Librarians and occupational therapy faculty: a collaboration for teaching evidence-based practice.

Area of Science:

• Health Sciences
• Information Science
• Occupational Therapy Education

Background:

• Practitioners often struggle to consistently apply evidence-based practice (EBP) skills learned in allied health programs.
• Key barriers to EBP implementation include time constraints and skill deficits among healthcare professionals.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe how librarians can teach information literacy skills to occupational therapy (OT) students.
• To strengthen OT students' knowledge and application of EBP.
• To evaluate student and librarian perceptions of a collaborative learning experience.

Main Methods:

• A descriptive study involving 63 graduate OT students at UT Health Science Center San Antonio.
• Students engaged in didactic learning about EBP with faculty and librarians.
• Students conducted literature searches for intervention questions, receiving librarian feedback, and applied skills to a chosen intervention.

Main Results:

• Both students and librarians highly rated the learning experiences.
• Students reported improved effectiveness in carrying out EBP.
• Librarians found value in teaching information literacy within the OT curriculum.

Conclusions:

• Librarian-led instruction effectively enhances EBP skills in OT students.
• Collaborative teaching models between librarians and faculty are beneficial for allied health education.
• Recommendations include utilizing journal clubs and secondary literature to promote workplace EBP.