Further questions concerned the sources that practitioners used to
inform their own decision-making (Figure 1). The leading sources were
‘internal policy documents’ and ‘government websites’ (89% and 86%
respectively). Fewer (39%) reported the direct use of online academic
journals. Staff on higher grades were more likely to report using online
academic journals than those in non-registered professional groups (54%
compared to 22%, p < .001).
[CHART]
Figure 1: Sources used to inform practitioners’ own
decision-making. Multiple choices permitted. n=229
Confidence regarding literature searching, use of evidence,
and critical
appraisal
Those respondents who stated that they were familiar with literature
searching and critical appraisal were asked to rate their confidence in
three areas. Following the convention of Gray et al. (2014), where 3
represents the scoring standard for an ‘adequate’ level of confidence,
Table 5 shows that across all self-report measures the mean scores fell
below adequate. Compared to non-registered professional staff, staff on
higher grades reported greater levels of confidence, however the mean
continued to be under 3 for each of the three scales.