A pre-post evaluation of a knowledge translation capacity-building intervention

Area of Science:

• Health Professions Education
• Implementation Science
• Clinical Practice Improvement

Background:

• Knowledge Translation (KT) aims to bridge the gap between research findings and clinical practice.
• Limited research exists on effective methods for building clinicians' capacity in KT.
• This study addresses the need to understand how to enhance clinicians' ability to utilize research in practice.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of a multifaceted KT capacity-building intervention on occupational therapy clinicians.
• To understand the barriers and enablers influencing clinicians' adoption of KT.
• To identify strategies that facilitate the use of KT in clinical settings.

Main Methods:

• A pre-post study design was employed with 46 occupational therapy clinicians.
• A customized questionnaire, guided by the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF), assessed KT behaviors, barriers, and enablers at baseline and 18 months.
• Statistical analyses included McNemar's and Wilcoxon signed rank tests for matched data.

Main Results:

• Participants reported reading more clinical guidelines and using more strategies to implement recommended practices (P=0.006).
• Significant improvements were observed in multiple TDF domains, including knowledge, environmental context, skills, and decision processes.
• Key barriers at baseline related to attention, knowledge, and resources, while enablers involved social influence and beliefs about consequences.

Conclusions:

• The KT intervention positively impacted clinician behaviors and perceptions of barriers across six TDF domains.
• Clinicians reported enhanced understanding and confidence in KT, with a cultural shift towards integrating KT into practice.
• Teamwork, dedicated staff, mentoring, leadership support, and training were identified as useful strategies for KT capacity building.