Planning and Implementing Evidence Based Practice

Reseach design should address many areas, including: why you are conducting the intervention program, what outcomes you predict or wish to see from the intervention, how you will measure these outcomes, how you will ensure independence of results, what you want to explore or know about your intervention and its effectiveness.

Any outcomes from your research should at the very least be measurable. For example, how do you measure an outcome such as: 'Children in the target families will have reduced stress'? You will find information in this section of the COPMI website that addresses how a research design can measure such an outcome so that hard, quantitative and qualitative data can be gathered.

Any findings that are able to be reproduced by independent researchers will bear far greater weight and be far more compelling than a one-off finding, which may have unseen flaws or biases. If you use good research principles when planning your intervention, you will allow for other researchers to reproduce your findings.

Research findings that last across a period of time will also be more compelling. Follow-up work or research can add evidence to the longevity of your findings.

You may not be able to incorporate all of these features into your programs or interventions, but you should keep them in mind when planning and implementing an intervention that you intend to be evidence based, or intend to gather evidence from.