The Purpose Of Research In Social Work Social Work Essay

The Purpose Of Research In Social Work Social Work EssayThis shew will focus on how EBP and convention wiseness should be combined and not seen as opposing opposites as together they have great foster for genial work lend oneself. Also both should determine the practitioners decision making summonses in approach pattern because failing to do so could actually be despotic to both service users and practitioners. Also this integration could facilitate and encourage the use of research amongst affable work practitioners in day to day practice.EBP in social work has been implemented at a slow pace and has not been greatly embraced and setd by practitioners (McNeill, 2006 Pignotti and Thyer, 2009 Mitchell 2011, Nevo and Nevo, 2011). Epstein (2011) highlights how practitioners have voiced that they resent EBP as it presents as a threat to their autonomy and creativity. This idea of EB companionship only if determining practice could be perceived by practitioners as disempoweri ng. An approach that deeconomic values practice information and professional judgement in favour of objective, manualised, and empirically supported interventions (Webb, 2001 Nevo and Nevo, 2011) give the sack be seen to undermine professional autonomy as it places authority of science everywhere the authority of the practitioner (Nevo and Nevo, 2011). Furthermore it can actually be seen to oppress practitioners as it seems to be controlling their decision making process that may ofttimes conflict with their practice wisdom. An approach that alongside EB association also embraced practice based knowledge may be of more use and value to practitioners and may be more likely to be used in practice as it detaches EBP from its solely scientific and thus its oppressive nature.It is now increasingly beingness recognised in the EBP literature that social work values and practitioner wisdom need to be integrated with practice however this integration is often unclear (Epstein, 2009 M itchell, 2011 Nevo and Nevo, 2011). A shift towards usher informed practice (EIP) rather than evidence based practice is now being recognised (Epstein, 2009 Haight, 2010 Nevo and Nevo, 2011). However practice is wisdom is still not acknowledged amongst some EIP advocates for example Haight (2010) but is greatly precious amongst others such as Nevo and Nevo (2011).Stoesz (2010) argues that the social work profession is overly subjective and reflexive and argues that only scientific evidence is acceptable and ethical as anything else could be depriving an individual of effective treatment (Stoesz, 2010 Gambrill, 2010). Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) argon seen to stomach gold standard evidence for practice to be based on. Qualitative research and practice wisdom or clinical judgments are valued the least as are less scientific (Corby, 2006 Epstein, 2002 Dodd and Epstein, 2012). Epstein (2009) rejects the use of RCTs on ethical grounds as the methodology deprives the one group of intervention. RCTs may have value for research findings and in turn practice but its research methodology is unethical to some service users.Ethics is of great importance within social work as it is of importance that social workers be ethical professionals and work anti oppressively. And also be guided by research (Nevo and Nevo, 2011). BASW (2012) code of moral philosophy states that evidence informed knowledge derived from research and practice military rank is the basis of methodology in social work. However if practitioners are not using EB knowledge and are using only practice wisdom this could be depriving service users from an effective treatment and is not integrating evidence into practice. What would be of more value is to encourage and accept EB knowledge and practice wisdom so that not one or the other, but both are valued and used by practitioners so that research is being incorporated into and informing social work practice as BASW (2012) states. Also BASW (2012 ) states that knowledge should also come from practice evaluation and mentions acknowledging context but does not mention practice wisdom. This evidence informed approach whereby acknowledging being specific to context but that does not mention practice wisdom is similar to EIP advocated by Haight (2010).To ignore the existence of practice based wisdom and its perceived value by practitioners in influencing their decision making process will only further limit the potential of integrating EB research into practice.McNeill (2006) highlights how practitioners decision making is not driven by research findings, level when provided with evidence of intervention effectiveness. Gambrill (2006) acknowledges how in social work practice a number of unsupported interventions are conventionally used and accepted in practice that are based on professional authority and clinical experience and not research evidence. Pignotti and Thyer (2009) concluded that just because social workers valued and used EBP interventions they also valued and used Novel unsupported therapies (NUTs) in practice.This could suggest that practice wisdom is valued in the decision making process and could be of priority even when provided with evidence of an interventions effectiveness (Gambrill, 2006 McNeill, 2006). It also could suggest that both EBP and practice wisdom are also co-existing in the decision making process in practice (Pignotti and Thyer, 2009). Pignotti and Thyer (2009) highlights how little is known about why social work practitioners choose NUTs. Similar Research could be of value in potentially identifying how Practice wisdom as well as EB knowledge together both are being used and are of value to practice.Mitchell (2011) illustrates how the sole use of EBP had limited priceless application in real world practice. Mitchell (2011) found that when attempting to implement EB services for young people with complex needs, this was limited without the integration of practice wisdom. As most(prenominal) research focuses on a single disorder or problem it is difficult to implement such research when faced with complex factors that interact in complex ways in real world settings. Also it could be seen as unethical and oppressive to arrange and reduce human beings using solely scientific EB interventions. Corby (2006) states how human beings are too complex to assume a one size fits all approach. In such complex cases as encountered by Mitchell (2001) practice wisdom and EBP were integrated in order to make a decision based not only on evidence but of relevancy to the case at hand. Fook (2012) describes how a reflective practitioner situates themselves and their knowledge in the specific context of a situation, looking at the situation as a whole and in relation to their own experiences. Although the term of practice wisdom is not used this seems to reflect some of the nature of practice wisdom and how it can be of use to each individual case. With exclusion of th eir own experiences Fook (2012) also seems to reflect BASW (2012) concerning Evidence informed knowledge.It seems to be now increasingly acknowledged that practitioners are not passive recipients or implementers of information, however in addition to this practice based wisdom should also be acknowledged as of value. The understanding of the processes of how EB knowledge and practice based knowledge are integrated into practice is of importance to the purpose of research in social work. The integration of research and practice may then be of perceived value to practitioners.One of Mitchells (2011) main arguments was that the main barriers to implementation and value of EBP in real world practice is the oppositional construction that corpse concerning EBP verses practice based wisdom.Fook (2012) describes the notion of divided thinking whereby most phenomena are seen to fit into binary and oppositional categories, with one being devalued in relation to the other. This dichotomous th inking appears to be occurring within social work research and practice in relation to EBP and practice wisdom.