Abstract
BackgroundTwo of the key steps in evidence based medicine (EBM) are being able to construct a clinical question and effectively search the literature to source relevant information. No evidence currently exists that informs whether such skills should be taught to medical students during their pre-clinical years, or delivered to include both the pre-clinical and clinical years of study. This is an important component of curriculum design as the level of clinical maturity of students can affect their perception of the importance and uptake of EBM principles in practice.Methods/DesignA randomised controlled trial will be conducted to identify the effectiveness of delivering a formal workshop in EBM literature searching skills to third year medical students entering their clinical years of study. The primary outcome of EBM competency in literature searching skills will be evaluated using the Fresno tool.DiscussionThis trial will provide novel information on the effectiveness of delivering a formal education workshop in evidence based medicine literature searching skills during the clinical years of study. The result of this study will also identify the impact of teaching EBM literature searching skills to medical students during the clinical years of study.
Highlights
Two of the key steps in evidence based medicine (EBM) are being able to construct a clinical question and effectively search the literature to source relevant information
The result of this study will identify the impact of teaching EBM literature searching skills to medical students during the clinical years of study
A trial in undergraduate medical students comparing a workshop to didactic EBM teaching reported an increase in skills to construct a clinical question and perform a literature search in students attending the workshop compared to the didactic teaching [4,5]
Summary
Two of the key steps in evidence based medicine (EBM) are being able to construct a clinical question and effectively search the literature to source relevant information. No evidence currently exists that informs whether such skills should be taught to medical students during their pre-clinical years, or delivered to include both the pre-clinical and clinical years of study This is an important component of curriculum design as the level of clinical maturity of students can affect their perception of the importance and uptake of EBM principles in practice. A systematic review of EBM teaching from the undergraduate and post-graduate perspective identified one study that reported an increase in formulating clinical questions and searching the literature skills in medical residents attending a formal EBM workshop [3,4]. A trial in undergraduate medical students comparing a workshop to didactic EBM teaching reported an increase in skills to construct a clinical question and perform a literature search in students attending the workshop compared to the didactic teaching [4,5]
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