PALL8432 Understanding Literature for Evidence-Based Practice

This topic focuses on the knowledge and use of professional literature. Students will be introduced to concepts that underlie evidence and as a result 'evidence- based practice' will be demystified.

This topic aims to:

• Introduce principles and considerations of evidence-based practice in palliative care and applied gerontology
• Understand the role of literature in evidence-based practice
• Develop skills and increase confidence in dealing with evidence
• De-mystify the notion and understand the potential of evidence-based practice

1. Present different arguments and concepts of the nature of evidence
2. Outline a search approach to retrieve literature and relevant evidence in a topic of interest
3. Recognise the role of evidence-based practice in relation to change (knowledge translation and implementation) for the individual practitioner, his/her team, service or organisational system
4. Demonstrate skills in critical appraisal and understand the process of appraising in terms of relevance, applicability, strength of evidence in relation to the question (the impetus for the search)
5. Determine why evidence-based practice makes a difference in students' clinical setting
6. Compile a suite of resources in evidence-based practice to enable life-long learning