Knowledge, attitude and practice towards evidence based practice among clinical physical therapists of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Abstract

Introduction: Evidence Based Practice (EBP) constitutes of clinical skills, patients values and high-quality clinical research for decision-making in-patient care. EBP provide better use of resources for improving the emerging questions in clinical setup hence improving the effectiveness of the treatment. The physical therapists and physical therapist assistants shall provide services which increase patients care and hence improve quality of life.

Materials and Methods: The research design for this study was cross sectional survey and was conducted in tertiary health care hospitals of Peshawar and district hospitals of KPK. The duration of this study was 6 months: from September 2018 to February 2019. Census sampling was performed, and 103 participants were screened. Inclusion criteria was applied, and 96 participants were included in the research. Inclusion criteria for this survey was clinical physical therapists having at least one-year clinical experience and decline consent was excluded from this survey. The questionnaire we used in the study was modified APTA standard Questionnaire.

Results: The respondents' characteristics of 80 participants shows that more than half were male 47(58.8%) and the remaining were females 33(41.3%). Respondents held positive attitude and beliefs regarding EBP application with a majority of 35(43.8%) strongly agreed while 6(7.5%) PT's strongly disagreed. The most common barrier reported by 49 (61.3%) respondents was inability to apply research findings to individual patient with unique characteristics.

Conclusion: Clinical physical therapists of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have positive attitude towards EBP. Majority of the respondents showed an interest in adopting evidence-based practice in their clinical setups and also claimed that evidence-based practice is necessary for daily clinical practice.