Towards effective professional practice

Within the limited resources available for health care, it is important to ensure that health care professionals provide effective patient care to achieve the twin objectives of improvements in patient outcome and the efficient use of resources. There are two pre-requisites for effective professional practice: the identification of effective health care interventions; and the use of effective dissemination and implementation strategies to ensure the adoption of effective interventions in practice. Systematic reviews and valid guidelines represent the most efficient methods of identifying effective health care interventions. There are many different dissemination and implementation strategies; however, traditional passive dissemination methods (for example, publication in professional journals, mailing practice recommendations to health care professionals) are generally ineffective. Greater attention needs to be given to co-ordinating active dissemination and implementation strategies to ensure effective professional practice.