Your Evidence-Informed Practice

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Discussion 2: Your Evidence-Informed Practice

Think back to Week 1 in which you identified the research skills you wanted to strengthen in this course. In what ways have you practiced, refined, or honed those skills? How has your knowledge of evaluation grown? And have your own intended outcomes been achieved? To remain an evidence-informed practitioner, you must continue to use what you have gained throughout this course. Research knowledge and skills are like muscles—if you do not use them, they will atrophy. You have an ethical obligation as a social worker to exercise and flex those muscles and to stay current in practice trends and research.

In this final Discussion, you reflect and self-evaluate your work in this course and how you might apply it going forward as an evidence-informed practitioner.

To Prepare

Reflect on your growth and on the specific knowledge and skills you have gained through this class. How might the knowledge apply to your future social work practice, and how might you share it with others in the work setting?

Review the websites in the Learning Resources that provide opportunities for remaining current and engaged as an evidence-informed practitioner. Consider which strategies you will use to stay up to date on evidence-based interventions and programs.

By Day 4

Post an analysis of what you have learned in this class. In your analysis:

Identify the specific knowledge and skills you have gained and how you intend to apply them in your agency or future work.

Consider how you might share your new knowledge with colleagues.

Identify strategies that you will use to remain current as an evidence-informed practitioner in your area of interest.

By Day 7

Respond to at least two colleagues by doing the following:

Note similarities and differences between how you and your colleague intend to apply knowledge in your agency or future work.

Identify an additional strategy your colleague could use to remain current as an evidence-informed practitioner in their area of interest.