Incorporating Evidence in Clinical Education; Barriers and Opportunities in Allied Health

Clinical education is a key component of health professional education. Clinical educators, like clinicians, are increasingly expected to access and apply evidence from clinical education theories to inform their teaching methods and approaches. Purpose: This study evaluated personal and organizational factors that influenced the ability to access and apply clinical education research evidence into clinical teaching in a group of allied health practitioners at one large metropolitan hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Method: A Cross-sectional survey based on a previously published survey of clinical physiotherapists was custom-designed to examine the factors that influence evidence based practices (EBP) of a range of allied health clinicians working as clinical educators in the hospital setting. Results: The majority of respondents were aware of the importance of evidence-based practice to their work as clinical educators. However, their positive beliefs about the value of EBP were moderated by four inhibiting factors: moderate levels of self-efficacy in accessing and applying clinical education evidence; low levels of self-efficacy in interpreting research data; uncertainty with respect to who is responsible for searching, and critically appraising research evidence; and lack of time and organisational priority for such activities. Conclusions: These results highlight a combination of factors, both intrinsic (skills of the educator) and extrinsic (organisational), that impact on the effective application and integration of evidence from the literature to inform clinical education practices. They also provide directions for increasing the use of EBP for clinical educators, including creating clinical education and workplace cultures that value and promote critical appraisal of EBP in everyday clinical education practice and the need for ongoing professional development opportunities in EBP.