Understanding medical student evidence-based medicine information seeking in an authentic clinical simulation

Abstract

Objective: Evidence-based medicine practices of medical students in clinical scenarios are not well understood. Optimal foraging theory (OFT) is one framework that could be useful in breaking apart information-seeking patterns to determine effectiveness and efficiency of different methods of information seeking. The aims of this study were to use OFT to determine the number and type of resources used in information seeking when medical students answer a clinical question, to describe common information-seeking patterns, and identify patterns associated with higher quality answers to a clinical question.Methods: Medical students were observed via screen recordings while they sought evidence related to a clinical question and provided a written response for what they would do for that patient based on the evidence that they found.Results: Half (51%) of study participants used only 1 source before answering the clinical question. While the participants were able to successfully and efficiently navigate point-of-care tools and search engines, searching PubMed was not favored, with only half (48%) of PubMed searches being successful. There were no associations between information-seeking patterns and the quality of answers to the clinical question.Conclusion: Clinically experienced medical students most frequently relied on point-of-care tools alone or in combination with PubMed to answer a clinical question. OFT can be used as a framework to understand the information-seeking practices of medical students in clinical scenarios. This has implications for both teaching and assessment of evidence-based medicine in medical students.

Implementation of medical research module and the effect to medical students’ knowledge and perceptions

“…For medical students, research activity is needed in order to step up their ability and medical career. A good knowledge about research would improve the students' ability to understand other subjects and to help them in solving clinical questions in line with the EBM principles [17]. Besides, research learning that includes professional (clinical) elements would foster enthusiasm and belief that research has a relevancy with learning and will eventually contribute to clinical practice [6], [18].…”

Practical Applications of ChatGPT in Undergraduate Medical Education

“…Literature suggests that while medical students attempt to practice evidence-based medicine, they are often limited by time constraints and lack of technical expertise. 7 , 8 Reviewing and synthesizing the sheer quantity of research while balancing the stressors of clinical duties can be overwhelming. 9 ChatGPT can provide succinct summaries of clinical trials with key practice points derived from them.…”

Training and standardization of simulated patients for multicentre studies in clinical pharmacy education

“…Strictly trained and validated SPs are critical for the simulation experience to be consistent with the objectives proposed. [12][13][14][15][16]17 They must present repeated and reliable performances to ensure the equivalence and realism of the simulation experience for each participant. 18 The clinical, social, emotional, and psychological aspects must be virtually the same in all simulations even though the acting persons are different.…”