Teaching Evidence-based Medicine Skills: An Exploratory Study of Residency Graduates' Practice Habits

摘要

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The long-term effect of teaching critical appraisal (CA) and evidence-basedmedicine (EBM) skills is unknown. This study explores long-term behaviors and learner satisfactionafter a 3-year longitudinal CA/EBM curriculum. METHODS: Telephone interviews were conductedwith 1996--1998 graduates of an academic family medicine residency program with an establishedCA/EBM curriculum. The graduates were all in clinical practice. RESULTS: Ten of 17 graduates metinclusion criteria and consented to be interviewed. Their age range was 31--58, and all had been inpractice 3 to 5 years. Six were female. Most participants did not regularly practice CA or use EBMskills. Instead, colleagues were the most commonly used information source. Time constraints andclinical production pressure were the primary barriers to practicing EBM. Despite not practicing CAand EBM, participants generally were satisfied with their training in these skills. Respondents said theyused continuing education meetings and reading journals to keep current. CONCLUSIONS: In this study,residents instructed in CA and EBM skills did not regularly practice these skills. Time and workloadpressures appear to be major barriers to these behaviors. Those training residents to integrate EBMinto clinical practice should evaluate short- and long-term clinically oriented behaviors to assureeducational effectiveness.