The fourth #ResNetSLT Tweetchat of 2018 took place on Wednesday, 25th April.
The chat was hosted by Amy Hilton (@AmySlt) and Sally Morgan (@sallymorganslt) and was based around this paper: 'An introduction to implementation science for the non-specialist'. The pre-chat overview and questions can be viewed here.
The Tweetchat was very fast-paced, with many threads of conversations occurring simultaneously with representation from SLT students, SLTs at different careers stages, as well as those working in research, and participants from other countries.
The average number of tweets was the highest number so far this year, potentially indicating the level of interest and engagement in the topic. Our Twitter 'impressions' were again over 300,000, with continued reach evident across the world, including an Australian contingent the following day.
It seemed those with a research background were familiar with the term 'implementation science' as a minimum. However, those with a predominantly clinical backgrounds, and students, had not necessarily heard of implementation science before reading this article.
There was much discussion of barriers to implementing evidence based practice with the factors of time and resources, a prominent theme. There was also a discussion of the potential need for culture and policy level changes and challenge to thinking that new things are 'scary'.
There were some nice examples of people trying to use EBP in practice, and the recognition that implementation science could help in achieving this.
There was plenty of sharing of resources during the chat, both of articles related to implementation science, and of wider reading plus the recommendation of a new hashtag to follow for those interested in this area #ImpSci.
Here are a few of our favourite tweets of the night:
The final question helped to summarise the Tweetchat, and provided ideas of one action participants were going to take following the discussion.
Have you read the article or did you take part in the chat? Have you implemented your plan?
For some it was to read and reflect further, so please click here to take a look at various additional resources, many shared on the night.
You can find the link to the full transcript here and our Twitter stats here.
And of course, please save the date in your diary now for our next chat on Wednesday, 25th May (7.30pm), with Elicia Jones (@EllieJSLT) and Victoria Wadsworth (@victoriawad) hosting.
The discussion will be based on research activity of allied health teams.
