Search

Purpose: Many educational programs seek to develop skills in evidence-based medicine (EBM). The authors examined the efficacy of teaching the EBM skill of efficiently searching the research literature. They compared students who received brief training in EBM searching skills with those who did not, and assessed the quality of literature searching one month after that training., Method: The authors used a nonrandomized control group study design to quantify the impact of a single, brief (two-hour) instructional intervention on EBM-based techniques for searching Medline for evidence related to a clinical problem provided to the students. Ninety-two fourth-year medical students (34 intervention, 58 control) at the University of Michigan participated in a four-week EBM elective between 2001 and 2003. The authors conducted a pre-intervention assessment of searching skills, followed by a repeat assessment one month after the intervention. Search quality was judged by medical librarians using a structured clinical scenario and scoring algorithm., Results: Data for 30 intervention and 40 control students could be analyzed. Intervention students had fewer search errors and correspondingly higher quality searches than did control students. The educational intervention accounted for approximately 8% of the variance in both of these outcomes. The most common search errors were a lack of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) explosion, missing MeSH terms, lack of appropriate limits, failure to search for best evidence, and inappropriate combination of all search concepts., Conclusions: This study provides evidence that a single, brief training session can have a marked beneficial effect on the quality of subsequent, short-term EBM literature searching performance outcomes.

Purpose: The study assesses potential for improving residents' evidence-based medicine searching skills in MEDLINE through real-time librarian instruction., Subjects: Ten residents on a rotation in a neonatal intensive care unit participated., Methodology: Residents were randomized into an instruction and a non-instruction group. Residents generated questions from rounds and searched MEDLINE for answers. Data were collected through observation, search strategy analysis, and surveys. Librarians observed searches and collected data on questions, searching skills, search problems, and the test group's instruction topics. Participants performed standardized searches before, after, and six-months after intervention and were scored using a search strategy analysis tool (1 representing highest score and 5 representing lowest score). Residents completed pre- and post-intervention surveys to measure opinions about MEDLINE and search satisfaction., Results: Post-intervention, the test group formulated better questions, used limits more effectively, and reported greater confidence in using MEDLINE. The control group expressed less satisfaction with retrieval and demonstrated more errors when limiting. The test and control groups had the following average search scores respectively: 3.0 and 3.5 (pre-intervention), 3.3 and 3.4 (post-intervention), and 2.0 and 3.8 (six-month post-intervention)., Conclusion: Data suggest that measurable learning outcomes were achieved. Residents receiving instruction improved and retained searching skills six-months after intervention.