A year-round evidence-based medicine-learning course organized by medical students at Ehime University

A qualitative study of factors promoting EBM learning among medical students in Japan

OBJECTIVES

To identify the elements needed to facilitate undergraduate EBM learning among Japanese medical students.

METHODS

We conducted a qualitative study based on individual semi-structured interviews. Participants were physicians working at universities, teaching hospitals, or clinics who teach EBM to medical students. Purposive sampling was used to recruit participants via email through the researchers' acquaintances. Six physicians agreed to participate in the study and were interviewed individually from October 2019 to January 2020. The interviewees were asked about their own EBM learning and teaching experiences, what they kept in mind when teaching EBM to medical students, and what they felt was needed to improve current undergraduate EBM education. Interviews were recorded. Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis.

RESULTS

Thematic analysis extracted five themes: finding foreground questions, observing role models, active learning, understanding patient backgrounds, and understanding the reason for learning EBM. To promote EBM education for medical students, it is first necessary for students to actively participate in clinical practice and identify foreground questions by observing their supervisors practicing EBM. In addition to acquiring skills in information retrieval and critical appraisal, understanding a patient's background leads to understanding the significance of learning EBM, which improves students' motivation to learn EBM.

CONCLUSIONS

This study identified five themes that promote undergraduate EBM education. Curriculum development incorporating these elements would improve EBM education in Japan and other countries.

[Evaluation of an Evidence-based Medicine Educational Program for Pharmacists and Pharmacy Students]

　Practicing evidence-based medicine (EBM) is likely to gain importance for clinical pharmacists in the relatively near future in Japan. An educational program including research and the critical appraisal of literature was required for pharmacy students as of 2015. We organized a six-month practical EBM course for pharmacy students at Hyogo University of Health Sciences. To evaluate its effectiveness, students took a 10-question test after completing the course. The mean score of six students was 8.33±1.79 points. We also conducted a 1-day practical EBM workshop for pharmacists. Changes in knowledge and skills related to EBM were evaluated based on the responses to 10 questions. Knowledge and skills related to several variables improved significantly after the workshop (6.36 points before versus 9.09 points after the workshop; p=0.023). The results suggested that our EBM educational course is effective in improving EBM-related knowledge and skills of pharmacists and pharmacy students.

A year-round evidence-based medicine-learning course organized by medical students at Ehime University

To resolve the problem that evidence‐based medicine (EBM) courses are not sufficiently taught in Japanese medical schools, we organized a year‐round EBM‐learning course. This study was an observational study and was designed to evaluate the participants’ understanding of EBM using an original survey. The survey was given three times. In total, 18 students responded to our survey. Of those 18 students, six students answered both the first and the last surveys, and their mean score increased 1.17 of 4.00 (95% CI: 0.72‐1.65). These results suggest our course improved students’ ability to read clinical articles.