ABSTRACT
This chapter sets out what has come to be regarded as the ‘gold standard’ approach to evidence-based practice, as it is derived from medical science, pioneered by David Sackett (Sackett et al. 1996, 1997, 2000). It is concerned with demonstrating to the reader how evidence-based practice is operationalized at different levels in gathering, reviewing and disseminating research findings, with the purpose of informing policy and practice. We use case examples from current Cochrane and Campbell Collaboration reviews to familiarize the reader with what has come to be known as the ‘gold standard’ methodology. This approach is entrenched in a modernist model of science that may be appropriate for the physical sciences, but which has struggled to establish wide applicability in the social sciences, particularly when interpretivist ways of understanding human social life have been a competing influence. Bruce Thyer (2006: 36) outlines five steps involved in an evidence-based practice approach to social work:
1 Convert one’s need for information into an answerable question. 2 Track down the best clinical evidence to answer that question. 3 Critically appraise the evidence in terms of its validity, clinical significance
and usefulness. 4 Integrate this critical appraisal of research evidence with one’s clinical
expertise and patient values and circumstances. 5 Evaluate one’s effectiveness and efficiency in undertaking the four previous
steps and strive for self-improvement.
