Intentions to Engage in Evidence-Based Practice among Undergraduate Social Work Students: Preliminary Findings from Romania

Abstract

Knowledge and familiarity of evidence-based practice (EBP) is a key competence to social workers entering the workforce. The literature review revealed no studies on Romanian graduates that have measured the beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors students have about EBP in the final semester of their bachelor's of social work (BSW) degree program. A sample of 89 students drawn from one public school in Romania completed the instrument. The questionnaire included measures of familiarity, attitudes, feasibility, and intentions for future use as well as demographic information. Overall, students are familiar with EBP steps and principles and have quite positive attitudes. However, only familiarity significantly predicts their intentions to engage in the EBP process upon graduation. Attitude does not contribute to the regression equation, meaning that these are not yet consolidated. These results indicate a need for attention to teaching EBP in BSW programs. To provide optimal care, practitioners must be able to locate, interpret, and apply current best evidence to a given social problem.

Norwegian Social Work and Child Welfare Students’ Attitudes Toward Research-Supported Treatments

“…Previous research demonstrates that most social workers are positive toward EBP, although a minority report that they are critical or skeptical toward the concept (Bergmark & Lundström, 2011;Heiwe et al, 2013;Iovu, 2015;Iovu et al, 2015;James et al, 2019;Van Der Zwet et al, 2016;Wilson & Douglas, 2007). Similar results have been found among social work students (Iovu, 2015;Parrish & Rubin, 2012).…”

“…Previous research demonstrates that most social workers are positive toward EBP, although a minority report that they are critical or skeptical toward the concept (Bergmark & Lundström, 2011;Heiwe et al, 2013;Iovu, 2015;Iovu et al, 2015;James et al, 2019;Van Der Zwet et al, 2016;Wilson & Douglas, 2007). Similar results have been found among social work students (Iovu, 2015;Parrish & Rubin, 2012). Although a majority of social workers demonstrate positive attitudes toward EBP, unfamiliarity and confusion surrounding the concept still persist (Avby et al, 2014;Bergmark & Lundström, 2011;Ekeland et al, 2018;Grady et al, 2018;James et al, 2019;Wilson & Douglas, 2007).…”

Undergraduate Health Students’ Intention to Use Evidence‐Based Practice After Graduation: A Systematic Review of Predictive Modeling Studies

“…Two of the three papers (Brown et al, ; Iovu, ) reported significant Pearson's Product Moment bivariate correlations between independent and dependent variables of EBP future use and intention to use EBP, prior to model development, whereas the third study (Forsman et al., ) reported Pearson's correlations between the intention to use research evidence as a dependent variable and the outcome variable of research use 1‐year postgraduation. Correlations as reported are presented in Table S4.…”

“…After a systematic search and selection process, only three papers were included in the review (Brown, Kim, Stichler, & Fields, ; Forsman, Wallin, Gustavsson, & Rudman, ; Iovu, ). Details of the search and selection process are reported in the PRISMA flowchart (Moher, Liberati, Tetzlaff, Altman, & The PRISMA Group, ), as shown in Figure .…”

“…The study by Iovu () presented with the highest model variance (22%) with results suggesting that students with a more positive attitude toward EBP and greater familiarity with the EBP process have a greater intention to use EBP after they graduate. The medium to large effect size (Cohen, ; Iovu, ) is encouraging, however, the study had higher risk of bias than the other papers and therefore must be considered in context. A clearer definition of EBP familiarity as well as clarification of actual items used would strengthen overall findings as it may be feasible that EBP knowledge has greater influence in this construct than is currently represented.…”