Evaluating research for clinical practice. A guide for practitioners

This has been only a brief treatment of the topic, but one should note that research is an integral part of our clinical practice. If it were not for research our profession would remain static because our understanding of communicative disorders would not change. Instead, there has been a research commitment that has greatly increased our knowledge base. One only need look at the advances in assessment/treatment and the diversity in scope of practice to appreciate research. A profession well grounded in research is a profession that will continue to meet the challenges of the future. We need a strong research base to improve our services to communicatively handicapped persons, and practitioners must be active consumers of this research. The clinician and researcher share a common ground and must communicate with each other (Ringel, 1972). In practice, the speech-language pathologist needs to have a working knowledge of research, since she/he must continually deal with a variety of clinical problems. New tests and measurement procedures, treatments and other critical issues of the profession are subject to experimental scrutiny. It is up to the practitioner to critically examine an issue and then make a rational decision. Moll (1983) has indicated that rational clinical decisions are made on the basis of research and current clinical practice. There is no "cookbook" approach to utilizing research, but there are things that speech/language pathologists can do. First, one must read the literature and interpret the data. If research is to be utilized, make note of its success or lack of success.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)