Percepção dos estudantes do curso de fisioterapia sobre a prática baseada em evidências

Abstract

Introduction: Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) has advanced in recent years as a professional tool, has generated a great acceptance in the health professions and generated changes in the learning base even though there is insufficient knowledge about attitudes, behaviors, and practices about EBP. Objective: To evaluate the knowledge and barriers of students in the last year of the Physiotherapy course of the Federal University of Paraíba in relation to evidence-based practice. Materials and Methods: A cross sectional observational study that included about 34 physiotherapy students enrolled in the last year of the course (9th and 10th period). Students from the last year of the Physiotherapy course of UFPB, aged over 18 years, of both sexes and who agree with the Informed Consent. The exclusion criterion fell on the inadequate completion of the form. The form consists of a questionnaire containing personal information, questions associated with the relevance of EPB, terminologies, confidence in skills related to EBE, barriers faced and how they became aware of the EPB. The personal information extracted were: gender, age and period enrolled. The questionnaire is formulated with Likert scale responses (1 to 5 points). For the analysis of the questions, the Average Ranking (RM) was performed to measure the degree of agreement/understanding/confidence of the evaluated questions. Results: Of the 34 students who answered, 29 (85.3%) were female. The mean age of the students was 24.91 ± 3.21 years. The mean of Average Ranking (AR) on the item "relevance" was 4.34±0.80. Regarding the understanding of terminologies, the mean AR was 2.94±0.61. The level of confidence regarding the practical skills in research and EPP of the students was considered low (mean of AR = 1.97±0.02). The biggest barriers pointed out were the lack of knowledge in statistics (41%), followed by lack of time and non-mastery of the foreign language (38%) and lack of stimulus (29%). Conclusion: The present study observed that the students of the last year of Physiotherapy at UFPB understand the magnitude of EBP, however, they presented little understanding about terminologies and practical skills in research, which can impair the development, self-confidence and applicability of a service based on strong scientific evidence. Some barriers were identified that prevent students from applying EBE and end up bringing insecurity in their practices