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JCPSLP Volume 14, Number 1 2012 41
Jade Cartwright Jade Cartwright is a speech pathologist and
lecturer at Curtin University. She is also completing her PhD through
the University of Western Australia in the area of primary progressive
aphasia.
Correspondence to:
Jade Cartwright, CPSP
School of Psychology and Speech Pathology
Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin University
GPO Box U1987
Perth, WA, 6845
phone: +61 (0)8 9266 3039
email:
of local need. At the front line, clinicians know the practical
limitations of a body of evidence and have a responsibility
to engage in reflective practice to help identify targets for
translational research and creation of new knowledge.
When research aligns with local need, as a field we have
much greater potential to solve prominent clinical problems
in innovative and applied ways (Small, 2005). Active
dialogue between researchers and clinicians helps to
enhance political consciousness and drive policy change
(Small, 2005) and the Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-
Language Pathology provides an ideal forum for this
exchange of information, fostering greater collaborations in
real-world contexts, and sharing the outcomes of
theoretically driven KTA interventions.
Conclusion
This column of “What’s the evidence?” set out to explore
the evidence for evidence translation to address a common
clinical scenario where clinician knowledge fails to be
translated into action. While the clinical scenario was not
addressed directly, the articles reviewed provide clinicians
with useful strategies for confidently and proactively
targeting KTA gaps in practice. Of importance, the review
suggests that a unique skill set is required to translate
research findings into practice. That is, a commitment to
EBP isn’t enough and clinicians that endorse EBP must go
further, forging a strong allegiance to “evidence translation”.
Clinicians should get to know and draw upon KTE models
to plan, implement and evaluate translation projects. There
is a paucity of research that has systematically addressed
KTA gaps and evaluated KTE strategies in the speech
pathology field; however, the literature available does
suggest that such projects hold great promise for changing
practice and driving policy change. Clinicians and
researchers alike have a professional responsibility to
contribute to this body of evidence, ideally in collaboration.
“Practice-friendly dissemination” and sharing of
implementation projects are important to showcase
innovative ways of addressing translation and the inherent
barriers to change. The Journal of Clinical Practice in
Speech-Language Pathology will continue to provide an
excellent forum for sharing such quality improvement and
translation initiatives and their clinical and systems-level
outcomes. To conclude with the words of Nan Bernstein-
Ratner (2006): “Evidence is only helpful to professionals if
health service providers seek it out, understand it, and
apply it” (p. 265).
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pdf
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