PLAIN LANGUAGE SUMMARY
We found no studies that compared the effectiveness of evidence-informed practice educational interventions to evidence-based practice educational interventions in targeting undergraduate health and social care students’ knowledge, attitudes, understanding, and behavior.
The review in brief
This review aimed to compare the relative effectiveness of evidence-informed practice versus evidence-based practice educational interventions on the knowledge, attitudes, understanding, and behavior of undergraduate health and social care students. We did not find any studies that met our inclusion criteria, therefore we cannot draw any conclusions regarding the relative effectiveness of the two approaches. The evidence is current to 17 June 2019.
What is this review about?
The effective application of the best evidence into healthcare practice is strongly endorsed, alongside a growing need for healthcare organizations to ensure the delivery of services in an equitable and efficient manner. Existing evidence shows that guiding healthcare practice with the best available evidence enhances healthcare delivery, improves efficiency and ultimately improves patient outcomes. Nevertheless, there is often the ineffective and inconsistent application of evidence into healthcare practice.
The two main concepts that have been associated with the application of evidence into healthcare practice are “evidence-based practice” and “evidence-informed practice.” This review assesses the relative effectiveness of these two approaches, specifically in relation to improving knowledge, attitudes, understanding, and behavior of undergraduate health and social care students. In addition, we aimed to assess the impact of evidence-informed practice and/or evidence-based practice educational programmes on patient outcomes. Examples of patient outcome indicators that we would have assessed had eligible studies been found are: user experience, length of hospital stay, nosocomial infections, patient and health practitioner satisfaction, mortality, and morbidity rates.
What is the aim of this review?
This Campbell systematic review examines the effectiveness of evidence-informed practice and evidence-based practice educational interventions for improving knowledge, attitudes, understanding, and behavior of undergraduate health and social care students toward the application of evidence into practice.
What studies are included?
We planned to include both quantitative and qualitative studies aimed at improving knowledge, attitudes, understanding, and behavior of undergraduate pre-registration health and social care students from any geographical area. Studies whose participants were registered health and social care practitioners and postgraduate students were excluded.
We planned to include studies that were published between 1996 and June 2019. No limit was placed on the language of publication.
What are the main findings of this review?
A total of 45 full-text articles on evidence-based practice educational interventions and one full-text article on evidence-informed practice educational intervention were screened for their eligibility for inclusion. However, we identified no studies examining the relative effectiveness of evidence-informed practice versus evidence-based practice educational interventions. As a result, we are unable to answer the question as to which of the two concepts better facilitates the application of evidence into healthcare practice.
What do the findings of this review mean?
Whilst evidence suggests that evidence-informed practice can be effective (compared to a no-intervention control) in improving student outcomes, we are unable to conclude which approach better facilitates the application of evidence into practice.
How up-to-date is this review?
The review authors searched for studies published up to June 2019.