Final answer:
EBP in therapy practice should integrate clinical expertise, patient values, and research evidence, employing a balanced decision-making approach. Embracing community-engaged research with a CBPR approach can enhance patient empowerment and contextual relevance. Adopting epistemic humility is important for the continual evaluation of evidence in practice.
Step-by-step explanation:
The three properties of Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) should affect our practice as therapists by integrating clinical expertise, patient values, and research evidence. This translates to using the best available research evidence, while also considering clinical expertise and incorporating patient preferences and values into the decision-making process. Therapists should not prioritize research evidence over clinical experience to the exclusion of other factors, disregard patient values or rely solely on clinical experience. Instead, EBP encourages a balanced approach that considers multiple aspects of patient care.
When making decisions for patient care, therapists should ensure that they are not influenced by outside sources that may claim scientific evidence without proper backing or by unverified information from the internet and advertising campaigns. It is also crucial for therapists involved in community-engaged research to adopt a Community-Based Participatory Research approach, which values trust, dialogue, and community capacity-building. Involving patients as co-researchers can empower them and support their needs more effectively, taking into account the cultural context and the potential for transformative change.
Furthermore, the adoption of a stance of epistemic humility should be encouraged, which acknowledges the limitations of our knowledge and the necessity of continually questioning and evaluating the evidence base for our practices. Testing hypotheses, synthesizing a range of evidence, and presenting findings responsibly are all part of a robust research process in medicine and therapy practices.