Step 1 - Ask

The Centre for Evidence-based Medicine is comprehensive and has great theoretical information and practical tips on EBP.

There is a range of EBM Tools that cover each step of the EBP Process.

Of specific interest may be:

• The CEBM's own Level of Evidence System

PICO questions help you capture all the important aspects of a question. But more than that, they help you find relevant articles to answer your question, faster! This resource provides a worksheet of how to make a PICO question and directly translate that into search terms. A worked example and tips are also provided to set you on our way to providing evidence-based advice. It is in word format so you can type into the sheet to save time.

Here is a pdf copy of the slides and notes used for the first EBP Interest Group meeting conducted in October 2013 at the University of New South Wales. If you are interested in a copy of the PowerPoint slides or want to participate in the group, please contact us at eboptometry@unsw.edu.au.

This is an excellent student developed Evidence Based Healthcare (EBH) site!! http://www.students4bestevidence.net/ It is supported by the UK Cochrane Centre. Look here for general EBP information, discussion on EBP topics and lots of useful links to other EBP resources. The site also provides information and resources for each of the 5 EBP Process steps: http://www.students4bestevidence.net/categories/.

A one page resource with an overview of a) free places to search for the evidence, b) the steps involved in searching efficiently using secondary and primary resources and c) the PICO format for asking a clinical question. A great quick reference tool to print and keep for quick access to help you ask and acquire literature.

This resource is a description of an assignment I have used in a postgraduate course on Evidence-based Optometry, but which could also be used at undergraduate level or by practitioners wishing to hone their EBP skills. The assignment involves working through the first three steps of the EBP process: Ask (formulating a clinical question around a clinical scenario), Acquire (obtain research evidence to address the question) and Appraise (evaluate the evidence to find the best available evidence relevant to the clinical question).

Task name: ARVO abstracts assessment/‘Hot off the press’ task.

WHAT IS EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICE IN OPTOMETRY?

"application of knowledge to decision making in optometric practice"

EVIDENCE BASED PRACTICE (EBP):

EBP involves

Acquisition and use of:

                        Information skills