
 * 3) Critically appraising the evidence for its validity and applicability, and
 * 4) Applying the results of the appraisal into clinical practice
 * 5) Evaluation/assessment of the EBP process.

Each step of the EBP process requires a different level of knowledge and skill (i.e. competence):

Step 1 requires knowledge to construct a question using the PICO mnemonic,

Step 2 requires the acquisition and application of literature searching skills across a variety of databases,

Step 3 requires a certain level of expertise in epidemiology and biostatistics, and

Step 4 requires an ability to synthesise and communicate the results to relevant parties (i.e. health professionals, patients).

Step 5 requires the health professional to evaluate the EBP process and assess its impact within the clinical context in which it was implemented.