An Exploration of Perceived Barriers to Evidence-Based Practice among Physiotherapy Students during Clinical Placement—A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study
Introduction: Teaching evidence-based practice (EBP) has become part of the standard
curriculum for health care students and professionals. Teaching EBP skills
should be emphasized in entry level physiotherapy education as physiotherapists
are expected to practice in an evidence-based way. Identifying barriers to the
application of EBP in clinical placement plays an important role in developing
physiotherapy programs. The present study aimed to explore physiotherapy
students’ perceived barriers toward the use of EBP during their clinical placements. Methods: A
cross-sectional study was conducted among third-year physiotherapy
students at the Faculty of Health Sciences University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Participants were asked to complete a self-reported
questionnaire that was developed by the researcher based on previously
developed surveys. The analyses applied included descriptive statistics and
calculation of frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations of the
participating students’ scores. Results: Fifty final-year undergraduate
students with a mean age of 23.7 (±4.3, range 23 - 27) years participated in
the study. Majority of participants reported lack of formal training, poor
ability to critically appraise research evidence, insufficient time, their clinical
supervisors, or other therapists not using EBP when treating patients as
barriers towards practicing EBP. Conclusions: Physiotherapy students
face many challenges in terms of training, organizational, and personal
barriers toward the use of EBP during clinical placement. Lack of formal
training, lack of research skills, insufficient time and their clinical
supervisors or other therapists not using EBP when treating patients, emerged as top barriers. This fact underlines the importance
of teaching students EBP skills, which would enable them to use EBP when
working with patients.
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