Translating Evidence into Practice: An
Experience with Interprofessional
Education (IPE)
Dawn Prentice and Jenn Salfi
Abstract The importance of knowing how to translate knowledge into practice is
key for practitioners in clinical settings. The aims of this chapter are: (1) to understand the importance of knowledge translation in the practice setting, (2) to describe
the facilitators and barriers to knowledge translation for practitioners, and (3) to
provide examples of how knowledge translation was used in an interprofessional
education teaching unit.
Keywords Knowledge translation · Interprofessional education
1 Introduction
Today’s health care environment is complex with health care services being offered
across the continuum ranging from birth to end-of-life care. Inherent in the complexities of the services rendered, is the need for health care professionals to provide
quality care based on available evidence, to achieve the best possible outcome.
Given the wide availability of information sources, providing evidence-based care
is possible, however, discerning the best sources of evidence and knowing how to
integrate the findings into practice is the challenge.
2 Knowledge Translation
Discussion about integrating evidence into practice or knowledge translation as it
is also known has been around for more than two decades. The Canadian Institutes of
Health Research (2016) offers one definition of knowledge translation:
D. Prentice (*) · J. Salfi
Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, Canada
e-mail: dprentice@brocku.ca; jsalfi@brocku.ca
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
H. Matsushita (ed.), Health Informatics, Translational Systems Sciences 24,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3781-3_7
127
Experience with Interprofessional
Education (IPE)
Dawn Prentice and Jenn Salfi
Abstract The importance of knowing how to translate knowledge into practice is
key for practitioners in clinical settings. The aims of this chapter are: (1) to understand the importance of knowledge translation in the practice setting, (2) to describe
the facilitators and barriers to knowledge translation for practitioners, and (3) to
provide examples of how knowledge translation was used in an interprofessional
education teaching unit.
Keywords Knowledge translation · Interprofessional education
1 Introduction
Today’s health care environment is complex with health care services being offered
across the continuum ranging from birth to end-of-life care. Inherent in the complexities of the services rendered, is the need for health care professionals to provide
quality care based on available evidence, to achieve the best possible outcome.
Given the wide availability of information sources, providing evidence-based care
is possible, however, discerning the best sources of evidence and knowing how to
integrate the findings into practice is the challenge.
2 Knowledge Translation
Discussion about integrating evidence into practice or knowledge translation as it
is also known has been around for more than two decades. The Canadian Institutes of
Health Research (2016) offers one definition of knowledge translation:
D. Prentice (*) · J. Salfi
Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, Brock University, St. Catharines, ON, Canada
e-mail: dprentice@brocku.ca; jsalfi@brocku.ca
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
H. Matsushita (ed.), Health Informatics, Translational Systems Sciences 24,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3781-3_7
127