• Åsa Snöljung and Lena-Karin Gustafsson.
• School of Health, Care and Social Welfare, Division of Physiotherapy, Mälardalen University, Sweden.
• J Eval Clin Pract. 2019 Apr 1; 25 (2): 216-223.

Rationale, Aims, And ObjectivesThe concept of evidence-based health care has gained increasing currency over the past decades; however, questions persist regarding how to overcome the gap between research and health care practice. The question arises whether this gap derives from a true knowledge deficit or from physiotherapists' perception of working with evidence. The aim of the current study was to illuminate changes to the meaning of working with evidence experienced by a cohort of physiotherapists following an education program.MethodsA phenomenological hermeneutic design with open-ended group interviews was carried out with physiotherapists who had participated in an education program about evidence and how to implement evidence-based practice (EBP) in day-to-day practice.FindingsThe interviews provided descriptions of working with evidence according to three major themes: "Confidence with the concept of evidence in relation to a way of working"; "Experience of EBP as a duty to seek evidence for individual patients"; and "EBP experienced as an integrated and patient-oriented activity".ConclusionsThe physiotherapists' lived experiences demonstrated that the participants' perception of the concept of evidence mainly concerned a broadening of the definition of evidence, and this altered perception of evidence could interpreted as the physiotherapists viewing EBP as a more integrated and patient-oriented activity than before.© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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