Research Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices and Barriers Among Paediatric Occupational Therapists in the United Kingdom (Report‪)‬

Introduction The practice approaches implemented by health professionals are informed by evidence-based knowledge, whereby evidence-based practice and research utilisation enable clinicians to provide high quality care for clients: they remain current with health care trends and improve client care outcomes and health care efficiencies (Law and Baum 1998, Brown and Roger 1999a, Gray 2004, Taylor 2007). However, the use of evidence-based practice and research utilisation is not well developed among therapists who work with children and families, and there continue to be significant knowledge gaps within the occupational therapy profession (Waine et al 1997, Dobbins et al 1998, Brown and Rodger 1999b, Bannigan and Bryar 2002, McCluskey and Cusick 2002). In order to ensure that children and families receive the best and most current care available, an understanding of paediatric occupational therapists' use of evidence-based practice and research utilisation is valuable. This paper outlines the results of a study investigating the knowledge, attitudes, practices and barriers to evidence-based practice and research utilisation of a group of children's occupational therapists in the United Kingdom (UK).