When you hear the word evidence in evidence-based practice, you may think of hours in a library. But social workers seek evidence through many different sources, including supervisors, colleagues, trainings, conferences, scholarly publications, and professional journals.

At the same time, just because research is published does not mean it is without limitations. Social workers strive to be critical consumers of research related to practice. Even if you do not wish to conduct research, it is important to understand the language of research to determine whether or not the findings could be applied to the client population with whom you work. You also want to be able to evaluate your client outcomes to determine if the intervention you implemented was effective.

For this Assignment, you define evidence-based practice and the role of research evidence to improve practice in social work.