Evidence Literacy Project Aimed at Improving Skills
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“As an “evidence friendly” organization, the David Thompson Health Region (DTHR) is committed to developing and supporting research and evaluation activities,” says Roberta Dubois, Manager of the region’s Respiratory Health Services. “When our respiratory therapists identified a need to increase their skills in evidence literacy to support the development of best practice guidelines, we supported the project as a means to build their capacity. The DTHR provides additional support from the departments of Research and Evaluation, Quality Improvement and a DTHR Advisory Management Team. Long-term, it also supports the region’s recruitment and retention goals, by demonstrating a commitment to best practice.”
The resulting project used the resources and met the needs of multiple players.
SEARCH Canada works with Alberta health organizations to build capacity for evidence-based practice. Through its Custom program, the organization is making relevant courseware more widely available. Desktop-based eLiteracy modules, developed for the SEARCH Classic program by Dr. Robert Hayward at the Centre for Health Evidence (CHE) and Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, supplied the training content. The CHE also provided the specialized online learning technology required, through their VIVIDESK™ ‘Desktop’ technology.
SEARCH Canada funds Research Development Advisors through local university and college faculties to work within the regions. One RDA position is located at Red Deer College, in keeping with that organization’s applied research mandate. Dr. Scott Oddie, RDA, and his students provided on-the-ground support in mentoring respiratory therapists throughout the project. This group also leveraged the project to obtain funding from the Alberta Association of Colleges and Technical Institutes (AACTI) to determine the effects of a virtual learning and peer learning community approach in building eLiteracy capacity among health professionals.
In Phase I of the project, 11 respiratory therapist team leaders from the DTHR completed eLiteracy training, designed to increase their ability to ask, acquire, assess and appraise the evidence from the research literature. Currently, an additional 20 team members (therapists) are completing the training with mentoring support from their team leaders and members of the eLiteracy Advisory team. Following their training, the teams will begin the process of developing and implementing best practice guidelines for DTHR’s Respiratory Health Services.
The project team expects to demonstrate both an increase in respiratory therapists’ knowledge of research evidence, and also that the eLiteracy courseware is an effective means of developing these skills.
“We recently received endorsement of this curriculum and approach by the Canadian Society of Respiratory Therapists (CSRT) and the College and Association of Respiratory Therapists of Alberta (CARTA). CARTA approved the project as part of the members’ continuing competency requirements in the Advanced Continuing Educational Activities category. In this category, members earn three hours of credit for every hour they spend on the project,” says Roberta. “Both agencies are interested in the project with an eye to the future and its outcomes, which have implications for all members in advancing the practice of Respiratory Health Service.”
In the next phase of the project, each team’s goal will be to implement clinical practice guidelines. Individual teams are focused in one of seven identified areas of practice: ventilation management, airway management, neonatal/infant pediatric care, chronic disease management, continuing care, sleep/CPAP, and professional development/ continuing competency.