Introduction: Evidence based practice is essentially a way for clinicians to make decisions about the care of an individual by integrating their own clinical experience and knowledge with the best available clinical evidence. In palliative care, like other areas of healthcare, the evidence base for clinical practice is ever expanding at a rate which challenges clinicians to keep across. Through the National Palliative Care Program, the Australian Government has funded CareSearch and palliAGED to provide access to evidence and trustworthy resources to help with this.
Aims: Our aim is to demonstrate how to optimally use the CareSearch resource to incorporate new evidence into practice, guideline development, protocols and policies.
Approach: Identifying evidence that is of high quality and useful to the clinical environment requires the ability to search appropriate databases, appraise the quality of the research and assess its utility to current clinical practice. This presentation will provide examples of how a someone working as a clinician, guideline developer, or policy maker might work through the CareSearch and palliAGED websites to find resources to assist in their evidence-based practice needs. The interactive demonstration will highlight shortcuts for busy clinicians to find the information they need for updated symptom management approaches and will provide tips for educators and managers who require resources to improve the uptake of evidence in their clinical environment.
Conclusion: CareSearch is the only Australian-based service providing access to evidence-based information and resources in palliative care. This is achieved through two websites, CareSearch and palliAGED, each providing evidence syntheses across a range of topics and respectively relevant either across the life course or to the care of older people. By providing access to relevant evidence health care professionals are able to use this resource to improve their practice and the outcomes for people with palliative care needs.