Evidence-based Practice Confidence and Behavior Throughout the Curriculum of Four Physical Therapy Education Programs: A Longitudinal Study

Introduction Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a foundational process taught in health professional education, yet it is unclear when EBP confidence and skills are obtained.

Review of Literature Increases in EBP confidence and behaviors from the start of physical therapy programs to post graduation have been reported in studies that evaluated a single program or used non-valid questionnaires. This study aimed to describe changes in EBP confidence and behavior of students from four physical therapy education programs throughout their curriculum.

Subjects Two hundred sixty-nine physical therapy students were recruited across 4 PT programs (3 in US and 1 in Canada).

Methods Students completed the Evidence-Based Practice Confidence (EPIC) Scale and the Evidence-Based Practice Implementation Scale (EBPIS) at 6 timepoints: start of the program, prior to first clinical experience, after first clinical experience, at the end of classroom instruction, graduation, and one year post. Medians (Mdn) and 25th and 75th percentiles (P25, P75) were calculated for 42 (23.2%) students with complete data across all timepoints. Change between timepoints was assessed using Friedman's test and Wilcoxon signed rank test with a Bonferroni correction for post hoc analysis.