The status of evidence-based medicine education in urology residency

Abstract

Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of the current best evidence in decision-making for the care of patients. Teaching best evidence practice in residency should include both formal or freestanding content, as well as integration into clinical scenarios and patient care. We sought to assess the attitudes, experience and knowledge of EBM in urology residency training across Canada. An anonymous, cross-sectional, self-report questionnaire was completed by a convenience sample of 29 residents, including all chief urology residents in English-speaking programs across Canada. The survey included both open-ended and closed-ended questions designed to assess familiarity and attitudes towards EBM and potential barriers to developing EBM skills in a surgical training program. Questions were formatted to determine the understanding of statistical and analytical concepts, as well as familiarity of available EBM resources. Descriptive and correlative statistics were used to analyze the responses. The response rate was 100%. An overwhelming majority of residents felt that EBM is an important component of the urology residency and journal club was the most common vehicle for discussing best evidence concepts. However, there was significant variation in the presence of freestanding, formal curricula across programs, with only 28% of residents signifying that they received any formal training in their program. The apparent level of understanding of important EBM terminology and resources appears to be limited. The most frequently stated barriers to incorporating EBM curricula into urology training were time constraints and a perceived lack of expert educators. This self-report survey of urology chief residents identified the overwhelming acceptance of the importance of EBM in their training. Although best evidence practices appears to be addressed in journal clubs and in real-life clinical experiences, the obvious lack of familiarity and understanding of EBM content and resources would suggest a need for redoubling efforts to ensure appropriate exposure and instruction in our training programs.