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Physical Therapist Assistant

This guide lists various library and online resources relevant to Physical Therapist Assistant courses.

Evidence based practice

is the "integration of the best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values."
(Sackett, Strauss, Richardson, et al., as cited in Maher, Sherrington, Elkins, Herbert, & Mosely, 2004, Challenges for evidence-based physical therapy: Accessing and interpreting high-quality evidence on therapy, p. 645)

Evidence Based Practice Pyramid  Evidence increases in quality as you go up the pyramid.

Systematic Reviews and Clinical Practice Guidelines

  • PEDro: Physiotherapy Evidence Database: Clinical practice guidelines, randomized controlled trials, and systematic reviews relating to physiotherapy.
  • PubMed: Limit your search to the subset "Systematic Reviews"
  • Medline: Check the box for "EBM Reviews"  under the search options
  • CINAHL: Cumulative Index to Nursing & Allied Health Literature
  • Limit your search to Publication Type "Systematic Review"
  • TRIP Database: Turning Research Into Practice
  • Searches multiple databases/websites for evidence-based research.

 

Further Reading
Maher, C. G., Sherrington, C., Elkins, M., Herbert, R. D., & Mosley, A. M. (2004). Challenges for evidence-based physical therapy: Accessing and interpreting high-quality evidence on therapy. Physical Therapy, 84(7), 644-654.