PILOT SURVEY OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS IN BULGARIA ON INTEGRATING EBM TRAINING IN MEDICAL EDUCATION CURRICULUM

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Many medical schools all over the world have incorporated evidence-based medicine (EBM) training into their curriculum. According to their results, teaching EBM helps health professionals both to update their knowledge and also to provide better care to their patients in their daily practice while improving the quality of the healthcare system. OBJECTIVE: The main purpose of this paper is to present the necessity of the integration of EBM training into the medical curriculum in order to improve the quality of education. The introduction of EBM in medical professionals’ education in Bulgaria is explored with a pilot study together with the respective opportunities and challenges.METHODS: About one hundred practicing medical professionals (physicians, dentists, nurses, midwives, and physiotherapists) were included in this pilot study. A paper questionnaire, including three parts (demographic characteristics, attitude towards EBM, application of EBM in everyday clinical practice), was used for collecting data.RESULTS: Completed questionnaires were received from 84 medical professionals. From the respondents 55 were familiar with the term EBM. The majority (59) of the participants agreed that EBM training would help them in their daily practice. According to 59 of the respondents EBM improves the quality of the provided health and care services to the patients. From the data collected, 65 participants support the necessity of incorporating EBM in their medical education, 9 do not support, and 10 cannot evaluate. Most of the respondents (69) speak and understand a foreign language good enough to read and understand scientific literature without difficulty, as well as the majority (81) of the participants reported computer skills at a good level.CONCLUSIONS: Data from this pilot study demonstrated a positive attitude from medical professionals toward EBM. The majority confirmed the need to integrate EBM training as a discipline into the medical education curriculum.