Connecting bereavement support practitioners to reliable research evidence

Introduction: How can bereavement care professionals find reliable current evidence to inform their practice? Bereavement practitioners often work in small teams without access to commercial bibliographic services. However, translating knowledge into practice is a growing imperative.

Objectives: CareSearch aimed to connect those working in bereavement care to a free and trustworthy means to find research evidence.

Approach: A search filter was developed to target literature in bereavement care within the palliative care context. The Bereavement Search Filter is a validated strategy to search the PubMed database. It can be used alone or incorporated into specific topic links, such as "Ethical Issues" or "Memorial and Ritual". The links are free and simple to use, direct to current results in PubMed. A broader search filter for all bereavement, grief and loss literature is also under development.

Practice lmplications: All bereavement practitioners now have access to current research evidence, by clicking on simple links on the CareSearch website.  

Conclusions: Translating evidence into practice is of growing importance for all health professionals. With this service, we aim to enable bereavement practitioners to apply current knowledge to their own practice to enhance the support provided to those experiencing bereavement.

Connecting bereavement support practitioners to reliable research evidence (3.23MB pptx doc)