Compare methods

	Evidence-Based Practice Process	Rapid Assessment Instrument
Field	Social Work	Social Work
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1996	2002
Originator	Evidence-based medicine tradition (Sackett et al.); translated to social work by Gambrill and others	Walter W. Hudson and the clinical-measurement tradition; codified by Springer, Abell & Hudson
Type	Structured process for integrating evidence, expertise, and client values in practice decisions	Brief, standardized, self-report measure for repeated use in practice
Seminal source	Sackett, D. L., Rosenberg, W. M. C., Gray, J. A. M., Haynes, R. B., & Richardson, W. S. (1996). Evidence based medicine: What it is and what it isn't. BMJ, 312(7023), 71–72.	Springer, D. W., Abell, N., & Hudson, W. W. (2002). Creating and validating rapid assessment instruments for practice and research: Part 1. Research on Social Work Practice, 12(3), 408–439.
Aliases	EBP Process, Evidence-Based Practice (Process Model), Five-Step EBP Process, Evidence-Informed Practice Process	RAI, Rapid Assessment Instruments, Brief Standardized Self-Report Scale, Clinical Measurement Package Scales
Related	4	4
Summary	The evidence-based practice (EBP) process is a structured, five-step way of making practice decisions by integrating the best available research evidence with professional expertise and the client's values and circumstances. Originating in evidence-based medicine as defined by Sackett and colleagues and translated into social work by Eileen Gambrill and others, it reframes EBP not as a fixed list of approved programs but as a transparent decision process — ask, acquire, appraise, apply, assess — that an individual practitioner carries out with and for a particular client.	A rapid assessment instrument (RAI) is a short, standardized, self-report measure designed to be completed quickly and repeatedly so that a social worker can assess the magnitude of a client's problem, compare it against a validated clinical cutoff, and monitor change over the course of an intervention. The format was championed by Walter Hudson, whose Clinical Measurement Package scales set the template, and was systematized for practitioners by Springer, Abell, and Hudson, who laid out how to create and validate such instruments for practice and research.