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There has recently been an increased pressure in all-healthcare disciplines to provide interventions that are scientific, safe, efficient and cost-effective. Evidence-based practice is said to be the current best approach to address these attributes. All healthcare professionals including physiotherapists need to adopt it. Numerous physiotherapy studies have been carried out to ascertain the attitudes towards, knowledge of, engagement in as well as the barriers of evidence-based practice. These studies were mostly carried out in the developed countries and almost none in the devloping African countries. By means of an exploratory cross-sectional study, deploying both quantitative and qualitative methods, this study investigated the Tanzanian physiotherapists attitudes towards the concept of evidence-absed practice. The study also examined the knowledge that they possess, that could enable them engage in evidence-based related activities. In addition, this study explored the barriers they experience while practicing evidence-based practice.

Background: Moving the latest evidence from research into nursing practice remains a challenge. We are only beginning to recognize the processes involved and little is known as to which approaches are effective in different contexts. Facilitation is an intervention that involves helping practitioners recognize what it is they need to change in practice and how to make these changes to incorporate evidence into practice. Objective: To describe the role, function, and practice of facilitation in moving evidence into nursing practice. A secondary element is to determine if a provisional facilitation framework, developed to reflect the concept in guideline adaptation and the early stages of implementation, accurately depicts facilitation in the context of actual implementation. Methods: The thesis employs an emergent mixed-methods design and is composed of two phases each with multiple components. The first phase explores the conceptual, theoretical, and experiential foundations of facilitation and examines: (1) how the concept has evolved over 16 years in a comprehensive literature review, (2) facilitation as described by experienced nurses in guideline implementation, and (3) how facilitation relates to other guideline implementation interventions in a review of studies included in an existing systematic review. The second phase describes the practical foundations of facilitation and follows the facilitation occurring naturally over time in a guideline implementation involving front-line nurses at the point of care. Results: The comprehensive review provides a description of how facilitation has evolved and presents a current synopsis of the state of knowledge regarding facilitation. The conceptual, theoretical, and empirical understandings of the concept were integrated with the practical foundations to confirm and refine the framework to reflect facilitation across the continuum from guideline adaptation to implementation. The revised framework is displayed and represents a comprehensive view and understanding of facilitation of evidence-based practice in nursing from multiple perspectives. Conclusions: The detail in the revised framework provides a useful guide for practitioners and organizations in planning for change. Further testing is required to determine its applicability and usability in the practice setting. / Thesis (Ph.D, Nursing) -- Queen's University, 2013-09-29 23:34:20.869

Case-Based Reasoning is a fairly new Artificial Intelligence technique which makes use of past experience as the basis for solving new problems. Typically, a case-based reasoning system stores actual past problems and solutions in memory as cases. Due to its ability to reason from actual experience and to save solved problems and thus learn automatically, case-based reasoning has been found to be applicable to domains for which techniques such as rule-based reasoning have traditionally not been well-suited, such as experience-rich, unstructured domains. This applicability has led to it becoming a viable new artificial intelligence topic from both a research and application perspective. This dissertation concentrates on researching and implementing indexing techniques for casebased reasoning. Case representation is researched as a requirement for implementation of indexing techniques, and pre-transportation decision making for hazardous waste handling is used as the domain for applying and testing the techniques. The field of case-based reasoning was covered in general. Case representation and indexing were researched in detail. A single case representation scheme was designed and implemented. Five indexing techniques were designed, implemented and tested. Their effectiveness is assessed in relation to each other, to other reasoners and implications for their use as the basis for a case-based reasoning intelligent decision support system for pre-transportation decision making for hazardous waste handling are briefly assessed. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1997.

This thesis examines the concept of performance management in the context of program evaluation and the management of public administration systems. The thesis begins by outlining and examining the common theoretical underpinnings of performance management. Once the theory is developed, the thesis reviews and identifies the key findings of the empirical literature that attempts to identify and explain the variables that impact the implementation of performance management systems. Following this the contemporary case of Results-Based Budgeting (RBB) in the government of Alberta is examined and contrasted with the theory. The examination of RBB in Alberta reveals that the theoretical literature is useful for classifying performance management systems in practice, but that the possible outcomes of performance management reform extend beyond the typical purported benefits of efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability associated with the rational actor model of performance management. In Alberta, some of the outcomes of RBB include horizontal integration, strategic policy alignment, and cultural change. Alberta’s experience with RBB also supports the constructivist model of performance management, which suggests that these systems contribute to public sector organizations by structuring policy analysis and dialogue, enhancing strategic planning, and other benefits.