An empirical study of the obstacles to evidence-based practice

This paper reports a summary of results from the largest and arguably the most representative study (a) of the attitudes of professional-grade social care staff to the idea of evidence-based practice; (b) of the facilities to encourage this which are available to them (or not); and (c) of their reading habits and levels of knowledge of basic research matters. It makes suggestions for improvement but also raises some concerns regarding the current content of professional training in our field.