Introduction

These modules are a guide to the UWA approach to answering clinical questions, an evidence based practice approach.

This book, Answering Clinical Questions (ACQ), is being published in scheduled releases. Modules 1 and 2 are complete, published here February 2025. Modules 3 and 4 are forthcoming.

Reasons for using Evidence Based Practice (EBP)

1. Health care knowledge grows so rapidly that you will be out of date by the time you ‘memorise the textbook’.
2. Health care knowledge is now too vast to keep up to date with all the key publications, even in your field.
3. Today’s information environment allows you to get information ‘just in time’ rather than ‘just in case’.
4. EBP allows you to individualise the information for your patient’s situation.
5. EBP teaches you to integrate the best available information with clinical expertise, patient values, and your health care environment.
6. EBP helps you to challenge dogma and avoids uncritical acceptance of ‘usual practice’.
7. EBP can be simple, quick, and will give you skills for lifelong learning and up to date practice.

Tips for using Evidence Based Practice (EBP)

• Uncritical acceptance of ‘usual practice’ can be overcome by learning to question dogma.
• Practice recognising and asking clinical questions.
• This book, Answering Clinical Questions (ACQ), will teach you EBP skills and assist you to understand the resources available, to be able to find answers quickly and effectively.
• To avoid applying the right answer to the wrong patient, remember that the final step in EBP is to consider the individual patient, their values, and your practice setting.
• Finally – explain, teach and model EBP approach in your practice to help colleagues learn and support an EBP approach.

Reference:

Sackett DL, Rosenberg WM, Gray JA, Haynes RB, Richardson WS (1996) Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn’t. British Medical Journal 312, 7023: 71-2