Introduction
Evidence based practice is becoming very popular all over the world today. This follows the ever rising cases of chronic diseases and the practitioners who are ever joining the field. The practitioners’ competence and skill is also very commendable. Greenhalgh T. (2006 p98), says that “In every year, two thirds of the cases go for alternative medication.” This could be very true following the changing health trends.
Results
In the year 2004-2005, one hundred and ninety three cases were interviewed. The result was distributed among health professionals, young children, and the elderly and other professionals who had no knowledge in the medical field. Eighty seven percent of the practitioners admitted being inadequately. But this high percentage still attends to the ever increasing number of the cases that require their attention. Sixty two percent admitted finding themselves in the field without undergoing any training. There also emerged beliefs and a strong pull between practitioners and allied parties.
Analysis
Different fields of practice influenced the results depending on the area of study and professionalism. This could be self explanatory however; much more issues arise when analyzing the result. This could though give the allied parties a voice and need to demand for the training of alternative medicine practitioners just like they do.
Method
To become successful in the evidence research, questioners were used in the justification of evidence based practice. “These were to evaluate the allied health care professionals and practitioners’ basic knowledge, skills and beliefs concerning the main principles of evidence based practice.” Lewith, G (2001 p 66).
Reliability of the Research
The research can be said to be a success but critically, it really did not bring out the evidence. Out of the respondents, almost two thirds of the respondents complained of insufficient time to use the evidence based practice. Lack of resources also was a challenge that forty percent complained of as a barrier. In research it is required to have sufficient research materials to help in come up with quality research.
Skills to analyze the research also were very limited as nobody could analyze the statistics and come up with proper analysis. Other problems associated with research could be possibly lack of unity among the researches in carrying out and analyzing the research. Finally it could also be a challenge of inability to appraise the evidence based practice. “The researchers must have also lost the morale to keep up carrying on the research because of the same result! This led to monotony and premature drawing of conclusion.” Polar S. and Thomas S. A. (2008 P 341).
Recommendations
Due to the fact that respondents acted positively towards the evidence based practice, it is only because majority of them were young children and elderly people who might have not been keen or just responded without taking much interest. However, the minority of the respondents: who were of the middle age, responded in a negative manner. It is therefore recommended that the research be distributed equally among the sample population. Peters M. (2005 P 423-426) and Kane, M. (2004 P 67) recommend that the research could be of more value if the research could be carried out in a more modern way, she says;
“It was therefore recommended that the Universities Commission and the Medical Rehabilitation Therapists’ Registration Board should ensure the inclusion of evidence based practice into undergraduate physiotherapy curricula in the world as this will provide the baseline knowledge needed for the implementation of evidence based practice. Also emphasis should be placed on ensuring a regular publication and wide circulation of the professional journals on physiotherapy. A potential limitation to this study is the small sample size of the respondents. This is due to the fact that as at the time of this study.”
It is therefore recommended that the sample be large enough to gather the information that cannot be biased. It should also be balanced to cater age and gender.
References
Greenhalgh, T., 2006, How to read a paper: the basics of evidence based medicine. 3rd edn, Blackwell: Australia.
Kane, M., 2004, Research Made Easy in Complementary & Alternative Medicine, Sydney: Churchill Livingstone.
Lewith G. Jones, WB and Walach H., (eds) 2001. Clinical Research in Complementary Therapies: Principles, problems and solution, Edinburgh: Churchill Livingston.
Peters M., 2005. Research analysis of evidence based med. EPM publishers: Nairobi.
Polar S. and Thomas S. A., 2008. Introduction to Research in the Health Sciences, 5th ed, Churchill Livingstone: Elsevier.