Evidence-Based Practice
Evidence-Based Practice brings together clinical expertise, evidence and client perspectives to make decisions about the care and treatment of individuals.
When discussing how to apply evidence-based practice to a clinical practice, ASHA outlines the following steps:
- Frame your clinical question
- Gather evidence
- Assess the evidence
- Make your clinical decision
For more from ASHA on evidence-based practice, see their Evidence-Based Practice page.
Ebook
Clinical Research Methods in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology by ISBN: 9781635501025Publication Date: 2018-12-15Now in its third edition, Clinical Research Methods in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology is a valuable and comprehensive resource for understanding and conducting clinical research in communication sciences and disorders.
Your Librarian
Purdy Library
katrina.rouan@wayne.edu
Framing Your Clinical Question
To help keep your question focused and relevant, try using the PICO framework:
- Population - How are you defining the group? What are their characteristics? Consider diagnosis, age, severity, etc.
- Intervention - What treatment, screening, assessment, etc. are you considering?
- Comparison - What is your main alternative to the intervention? (sometimes there isn't one)
- Outcome - What do you want to improve, measure, achieve?
Before gathering evidence, consider additional/alternative keywords for each part of your PICO question.
Levels of Evidence
From the Penn State University Libraries ScholarSphere: https://scholarsphere.psu.edu/resources/d3368641-dc10-4d6c-bf72-4ac8dec7eb96
Evaluating Intervention Evidence In Hudson, M.W., and DeReuiter, M. (2021). Professional Issues in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, Fifth Edition. Plural Publishing, Inc.
Table 7-7 Levels of Evidence for Intervention Research In Nelson, Lauren K., and Gilbers, J. L. (2021). Research in Communication Sciences and Disorders: Methods for Systematic Inquiry, Fourth Edition. Plural Publishing, Inc.
Databases that Contain Evidence-Based Studies
- PubMed@Wayne This link opens in a new windowPubMed is a project developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine (NLM), located at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)--Overview. NLM's search service to access the 9 million citations in MEDLINE and Pre-MEDLINE (with links to participating on-line journals), and other related databases --Home page.
- Cochrane Library This link opens in a new windowConsists chiefly of 7 databases: Cochrane database of systematic reviews Database of abstracts of reviews of effectiveness (DARE) Cochrane central register of controlled trials (CENTRAL) Cochrane database of methodology reviews Cochrane methodology register Health technology assessment database (HTA) and NHS Economic evaluation database (NHS EED).
- CINAHL Complete This link opens in a new windowCINAHL Complete is a comprehensive source of full text for nursing & allied health journals, providing full text for more than 750 journals indexed in CINAHL. This authoritative file contains full text for many of the most used journals in the CINAHL index with no embargo. CINAHL Complete is the definitive research tool for all areas of nursing and allied health literature.
- Scopus This link opens in a new window"Scopus is the world's largest abstracts database of 13,450 titles from more than 4,000 international publishers with access to over 25 million abstracts (going back to 1966)." Full-text is included for some citations.
- ClinicalKey This link opens in a new windowFull text access to select health science textbooks, journals, procedural videos, clinical practice guidelines, drug information, patient handouts, and CME materials with particular emphasis on medicine and surgery.
Other Sources of Evidence-Based Research
- ASHA Evidence MapsA searchable online tool designed to assist clinicians with making evidence-based decisions.
- speechBITESpeech Pathology Database for Best Interventions and Treatment Efficacy (speechBITE), started by speech pathologists at the University of Sydney, is a free database of intervention studies across the scope of speech pathology practice.
Evidence-Based Journal
- Evidence-Based Communication Assessment and InterventionEBCAI is a journal with the specific goal of promoting evidence-based practice in working with individuals with communication disorders.
Note: Articles published within the last 15 months will need to be requested via Interlibrary Loan.