Evidence Based Practice Tutorial

Step 5: Evaluate

What happens after the paper is written and the intervention is implemented?

• Although as a student, you may be writing an EBP paper without planning on actually implementing your intervention, outside of academia, following the EBP process will typically result in making changes to the workplace. The specifics of the intervention and the ways an evidence based plan might be implemented will of course vary for different projects, but all projects will need to be evaluated to determine if the outcome matches the outcomes in the evidence and is producing some kind of benefit for the community.
  • If there are discrepancies between the outcome you experience and the outcome you expected, it's possible more work needs to be done in Step 4: Integrate to address the needs of stakeholders. 

Longer-term evaluation

• It's also important to note that your work isn't done after the preliminary results are in that your intervention was effective. Keeping up with the research is vitally important in many fields, especially within health care, and new evidence may well emerge that some other intervention is more effective than the one you use.
• Don't be resistant to change! Advancements in some fields feel like they're impossible to keep up with, but it's vitally important that services, treatments, etc. are continually reviewed and updated in line with newer evidence. Implementing a consistent review process and setting aside dedicated time to it on a regular basis is a simple and effective way to keep on top of new developments in your field. 

6 Steps of Evidence Based Practice

Step 1: Ask Step 2: Search Step 3: Appraise Step 4: Integrate Step 5: Evaluate Step 6: Publish