The current movement towards evidencebased medical practice involves integrating individual clinical expertise with the explicit and informed use of the best available external clinical evidence from a systematic review of published research, to reach decisions about the care of individual patients. The recent creation of a Centre for Evidence-Based Child Health in London, UK illustrates the in...

While most Canadian parents ensure that their children are immunized on time, some are hesitant about vaccination, delay vaccinations or outright refuse recommended vaccines. This practice point offers clinicians evidencebased guidance on how to work with vaccine-hesitant parents, especially those with safety concerns. Suggested steps include: understanding the specific parental vaccine concern...

INTRODUCTION The increased access to therapeutic information through the Internet has contributed to the increased use of Complementary or Alternative Medicine (CAM). In 1992, Congress set up the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). The National Institutes of Health (NIH) defined CAM as: “Health Care practices outside the realm of conventional medicine, which are ...

A recent cohort study carried out among outpatients in a mental health care setting showed that outpatients suffering from an anxiety disorder whose treatment adhered to the available clinical-practice guidelines had greater symptom reduction after one year, compared to patients whose treatment did not adhere to these guidelines [1]. However, some patients remain non-responsive to treatment, ev...

Background Follow-up care after completion of breast cancer treatment is important to monitor side-effects of treatment, detect recurrence, and provide holistic support. Evidencebased best practice guidelines exist to inform the approach to the follow-up following completion of active treatment. In Australia follow-up care is carried out mostly in tertiary settings by specialist clinicians. The...

Instructions: 1.2 contact hours will be awarded by Villanova University College of Nursing upon successful completion of this activity. A contact hour is a unit of measurement that denotes 60 minutes of an organized learning activity. This is a learner-based activity. Villanova University College of Nursing does not require submission of your answers to the quiz. A contact hour certificate will...

Background and context: In order to integrate knowledge derived from the best available evidencebased practice, autonomous practitioners – including physiotherapists – need to challenge their routine ways of working. Masters-level education encourages critical and independent thinking and offers a means to acquire knowledge that has the potential to improve practice. Mezirow’s transformative le...

Evidence-based HR (EBHR) is a decision-making process combining critical thinking with use of the best available scientific evidence and business information. We describe how to get started as an evidencebased HR practitioner. Actively managing professional decisions is a key aspect of EBHR. Doing so involves making decisions, especially consequential or recurring ones, using practices supporte...

351 During the last decade the evidence-based movement has spread around the world. This is a remarkable achievement. The potential positive impact of evidencebased practice and policy making is unquestionable, particularly on the quality of health care. This is for two prime reasons. First, evidence-based practice supports the ethical imperative to “do no harm.” There is now an increased proba...

R ecent data indicate that practitioners incorporate the latest medical evidence into their treatment decisions only 50% of the time, preferring to practice what they are comfortable with (Trusko, Pexton, Harrington, & Gupta, 2007). The result has been an increased spotlight on standardizing care and measuring outcomes to improve health-care quality. Quality-improvement metrics are essential fo...